Hello and welcome to Slate's serial spoiler special. I'm Slate's senior editor Gabriel Roth.

Joining me from our DC studio is Slate's words correspondent Katie Waldman. Hi, Katie.

Hey, Gabe.

We're coming to you this week with a very special bonus mini episode, which is in response to the very special bonus mini episodes that serial itself posted last week.

A series of dispatches from Sarah Koenig huddled in the closet of a hotel room in Baltimore where she has been attending Adnan Syed's court hearing as he petitions the court for a new trial.

This is a return to the characters of serial season one and reporting on these important new developments in Syed's case.

Katie, in a piece for Slate, you described these many episodes of Serial Return to Season 1 as running on fumes, specifically on the fumes of listener loyalty and curiosity from season 1.

The new episodes play to exactly none of Serial's strengths.

Harsh words there from someone who I know was a passionate fan of serial season one and

cared about it a lot.

I know.

That sounds so brutal and you say it out loud.

But I stand by it.

I do think that the many updates come off as kind of chaotic and ragged and scattered.

And instead of having a very carefully

crafted experience with, you know, a beautiful script and lots of colorful anecdotes and sort of

perfectly chosen details, you have someone who is reporting hastily and haphazardly and in a kind of stream of consciousness fashion

with Dana Chivas, who is her producer, asking sort of prodding or leading questions to get her

to remember things.

It just, you don't feel like you're in the hands of professionals as much.

And I do understand why the structure of the podcast necessitates that.

They don't have all the time.

...