S-Town podcast!!!!!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Anybody else listening?? It's been the top iTunes download. Wow. If you listen to one podcast, it should be this one (it's a spinoff of Serial). I'm not through all the episodes yet but hope to finish them all this weekend. I've laughed and been near tears at various points. It's amazing and depressing at the same time.

I don't want to put spoilers on first page.

[BDKmom]

Finished it up yesterday morning. Being raised in a small town in the south, I especially appreciated the way the reporter handled all the different characters. I think he did a really good job of showing things from all sides and helping the listener see things from all the different perspectives. Very thoughtful and thought-provoking. Really well done.

[eagle]

im on the third episode. even though im not even halfway done i keep thinking "wow, they already did that, where is this going?" and it goes somewhere different. id also recommend, even 3 in!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

BDKmom - i'd been hoping someone who grew up in small-town South would chime in. me, being raised in California, and then living mostly on the coasts before moving to TX, i admit that in many ways stereotypical "liberal coastal elite" and i honestly didn't know many people from the deep South. this podcast has opened my eyes as to even within in our same country, how different things are , how societies, lifestyles are so different with certain areas....yet there at the same time there are many of the same struggles.

I have always been especially interested in stories (fiction or not) of extremely gifted /talented people and their struggles so that is probably a big reason I was so captivated by this podcast. Parts of it made me think a little bit of Good Will Hunting.

eagle - i thought the exact same thing!

ok,i just finished all 7 episodes. Wow!! i've listened to both seasons of Serial as well as the "Missing Richard Simmons" podcast, and this was by far the best one. I cannot recommend it enough. There are many discussions that are disturbing/upsetting but I think that is the whole point of it..definitely thought-provoking for sure.

[Tenasparkl]

I finished last night and can't stop thinking about it. I loved it!

[bisous]

Just finished it. I listen to podcasts often and truly enjoyed both seasons of Serial (I know lots of people didn't like the second season). I was intrigued by it, especially around episodes 3 and 4 it but didn't really enjoy it all that much. I'm not sure how much I should share as I don't want to give any spoilers. Just disappointed I invested so much time into it. It felt exploitative to me and pointless.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Just finished it. I listen to podcasts often and truly enjoyed both seasons of Serial (I know lots of people didn't like the second season). I was intrigued by it, especially around episodes 3 and 4 it but didn't really enjoy it all that much. I'm not sure how much I should share as I don't want to give any spoilers. Just disappointed I invested so much time into it. It felt exploitative to me and pointless.
Huh, interesting how we can have such different opinions on the same thing!

I am curious, when you say it felt "exploitative" do you mean it felt like an intrusion into people's private lives (being broadcast to the world)? I felt like this too at many points in the podcast, like "this seems like such a private conversation/sensitive topic, I am surprised they are ok with this being aired!" So I get that there is that conundrum, about what should remain private and what is ok to broadcast, even if people gave permission .But the thing is, I felt like Serial Season #1 had TONS of that too, if not more! The part in serial when the host was reading passages from Hae Min Lee's diary and many other instances. Hae 's family was not happy at all about the Serial podcast and at several points her brother spoke out angrily about it, and Jay (the witness) did as well. Both gave the impression that they did not appreciate the national spotlight and attention on a personal tragedy that happened such a long time ago, for the purposes of providing law & order/CSI-type entertainment to people. I totally get that grievance but at the same time, I think that the purposes of Serial podcast was not all pure entertainment, was also exploring legal process, ramifications and seeing how complicated murder cases can be (at least season 1).

Interestingly, I think I liked S Town more because it felt less like law & order /true crime and more like a novel or even a memoir. i saw an article about it saying it tended to awaken feelings of empathy for various character types which most people don't give 2nd thought about. I though it illustrated various people's struggles that many of us are blind to/unaware of.

Anyway, that reminds me I need to finish season #2 of Serial ..I think I have 3 more to go. While it's wildly different from Serial season#1 I did appreicste season #2 because it opened my eyes to the other soldiers' experiences and it helped me understand why so many deeply resented Bowe for what he did. I liked how it tried to get the viewpoints of various different people.

[mom2binsd]

What, there was a second season of serial?

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[♥ms.pacman♥]

What, there was a second season of serial?

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
Yep. It has nothing to do with Season 1 (it's not even a murder mystery)...it's about Bowe Bergdahl (American soldier who walked off his base in Afghanistan 2009 and was captured/held by the Taliban). I just finished the last episode of it. It was very interesting and lots of food for thought.

[bisous]

Huh, interesting how we can have such different opinions on the same thing!

I am curious, when you say it felt "exploitative" do you mean it felt like an intrusion into people's private lives (being broadcast to the world)? I felt like this too at many points in the podcast, like "this seems like such a private conversation/sensitive topic, I am surprised they are ok with this being aired!" So I get that there is that conundrum, about what should remain private and what is ok to broadcast, even if people gave permission .But the thing is, I felt like Serial Season #1 had TONS of that too, if not more! The part in serial when the host was reading passages from Hae Min Lee's diary and many other instances. Hae 's family was not happy at all about the Serial podcast and at several points her brother spoke out angrily about it, and Jay (the witness) did as well. Both gave the impression that they did not appreciate the national spotlight and attention on a personal tragedy that happened such a long time ago, for the purposes of providing law & order/CSI-type entertainment to people. I totally get that grievance but at the same time, I think that the purposes of Serial podcast was not all pure entertainment, was also exploring legal process, ramifications and seeing how complicated murder cases can be (at least season 1).

Interestingly, I think I liked S Town more because it felt less like law & order /true crime and more like a novel or even a memoir. i saw an article about it saying it tended to awaken feelings of empathy for various character types which most people don't give 2nd thought about. I though it illustrated various people's struggles that many of us are blind to/unaware of.

Anyway, that reminds me I need to finish season #2 of Serial ..I think I have 3 more to go. While it's wildly different from Serial season#1 I did appreicste season #2 because it opened my eyes to the other soldiers' experiences and it helped me understand why so many deeply resented Bowe for what he did. I liked how it tried to get the viewpoints of various different people.

I can see what you're saying about Serial being exploitative as well. I think I can rationalize it because in this case it might be exonerating an innocent man but yeah, I can still see that angle. I felt like in S-Town the narrator is very sympathetic to the main character but he sure laid out a lot of dirty laundry as well for the purposes of entertainment. It was poetic in parts. I can see why a lot of people liked it. It didn't make me more sympathetic to anyone in the story. I'm not sure why. I already felt sympathetic for the people in the story from the start and at the end I just felt worse for them because they had so much exposed to the public.