A special issue dedicated to S-Town
By Jaclyn Schiff and Simon Owens
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In 2014, This American Life producer Brian Reed received an email — from a man named John B. McLemore — that contained an astonishing claim: the scion of a wealthy family in Alabama had gotten away with murder. Reed didn’t know it at the time, but that one email would plunge him into an entirely new world, one of depression, smalltown intrigue, and, yes, racism. And what started as a simple email became S-Town, the hit new podcast from the people who brought us Serial. We reviewed the show in our most recent issue, but given the amount of buzz and discussion surrounding it, we at AudioTeller decided to dedicate a special issue to the show. Below, you’ll find comments from six contributors on whether it lived up to the hype or even needed to exist as a seven-episode series in the first place.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
From Simon Owens, AudioTeller co-editor:
So one thing I was wondering throughout the entirety of this show is why it was a standalone podcast and not the third season of Serial. Sarah Koenig has made it clear that Serial is not just a crime podcast (and the second season confirmed it), so why not roll S-Town up into it? From a business perspective it would make sense: as a standalone show that’ll likely span only one season, S-Town faced an uphill battle to gain listenership, and it’s hard to build out an advertiser base with only seven episodes. Sure, it wasn’t hosted by Koenig, but I think it would be cool if some seasons of Serial were hosted by other people. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we got seasons of Serial hosted by Starlee Kine, Jonathan Goldstein, and other This American Life alums?
And while I was enraptured the entire time listening to S-Town, I spent a good chunk of the show wondering whether John B. McLemore, as a character, could single-handedly warrant the existence of an entire serialized podcast. By the end I was convinced that host Brian Reed was justified in telling McLemore’s story, but for a while, soon after the reveal that a murder hadn’t taken place, I kept asking myself where this podcast was going. By the second-to-last episode, when Reed interviewed John’s friend in the hotel room, I realized that the world did, indeed, need to know about this depressed, flamboyant genius from a podunk shit town.
From Adam Peri, a marketing consultant in Chicago:
I listened to the first episode and then skipped to the last one just to see what happened. It’s not that it wasn’t a good podcast, it’s just not the type of stuff I usually listen to, or can sit through for an hour (or a whole show). I don’t read or listen to fiction, and I know this is technically a true story, but it doesn’t really “play” that way. I really just wanted to know who this guy voted for. Unfortunately, that kinda shit is what my mind is trained on.
From what I listened to, I had a lot of respect for the guy. He was well read and self-educated and highly intellectual — even if he didn’t get every single thing right. He took what he read and tried to add and contribute more to those ideas. I guess I learned not to judge a man by his twang.
I was surprised that he died or there was no murder, I was really surprised when they closed each episode with that Rose for Emily song. I haven’t heard that song in at least 15 years.
From Sriram Gopal, a DC-based writer and musician:
Simon, I’ve been thinking about some of your questions. In terms of why it’s not the third season of Serial, I don’t think S-Town would benefit from being serialized and would even be harmed. All one would have to do is Google “John B. McLemore” and the experience is ruined.
I had a few thoughts that kept recurring throughout my listening, which took place over the course of three days:
1. S-Town reaffirms my belief that just about everyone has an interesting life story, but may need the assistance of a seasoned storyteller to get that story across. Now, most of us aren’t savant horologists, but I’d bet money that if you sat a veteran This American Life producer down with just about anyone for an hour long interview, you could get something usable.
2. Breaking the bubble. I will never go to Woodstock, Alabama. I’ve had friends from Small Town America tell me that Reed’s descriptions of McLemore’s environment is entirely consistent with their experiences of having grown up in a small town. I very much appreciate his empathy in not turning the people of Woodstock into caricatures.
3. As one would expect from a broadcast with S-Town’s pedigree, the production was near flawless.
The only segment that didn’t sit well with me was the one dealing with John B’s self-inflicted pain. I’m not familiar with the psychological drive behind those that cut or engage in masochism and believe this element could be treated in a more nuanced way.
From Jaclyn Schiff, AudioTeller co-editor:
I finally completed the series. I can’t say I’m unhappy I spent 7+ hours listening, but I generally struggle to get through hyped podcast series and don’t find myself as engrossed as enthusiastic listeners. I felt exactly the same way about the first season of Serial. I understand Adam’s sentiment about this show playing like fiction (and am equally turned off). Nevertheless, I wanted to understand the hype and why S-Town has captured the attention of a large swath of podcast listeners. This was a labor of curiosity on my part.
As Sriram points out, one of S-Town’s strengths is in its ability to transport most listeners to a place they will never go and probably have little experience with. This is highly relevant after the 2016 election when people on the coasts and from large urban centers feel a complete disconnect from the rest of the country. Through a vivid telling of the life of the eccentric genius John McLemore, we get a glimpse of Woodstock, Alabama — a place that likely doesn’t see much Instagram activity and is far removed from the national consciousness.
Indeed, every life has a story. S-Town serves as a powerful reminder that life is complicated, messy, and unexpected. Like Simon, I also found myself wondering where the podcast was going in early episodes. For listeners, the story, at first, seems like a murder investigation, but ends up being a portrait of a man’s life and his unique interests, choices, and frustrations. S-Town is us bearing witness to host and producer Brian Reed peeling back the layers of McLemore’s life revealing things McLemore might not want us to know and uncovering truths McLemore was perhaps unaware of. Looking so deeply into someone’s past raises questions and storylines that don’t resolve. Life isn’t linear and neither is S-Town.
From Renan Borelli, director of audience growth and engagement at MTV News:
Following its positive reception, I felt a bit guilty about not liking S-Town that much. There were some red flags, to start; a lot of people in my office immediately had problems with the way that “the South” was portrayed as an object of fascination for a white guy from New York. After finishing the series, I thought the show was ultimately fair on that front, as the story ended up being less about the namesake “shit town” and more about John B. McLemore himself. My problem was more the actual structure of the podcast.
The first episode is ostensibly meant to hook you into the story of a mysterious unsolved murder, not unlike that of Serial. John B. McLemore is clearly a character, sometimes a suspicious one; you get the sense that someone is lying, but you’re not sure who. I’m reminded of David Grann’s piece on the strange death of a diehard fan of Sherlock Holmes, which teased a potential Holmesian explanation for a questionable suicide. But, like Grann’s piece, the twist is that S-Town’s not really about the murder, but McLemore’s life and the fallout from his suicide.
But, after that initial setup, the show is a bit all over the place. Yes, there is talk of buried treasure and the trademark he-said-she-said from the different players in the story (again, not unlike Serial), but it never really leads to something. You get the Rashomon-esque presentation, but not the payoff. Any narrative momentum they build is extinguished, and every lead or mystery they try to chase down ultimately goes nowhere. The first season of Serial also didn’t have a necessarily satisfying ending, but you know why it existed: a possible wrongful conviction and the evidence on both sides worth revisiting.
Perhaps this lack of true narrative resolution is the reason they went with a Netflix-style binge format instead of modeling it after Serial. I can definitely imagine a conversation where the producers realized they couldn’t deliver the payoff each week for what would’ve undoubtedly been a frenzied internet scavenger hunt to solve the show’s many mysteries. (Just ask Damon Lindelof how well that’s worked for him.)
The best way I can wrap my head around this type of storytelling is to liken S-Town and Serial to the New Yorker’s longer features, while This American Life more closely resembles Talk Of The Town. Maybe S-Town will become a movie or a TV series one day. But for now, we’ll have to accept the frustrating realities of an unresolved true story. Like the final quote from Grann’s piece, “I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure what really happened. Unlike in detective stories, we have to live without answers.”
From William Beutler, president of Beutler Ink:
OK, fine, I’ll be the defender of S-Town! This show played like new journalism, or literary nonfiction, in an audio format. It’s not really another Serial, but I think one can argue (so I shall) it is very much a very long segment of This American Life.
It is narrated and reported by a single host who combines in-the-field audio reporting with interviews of people who are not famous but have interesting stories to tell or are part of a larger narrative. The host interpolates their own emotional reactions, and becomes at least a minor character in the story itself. Perhaps all of the same could be said for Serial, the last cannot: it was released as a cohesive whole, crafted such that the very first lines of the show are a metaphor for the whole enterprise. Truth be told, I can’t even think of an episode of TAL that does that.
I’ll also defend the show from some of Renan’s criticisms. For instance, I did not want a real treasure hunt. Maybe they could have spent a little more time with Tyler digging holes in the woods behind the McLemore house… but it was wise to avoid this more conventional path. Instead the show evolved into an exploration of different facets of McLemore’s life, culminating in a heartbreaking final episode dealing with McLemore’s secrets and his early life. Like Sriram says, I suspect they could have handled the masochism revelation better, but I still found it very moving.
And finally to echo Adam’s mention of the closing song for each episode — The Zombies is one of the most underrated acts of 1960s British rock, and also probably the eeriest.
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