fixing ajax post with serialized array data

post data as a JS object:
{
  foo : [
    bar : 'baz'
  ]
}

gets serialized as:
foo%5B%5Dbar%5Bbar%5D=baz
of
foo[][bar]=baz

with out the explicit index, node connect chokes and reconstructs the data as:
foo = [ bar, baz ]