diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8831d0b..3f1ed89 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 import sys
 
-install_requires = ["requests"]
+install_requires = ["requests>=1.0"]
 
 if sys.version_info < (2, 6):
     install_requires.append("simplejson")
diff --git a/slumber/__init__.py b/slumber/__init__.py
index 5896ef0..14deaa3 100644
--- a/slumber/__init__.py
+++ b/slumber/__init__.py
@@ -120,9 +120,11 @@ def _try_to_serialize_response(self, resp):
             try:
                 stype = s.get_serializer(content_type=content_type)
             except exceptions.SerializerNotAvailable:
+                stype = s.get_serializer()
+            try:
+                return stype.loads(resp.content)
+            except:
                 return resp.content
-
-            return stype.loads(resp.content)
         else:
             return resp.content