The farther we get from Serial the more comfortable writers who didn't listen to many podcasts in 2014 feel comfortable revising history so Serial was The First Well-Edited Podcast.
It's a spinoff of a radio show/podcast edited the exact same way, good lord. They say This American Life IN THE SHOW.
Also while I'm punchy: fuck the first season. Everyone treats it like it was The Good One while the follow-ups were bad but it was ALSO bad. Watching a grown-ass journalist be like "erm, what the flip?" every five minutes to create a narrative reason to explain something to the audience is cringe.
Also also: the reason Serial doesn't have that same spark anymore is BECAUSE they manufactured so much in the first season. They did all the reporting. Every following season buys reporting from other outlets/people and then Koenig parachutes in to be like "I'm part of this narrative now."
