Reception
S-Town was culturally popular and received mixed critical reviews. The Boston Globe Ty Burr found it complex and voyeuristic. He asked, "is S-Town a freak show for the NPR crowd?", and called the series "seven chapters of provocative red herrings that almost but never quite add up to a place, a people, or a man".[25] Jessica Goudeau of The Atlantic questioned the series' ethics, asking, "is it okay to confess another person's pain for the sake of a good story?"[26] Goudeau also wondered how Flannery O'Connor, Robert Lowell, or Elizabeth Bishop would have reacted to the podcast and the exploration of poor, white, rural America.[26] Slate Katy Waldman wrote that S-Town feels more like a new genre, "something more like aural literature".[27] Vox's Aja Romano called the podcast "stunning" but suggested it was too invasive and should not have been made.[28]
The podcast's critics claimed that the studio took advantage of John's death to gain publicity. Crixeo, an online arts monthly, argues that Reed did not have the right to publicly out John as queer.[29] At the same time, others contend that S-Town was a way for them to take the story of John's death and shed light on mental health in the U.S.[30] The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber praised S-Town for its journalism and humanism, as the series "hints at the possibility of cultural reconciliation" within the community.[31] Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian called the series "a noble attempt at understanding life", as the series showed "the great hope that resides within" by showing a person trying to survive within their surroundings.[32]
The Guardian gave S-Town a critical review, calling S-Town "a good story, but an indefensible one" that doesn't fully address its central quandary.[33]
By May 2017, the podcast series had been downloaded over 40 million times.[34] It retained a high ranking in the iTunes chart and continued to be analysed in the press well into 2017.[35] Since then, the podcast has remained popular and had been downloaded 77 million times by the anniversary of its release.[36]
