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S-Town |OT| a new podcast from the producers of Serial and This American Life

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L

Lonestar

I joined for Erin Brockovich discussion
1 1/4th episode in, and yeah, I've eaten at both the Little Cesar's and Waffle House mentioned so far.

Co-Worker of mine knows of John, and his eccentricities and Clock repairing.
 
B

Brakke

Banned
Just listened to the first ep, every inch of tape of this dorky redneck is a treasure.

border said:
If all of Serial had been released at once, and word spread that the final 3-4 episodes were just pointless wheel-spinning with no interesting revelations I think it would have killed listenership. I don't know if you would call something like that "spoilers", but it's a decent enough word to use for lack of a better term.
Click to expand...

But knowing that would've been a public service, it would've saved us all a bunch of wasted time.
 
W

Weetrick

Member
Just started listening! I'll be back once a get through a few more episodes. John seems like an interesting fellow so far, that's for sure.
 
M

mlclmtckr

Banned
So now instead of a sheltered white lady with no crime reporting experience getting all shocked that the justice system is fucked up they literally have some civilian sending in audio logs accusing people in his hometown of being murderers. Awesome.

So over this whole "gee whiz I dunno about any of this shit and won't actually have any answers but isn't this all a fascinating learning experience for me oh and I guess it's sad that someone is dead too" type shit. Distasteful and irresponsible.
 
D

Dalek

Member
This is going to be huge, I think. The premise of this is brilliant because corruption in small towns and counties throughout the nation is just everywhere-and people just get away with everything.

Edit: Man-this is fantastic the more I listen to. It definitely isn't what you're expecting off the start.
 
JeTmAn81

JeTmAn81

Member
Westonian said:
Found the guy's maze:

b9FZ7WV.png
Click to expand...

Came looking for this, started typing in the coordinates along with the guy and was annoyed when they didn't have the whole thing

Listening on..."Oh we've got our business that's called KKK, but you know it's named after family members." Uhhhhhhh huh.
 
T

The Illiterati

Member
mlclmtckr said:
So now instead of a sheltered white lady with no crime reporting experience getting all shocked that the justice system is fucked up they literally have some civilian sending in audio logs accusing people in his hometown of being murderers. Awesome.

So over this whole "gee whiz I dunno about any of this shit and won't actually have any answers but isn't this all a fascinating learning experience for me oh and I guess it's sad that someone is dead too" type shit. Distasteful and irresponsible.
Click to expand...

You really have no idea what this is about, and I say that from listening to two episodes.
 
T

The One Who Knocks

Member
Just saw a post about this on the Serial Facebook page but didn't realise it was releasing today, and in particular had no idea all of the episodes were simultaneously releasing. Some of the impressions here are really encouraging so I can't wait to listen to it over the next few days.
 
S

SexyFish

Banned
mlclmtckr said:
So now instead of a sheltered white lady with no crime reporting experience getting all shocked that the justice system is fucked up they literally have some civilian sending in audio logs accusing people in his hometown of being murderers. Awesome.

So over this whole "gee whiz I dunno about any of this shit and won't actually have any answers but isn't this all a fascinating learning experience for me oh and I guess it's sad that someone is dead too" type shit. Distasteful and irresponsible.
Click to expand...
Who hurt you?
 
R

ReAxion

Member
here comes your typical GAF dichotomy post

holy shit this was amazing. story, structure, pacing.

i hate the K3 owner guy who ended up with the land so much. what a pos. he *would* cover up a murder.
 
H

Hours Left

Member
I don't know how I feel about it. It was fascinating, but I don't think I was fully prepared for how it progressed.

Episode VI is
a total gut punch. My stomach is still in knots.
 
C

Chumley

Banned
Halfway through Ch.2 and the more we learn about John the more his house seems like

re7-house_1200x500.jpg


border said:
If all of Serial had been released at once, and word spread that the final 3-4 episodes were just pointless wheel-spinning with no interesting revelations I think it would have killed listenership. I don't know if you would call something like that "spoilers", but it's a decent enough word to use for lack of a better term.
Click to expand...

One of the main reasons I think Season 2 is dramatically better than Season 1 is because it doesn't try to pull anything like that, it's a deep dive exploration into Bowe's entire case all the way up to bigger questions about society and the military, etc. and executes it all really well. You kind of have to listen to every episode to understand the picture it's trying to paint, as opposed to the buildup and lack of payoff with S1.
 
A

andycapps

Member
Lonestar said:
John's Driveway :lol I can see where Reed missed it when he first got there.

Hidden in that forest:
rose-maze.jpg


"Little Ceasar's Pizza Hut :lol
"K3" Lumber
Yeah, there are 3 older guys with those names, and kids with more names that start with K. Yep.
"KyKenKee"

Just scan the rest of "town" and it's not much. Getting into episode 3 now, and it's taking a turn that I definitely can see happening.
Click to expand...
I know these kinds of towns well. Can't say I grew up in that type of town.

I just finished chapter 5. It's still great.
 
F

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
muteki said:
There is certainly plenty of crazy there but he grows on you.
Click to expand...
Chapter IV

And he was crazy about the right things. It's crushing to see an intelligent manic depressive gay/bi loner who cares so much about the world feel so constantly defeated about the awful things in life like he was. There's a cautionary tale here somewhere about not exposing yourself to awful worldwide news nonstop like he did.

I'm still at the beginning of chapter IV, the podcast is very interesting and well-made as expected, but it's making me feel pretty bad at parts. The part where Faye (the Town Hall lady) talks about John's last call to her when he drank the potassium cyanide was horrible.
 
P

PushTheButtonMax

Banned
Fuu said:
Chapter IV

And he was crazy about the right things. It's crushing to see an intelligent manic depressive gay/bi loner who cares so much about the world feel so constantly defeated about the awful things in life like he was. There's a cautionary tale here somewhere about not exposing yourself to awful worldwide news nonstop like he did.

I'm still at the beginning of chapter IV, the podcast is very interesting and well-made as expected, but it's making me feel pretty bad at parts. The part where Fey (the Town Hall lady) talks about John's last call to her when he drank the potassium cyanide was horrible.
Click to expand...

Up to episode 4
I agree about the feeling bad part. As I was finishing episode 4 last night I was asking myself what I was gaining by listening to this and considering whether or not I should continue. Still haven't decided really.
 
D

Dalek

Member
Episode 3-holy crap. The details of everything are just nuts.

I can't believe he called Faye when it happened.
 
M

metsallica

Member
ReAxion said:
i can't wait for more people to finish this.
Click to expand...
I went through the whole thing yesterday and while I liked it and felt it was worthwhile, like with all of these things... we didn't really get any answers. I realize answers are never the point, but some closure is worthwhile with these types of examinations... at least to me. Since most of this was from a couple years ago, maybe they'll do a follow-up podcast on the feed (or even a few).
 
B

Blader

Member
Halfway through chapter III, and I do think they made the right call in dropping the whole show at once. I don't know if the material lends itself as well to a weekly format the way Serial S1 did.
 
B

BearPawB

Banned
It's clearly not a podcast I think everyone is going to like.

But it hit a lot of right notes for me.

You go in expecting a traditional murder mystery.
What you get, is much less mysterious, but much more interesting

metsallica said:
I went through the whole thing yesterday and while I liked it and felt it was worthwhile, like with all of these things... we didn't really get any answers. I realize answers are never the point, but some closure is worthwhile with these types of examinations... at least to me. Since most of this was from a couple years ago, maybe they'll do a follow-up podcast on the feed (or even a few).
Click to expand...

I don't even really know what you wan't answers to.
I can't think of a single answerable question (outside one, which they clearly tried to answer but couldn't)
 
X

xir

Likely to be eaten by a grue
ep 1 - was kind of eh until HEDGE MAZE.
I want to read all those short stories.

I find myself being prejudice against John's accent even though he's a smart guy, if maybe a little pathological.

Also, I did find myself curious if he was gay from his manner of speech (again, prejudice?) and certain phrasing, and then that line about sucking his dick. Weird.

As a 'coastal elite' who's driven cross country and stopped at some shit towns, I can already see some of the edges forming. pretty good.

Does fixing clocks make you a tons of dough?
 
D

Damaniel

Banned
BearPawB said:
It's clearly not a podcast I think everyone is going to like.

But it hit a lot of right notes for me.
Click to expand...

John reminds me a lot of my mom's only brother. He was smart - brilliant, even, but he was stuck in a world where he just didn't fit. He spent most of his life living in a town with a population of barely 20, and after his grandparents (who he lived with) died, he spiraled into despair and eventually death. He might not have killed himself, but he neglected himself for the last few months of his life, to the point where it could be argued that his death was self-inflicted. While I only met him a few times and he died while I was still a teenager, he was apparently prone to the same type of multi-hour combination of intellectual and angry ranting that John was. I saw the parallels almost immediately, and perhaps because of that I just couldn't stop listening.

Serial S1 was decent (started awesome, ended meh), and I haven't listened to S2, but S-Town is far better than either.
 
A

andycapps

Member
xir said:
ep 1 - was kind of eh until HEDGE MAZE.
I want to read all those short stories.

I find myself being prejudice against John's accent even though he's a smart guy, if maybe a little pathological.

Also, I did find myself curious if he was gay from his manner of speech (again, prejudice?) and certain phrasing, and then that line about sucking his dick. Weird.

As a 'coastal elite' who's driven cross country and stopped at some shit towns, I can already see some of the edges forming. pretty good.

Does fixing clocks make you a tons of dough?
Click to expand...

Keep going. A lot of your questions will be answered.
 
M

metsallica

Member
BearPawB said:
It's clearly not a podcast I think everyone is going to like.

But it hit a lot of right notes for me.

You go in expecting a traditional murder mystery.
What you get, is much less mysterious, but much more interesting



I don't even really know what you wan't answers to.
I can't think of a single answerable question (outside one, which they clearly tried to answer but couldn't)
Click to expand...
I can think of a ton of things I want more closure on, which is why I hope we get some follow-ups. They gave it a separate podcast feed so I feel like this isn't a one-off. I also realize many of my questions are things that never could be answered and never will, but when you get so invested in something so quickly it's natural to want it wrapped up in a nice little bow. It's also natural to not get that... that's life.
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
Just finished episode VII. It's a really strong finish, and made me surprisingly emotional by the end. As has been already stated, it's not what you expect going in. I imagine plenty of people won't dig it. But I really loved how it uses some of the expectations of the genre against the audience.

The middle episodes focusing on the battle for the estate drag a bit, and the vague stuff about the buried gold really lacked a resolution. But the character study on John becomes so fascinating in the last two chapters, I really didn't mind. His story was heartbreaking, and the way it ultimately loops back around to his initial paranoia just puts everything in a very tragic perspective.
 
R

ReAxion

Member
Mushroomer25 said:
Just finished episode VII. It's a really strong finish, and made me surprisingly emotional by the end. As has been already stated, it's not what you expect going in. I imagine plenty of people won't dig it. But I really loved how it uses some of the expectations of the genre against the audience.

The middle episodes focusing on the battle for the estate drag a bit, and the vague stuff about the buried gold really lacked a resolution. But the character study on John becomes so fascinating in the last two chapters, I really didn't mind. His story was heartbreaking, and the way it ultimately loops back around to his initial paranoia just puts everything in a very tragic perspective.
Click to expand...

totally agree
about the ending. i think the buried gold lacks resolution because it's just going to be a local urban legend there forever.

i'm sad about the hedge maze :(
 
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