Production of the next season of Serial, the hit podcast spun off from public radio’s This American Life, will be pitched as a television series.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, executive producers of The Last Man on Earth on Fox, want to capture behind-the-scenes action as producer Sarah Koenig and her crew create Season 2 — which reportedly will focus on U.S. Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl, held captive for five years in Afghanistan.
Lord and Miller are looking for writers for the Serial TV project, according to Variety, and will then approach cable networks with the pitch.
News of the series drew some critical reactions, including from Slate writer Katy Waldman. “Serial is already so perceptive about, and interested in, its own construction that a show offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of this process seems redundant,” Waldman noted. “And it is unclear what the TAL folks have to gain from transplanting this story — so perfectly suited to the intimate audio format — onto the screen.”
And the Washington Post’s Soraya Nadia McDonald pointed out that part of what made Serial’s first season so addictive “was the way it isolated you with your thoughts and left you free to visualize what Koenig was reporting and the conversations she had with the people in Adnan Syed’s life.”
“The fact that the audience wasn’t being fed visuals — aside from the ones being provided if you went hunting for them on the Serial Web site [sic] — forced you to pay attention in a way that television often does not,” McDonald wrote.
While Serial’s producers are excited about the deal:
? Everything is awesome ? https://t.co/z3AmXwTN8C
— Serial (@serial) October 1, 2015
— one fan responded: “Enough of the victory lap, put out season two already.”
Related stories from Current:
Not a chance. Those folks are strictly committed to radio. There will likely be a movie though.