Tempy wrote:

I feel like making a podcast these days when you aren't like, the McEllroy's or something, is like pissing into a fearsome tsunami

Gremill wrote:

MattyJ wrote:

Childintime wrote:

Tempy wrote:

I feel like making a podcast these days when you aren't like, the McEllroy's or something, is like pissing into a fearsome tsunami

I really like their podcasts. Well, MBMBaM (although I haven't listened that much)and The Adventure Zone (to which I am addicted).

Just getting into MBMBaM myself after TAZ and it is very good. It has just the right amount of references from all things I enjoy (movies, games etc) as well as them just generally being funny and having that natural sibling chemistry.

Finally got back into TAZ. About mid-way though 'Petal to the Metal' and it's absolutely brilliant.

Andy wrote:

Finished listening to S Town (for that is what it's called, Bollo) earlier.

When I first heard a teaser for S Town, arriving on my iPhone from the Serial podcast, I was fairly sure I wouldn't listen. I couldn't tell if it was a documentary or a work of fiction. And, if it was a true story, ever since You've Been Trumped I've been wary of the motivation and truthfulness of documentarians siding with a minority voice of dissent. The desire to be seen as giving a platform to the oppressed, and strong personal viewpoints, can clearly distort both their own perception and, as a result, the story they have to tell.

The second time I heard a teaser, I was even more conflicted. The voice we heard - which I would later learn is that if the man around whom the story revolves, John B McLemore - sounded fake. He sounded like Zack Galifianskis in The Campaign, only foul-mouthed. However, one of the contributors to the teaser likening the sense of intrigue to the first season of Serial (which is a rather telling comment about the second, although I still enjoyed it) convinced me to download it. I started listening last night, and then listened to the rest today and this evening.

That, as much as anything else, is testament to the story-telling ability of the writers. By making these podcasts as much a story about the investigative process as the story itself, by largely basing the chronology on their own experience of events, but withholding key pieces of the puzzle, they expertly craft intrigue. At one and the same time I enjoy and am wary of the way they end an episode on a cliffhanger; as a listener, it's exciting, but I'm wary of how strongly they may be manipulating the story to meet these episodic beats.

FULL SERIES SPOILERS FOLLOW. DO NOT READ THEM UNTIL YOU'VE FINISHED. DO NOT EVEN READ THEM TO SEE IF IT PIQUES YOUR INTEREST IN LISTENING. THESE SPOILERS WILL SPOIL YOUR ENJOYMENT IF YOU READ THEM BEFORE FINISHING.

Spoiler:

A large part of the success of the story is, on reflection, a result of manipulation by the storyteller, Brian Reed. By telling the story from particular points of view, first John's, then Tyler's, then Rita's, Brian almost forces you to side with them. I nevertheless had my reservations; 'This man is not well' was my main reaction to John's ranting, I couldn't help but feel something was remiss about Tyler's depiction of the malevolent cousins, so by the time we heard from Rita I was waiting for another turn.

Despite his tangential ravings, I could see why people liked John. I liked him. I felt sorry for him when his conspiracy theory came to nothing much, and was ultimately, by the sound of things, born out of one sad lost friendship. I was blindsided by his suicide, but sceptical of Brian's response. It sounded to me like he was trying to force tears, just as Tyler had accused Rita of doing an episode or so earlier.

As the story came to a close, I was touched by a thought that occasionally occurred during the first season of Serial; the world is chock-full of interesting stories. You could take most people's lives and find as engaging a story in there. As desperately sad as it was to learn how lonely John's life had been, the failure to find someone who loved him the way he loved them, I was also relieved, to an extent, that there was nothing more sinister at play. A man whose illness shaped both his appeal what repelled people, who likely made himself more ill in pursuit of his other passion.

In that sense, I also found it scary. I could see myself like John, but with the gain turned down. Talking both frankly and jokingly about suicide, the notion that it's not a question of if, but when, the personality and mental health so intertwined for so long they seem inseparable, the repeated tales of unrequited love. It particularly chimed with me when at one point he equated thoughts in his head to music you've heard in the car getting stuck in a loop in your head; I use that exact analogy when describing to people what feeling suicidal is like. I'm nowhere near as ill as he was, but I'm nowhere near as talented, motivated, passionate or intelligent either.

In the very end, I was disappointed that Reed chose to end the series by disclosing what happened in 'church'. The final episode, I felt, should have been edited the other way around; we should've been closing on the potential that burning mercury likely made him even more ill, a dramatic irony that his enthusiasm ultimately led to his death, poisoning himself over a long term and, in the end, more directly. Instead Reed chose to end on the masochism; an unfortunate symptom of the illness. It felt wrong, to me, to finish in a way that would reduce John in many listeners' eyes.

It's sad enough that John's property is now in the hands of a businessman he loathes, particularly when it's apparent, from just a few recorded words, that the businessman is an irredeemable cunt.

A cracking podcast, but not one that I come away from feeling good about the world.

legaldinho wrote:

Spoiler:

I thought this was a very sad story indeed. The scene where the gay friend was like "i wish i told him" was amazing.