<i>S-Town</i>, <i>13 Reasons Why</i>, and Making Art Out of Self-Destruction
This article contains multiple spoilers about S-Town and 13 Reasons Why.
When the podcast S-Town was released a little over a week ago, the most immediately remarkable thing about it was its method of delivery: All seven episodes were made available on the same day. This model has become old hat for TV shows thanks to Netflix, but S-Town is the first major podcast to present itself this way, as a single longform work that can be consumed any way the listener pleases. And, it turns out, it benefits the story greatly. S-Town starts out by hooking listeners into a possible murder-mystery, but quickly transmutes into something else, less grabby, but just as enthralling.
In the first episode, the host and producer Brian Reed details how he received a tip about a possible murder that had been covered up in the small town of Woodstock, Alabama. The person offering the information just happens to be an character straight out of a Carson McCullers novel: an eccentric clock restorer named John B. McLemore, who, in recorded phone conversations, goes on extravagant rants about’s focus won’t be on the alleged murder, which it turns out never happened. Instead, it’s on McLemore, who, Reed finds out from an emotional phone call, has committed suicide.
