It’s not 🧠🧑ðŸ»â€ðŸ”¬âš›ï¸, it’s 🚀🧑ðŸ»â€âš•ï¸ðŸ”ª. Emojipedia’s own Jeremy Burge joins our crew to watch the heck out of 2017’s “The Emoji Movie,” a very 😑 movie in which Patrick Stewart plays 💩 and we’re told that 🆠belongs in the Loser Lounge. Jason Snell with Jeremy Burge, Glenn Fleishman, Kathy Campbell, Steve Lutz and Monty Ashley.
Put on your Sunday clothes and get ready to patrol the trash heap that is Earth, because it’s time to discuss Pixar’s “Wall-E.” We cover the nearly dialogueless first act, whether the broader comedy on the B&L ship Axiom works, Fred Willard (RIP), and the greatness of Ben Burtt. Watch out for rogue robots! Jason Snell with Jean MacDonald, Kelly Guimont, Moisés Chiullán and Steve Lutz.
We break down the third season of HBO’s “Westworld”, a show that we may appreciate more for the big swings that it takes rather than the number of times it actually connects. This just-finished season was messy, with one clear through-line and a bunch of other characters who are not served particularly well. We break down the character arcs for Dolores, Bernard, Dolores, Maeve, Dolores, Serac, and Dolores. There’s also praise for Marshawn Lynch (and his shirt), for the show’s continued excellent...
Old Movie Club takes on two distinctly different Raymond Chandler adaptations: 1946’s “The Big Sleep” (with Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe) and 1973’s “The Long Goodbye” (with Elliott Gould as Marlowe). Both of them have twisty plots that unravel, leaving dead bodies behind. Women throw themselves at Bogie! Elliott Gould needs to buy cat food! Film Boir will never be the same. Jason Snell with Philip Michaels, Shelly Brisbin, Monty Ashley and Dr. Drang.
We’ve completed our read of this year’s six Nebula Award nominees for best science fiction/fantasy novel of the year, and have returned with our opinions! And this year was a pretty good one, with very few of our readers experiencing the pain of bad books. From space opera to portal fantasy to Mexican mythology, there are almost certainly books on this list that will strike your fancy. Also, we debate the perennial question: Are planets in space? Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, Scott...
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale A tale of a fateful show We drafted yet more TV themes And the theme song list did grow The guest list was a lengthy one The pickers came prepared If not for the courage of our editor The listeners would be scared So join us on your podcast app You’ll listen till you’re full It’s favorite TV theme songs Here on The Incomparable Jason Snell with Philip Michaels, Lizbeth Myles, Steven Schapansky, James Thomson, Moisés Chiullán, Dan Moren, Monty Ashley and...
Dan Moren joins Jason to discuss what went into writing his new novel, “The Aleph Extraction.” No spoilers for the story, but we do discuss how he builds characters, the optimal length of a novel, how writing a novel under contract is different from having years to write one without a publisher, and why Jason has access to the Galactic Cold War wiki. Jason Snell with Dan Moren.
This podcast is like a donut hiding inside the hole of another donut. That’s because we’re talking “Knives Out,” Rian Johnson’s twisty and clever murder mystery set in the family of a very rich and very awful family. We discuss the movie’s storytelling choices, debate whether it plays fair with all its flashbacks, ponder which of the family members is the least awful, and laugh about all the jokes. (And yes, if you listen to this episode before watching the movie, you’re a monster.) Jason Snell ...
Put on your best shaggy flannel, because it’s time to go back to the ’90s for another album draft! In this episode Jason is joined by a decade’s worth of panelists to choose our favorite music albums from the 1990s. And yet, somehow, some of our panelists were born in that very decade! Isn’t it ironic? Jason Snell with Antony Johnston, Brian Hamilton, Erika Ensign, James Thomson, Monty Ashley, Quinn Rose, Sarah Gardner, Shelly Brisbin, Steve Lutz and Tiff Arment.
The final season of SyFy’s “The Magicians” is in the books, and we’re here to wrap it up, as well as share some overall thoughts on the series as the whole. But before we do that, we spend 17 minutes convincing you that it’s a show that’s absolutely worth watching. Jason Snell with Glenn Fleishman, Annette Wierstra, Moisés Chiullán and James Thomson.
Put on a white vest, climb in your Corvette, and whatever you do, don’t stir the cryo tanks! It’s the 50th anniversary of Apollo 13 and the 25th anniversary of “Apollo 13,” so we’re here to discuss Ron Howard’s film, starring Tom Hanks, Ed Harris and an enormous collection of character actors. The real-life story of Apollo 13 is so unlikely that if they made it into a movie, you’d never believe it—but in 1995 they did, and you will.
Engage! Season one of “Star Trek: Picard” is in the books, and so now it’s time to break it all down. Is Data’s death the overriding theme of the season? Does Picard’s final destination live up to the set-up? How did Hugh and Seven fare? Were the other visits from past cast members cheesy or good? How cool are Romulan warrior nuns? Who’s your favorite synth? And can storytelling ever be described as “lumpy?”
By the end of this episode we will sell several copies of “The Three E.P.s” by The Beta Band. It’s time to put on that horrible Cosby sweater and rearrange your record collection autobiographically. On the 20th anniversary of its release, we’re here to discuss one of our All-Time Top 5 movies featuring Lisa Bonet coming alive like Frampton, “High Fidelity.” Based on Nick Hornby’s novel, this film stars John Cusack as a bad boyfriend with a glimmer of hope at finding a clue, features a career-mak...
The Skywalker Saga is over—so what’s next for “Star Wars”? This week we’re suggesting potential directions for the franchise to go, on both the big and small screens. What kinds of movies should come next? Is Disney+ a development platform or the next big thing? Our team of franchise fans has no fiduciary responsibility and plenty of ideas!
This week we review the just-completed season of “Doctor Who.” It’s the second year for showrunner Chris Chibnall and star Jodie Whittaker, and this one felt like a real return to form after a tentative set of episodes in 2018. What do we make of the show’s canon-altering revelations? Which episodes were good and which ones were stinkers? How do you make the Cybermen interesting? How’s the fam holding up? Curl up in a haunted house—or just go sit on a lounge chair for three hours—and listen to t...
“Counterpart” is one of the best TV series in recent years, and in the U.S. it’s finally available in its entirety on Amazon Prime Video. In this episode, we generally discuss why this show is great and you should watch it, and then after the Spoiler Horn we dive in to discuss the show’s second and final season, how the world(s) come to be, and the meaning of the show’s final scenes.
We love NBC’s “The Good Place” so much, we couldn’t restrain ourselves to a single episode about its final season. Straight from The Medium Place, another group of Incomparable panelists wrap up The Good Place’s four-season run by walking through each season and reminiscing about the characters’ arcs. Plus, how well was the final season paced? Did we need more time to say goodbye to Team Cockroach?
NBC’s “The Good Place” recently completed its fourth and final season. We send off this instant television classic with a discussion of its view of the afterlife, philosophy, and dumb jokes. Did the final season’s shift in perspective work? Did the final episode provide the closure we wanted? Shut up, Glenn!
Make more mutants! Comic Book Club re-forms to discuss “House of X”/”Powers of X”, a paired set of comics miniseries that are an exciting new take on the X-Men. If you’re an old-school mutant fan who has been out of the business for years (like Jason), these 12 issues are a great read. They’re all available in a single collection, and the issues are also now rolling out weekly on Marvel Unlimited, so there are plenty of ways to partake. We discuss the politics of mutant separatism, the wisdom of...
Climb aboard your spaceship and prepare your skin to be sparkly, because we’re discussing “To Be Taught, If Fortunate,” a novella from Becky Chambers, a writer we enjoy quite a lot. This is a story about science, adventure, sacrifice, and the difficulty of being away from home for a very, very long time. An interesting crew of characters explores strange, new worlds—while trying to fit in biologically. Sometimes it goes really well, and other times it doesn’t. Also: What are we reading?
On the occasion of our 500th episode, our most prolific panelists of all time draft their favorite episodes of The Incomparable and suggest new drafts for future episodes of the podcast.
Step into the alien architecture and watch out for death slugs, as we discuss season four of Amazon Prime Video’s “The Expanse.” We’re happy to have our characters saved from the clutches of the SyFy channel, but how has the transition to streaming been? Why are alien planets so much like quarries? Why is Avasarala so competent and unelectable? What shenanigans is Bobbie Draper getting into on Mars? Listen, or be spaced.
Grab a tracking fob and saddle up a bluurg, because it’s time to discuss “The Mandalorian,” the first live-action Star Wars TV series. Why is the show’s main character always wearing a mask? How much merchandise money did Disney forego in order to keep Baby Yoda a secret? Is the Mandalorian capable of providing an environment in which Baby Yoda can thrive? Why is serving tea so civilized? We’ve got to get us one of those jet packs.
Hi Bob! We continue our early 2020 survey of late 2019 TV favorites with “For All Mankind”, an Apple TV+ series from Ron Moore about a NASA space program that has taken some dramatic turns since Soviet Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to set foot on the moon. We discuss the show’s balancing modern themes with its alt-historical context, how purely fictional and fictionalized historical characters fare, the merits of a weekly episode drop, lunar FaceTime and fax machines, and where...
There was a lot of great TV released in 2019, but if you ask us, there was none better than HBO’s “Watchmen”, which took a classic comic and tried to match it as a modern TV series. We discuss how the series dealt with race, superheroes, empire, masks, eggs, and legacy. Also: Will there be a second season? Should there be? Nothing ever ends, Adrian, especially if the spin-offs remain profitable. The initial file upload was broken in a spectacular way. Delete and re-download if you experience wei...
Happy New Year! Another year has gone by, but we don’t want to miss the opportunity to take one last look back at 2019, as our most frequent panelists of the year share some of their favorite works and discuss their favorite Incomparable moments while we play some classic 2019 audio clips.
Our trilogy of panels about “The Rise of Skywalker” concludes with a discussion of the film’s themes, how Kylo Ren keeps sliding into Rey’s DMs, whether you can ever have enough “Star Wars”, and how “Star Wars” is a little bit like “Seinfeld.”
Our panel of rebel podcasters, striking again from their hidden base, present another perspective on “The Rise of Skywalker.” Why does James want to see evil droids? Does Liz find Ben Solo or Kylo Ren more intriguing? Can Chip be satisfied with the ending to this generation-defining saga? Why are we in the midst of a global Porg shortage? Guest host Antony Johnston will seek the answers.
The Dead Speak, and so do we! It’s our first panel reviewing “The Rise of Skywalker.” Can this film bear the gravitational pull of the eight previous Skywalker Saga films? Does it provide a proper ending? We discuss Rey’s parentage, Finn’s increasing abilities, Poe’s lessons in leadership, whether Kylo Ren can possibly be redeemed, Zen and the Art of X-Wing Maintenance, how the film balances honoring Carrie Fisher with serving Leia’s character arc, and much more.
Get out your flask of maple syrup, warm up your Lite Brites and Etch-A-Sketches, and check the Clausometer, because it’s time to tell the story of Buddy the Elf. It’s 2003’s “Elf”, the modern Christmas classic starring Will Ferrell. What are the theological implications of the seven levels of the candy cane forest? Why so many “Lord of the Rings” references? How can James Caan and everyone else at the publishing company be so bad at their jobs? Wait a second… this isn’t maple syrup!
