S-Town review: The story of John B McLemore makes for the warmest podcast I’ve heard (spoiler-free)

Come for the true crime, stay for the insight into humanity

Shit Town, the latest ‘true crime’ podcast from the creators of Serial and This American Life, couldn’t have known when its story began three years ago that it would come to fruition with perfect timing. With the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America came the realisation that the country was split, that there was a side of it not so glued to its iPhones and politically a world away from those seeking the retweet congratulations of fellow like-minded liberals.

The podcast’s story unravels in Woodstock, Alabama, a gun-packing, hope-bereft small town, the majority of residents of which would, if anything, probably find Donald Trump not conservative enough. “Shit Town,” resident John B. McLemore dubs it, a bitter, brilliant, eccentric and ebullient clock mender who pisses in his sink and writes essays about climate change in his spare time. He asks reporter (and podcast host) Brian Reed to ‘investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, sparking a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life.’

The above is verbatim from the podcast synopsis, and that’s as much as I’m going to say about the story/case so as not to give away any spoilers. Suffice to say, John is at the very heart of this podcast and is what makes it so good. He is utterly charismatic and a joy to spend time with, as turbulent and unsettling as he can sometimes be. Serial was essentially a real-life whodunnit - it was amazingly thorough and will be remembered as the podcast that birthed a genre - but ultimately it was just about the transfer of information to the listener.

(S-Town)

Shit Town, however, is about people; it’s about human beings. Reed has a real fondness for John, this bizarre character that came into his life by chance, and it really comes across in the podcast. He also treats those he visits in Woodstock with the correct balance of respect and suspicion, of “we’re all human being” empathy and “okay, these people has very different and often abhorrent opinions” reservation (maybe even more successfully than Louis Theroux). The podcast is warm and interested; as much concerned with learning about character as solving crimes, though this is not to say that you won’t also be glued to its events and considerable twists.

It really feels like an expansion of what Serial was doing, and it’s ‘Shit Town’ title was a gift from John as, ultimately, it is about the town itself and about the downtrodden modern rural American mindset that led to its nickname.

A hell of a lot remains to be discussed once we can openly talk spoilers, but for now, if you’re considering firing up episode 1 (of 7, all available now - they've opted for the binge method), just do it. I somewhat disinterestedly stuck on the pilot last night, and found myself engrossed in episode 4 after more than three hours of back-to-back listening.