This episode features a book with fantasy zombies and a book with alien hive minds. Talk about range! Our Book Club reconvenes to discuss the fantasy mystery “Witness for the Dead,” a standalone book set in the world of “The Goblin Emperor”, and “A Desolation Called Peace,” the conclusion of the duology begun in the award-winning “A Memory Called Empire.” Plus: What are we reading? Jason Snell with Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman, Scott McNulty and Erika Ensign.
Remember that cool bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back? What happens when you give him his own show? “The Book of Boba Fett” is the answer—or is it? After all, parts of this show are really episodes of a different, arguably better show. Our panel discusses the seven-episode season and tries to figure out if this mess is hot or cold. Dan Moren with Erika Ensign, Chip Sudderth and Kathy Campbell.
In this episode we break down the final season of Prime Video’s “The Expanse.” Was it too abrupt? What was all that Laconia stuff? Then, after a brief intermission for TV viewers to depart, we discuss “Leviathan Falls” and the end of the Expanse book series. One story, so many endings! Jason Snell with Dan Moren, Aleen Simms, Jen Burt and Chip Sudderth.
In this six-hundredth episode of The Incomparable, recorded across two separate sessions, we talk about a whole bunch of novels—namely, our picks for the best SF/F novels of the first decade of The Incomparable, the 2010s! For our purposes, we’re designating the “decade” as 2010-2019. Along the way, we may ponder the most important question a reader should ask: Are there Zeppelins? Jason Snell with Scott McNulty, Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman, Aleen Simms, Erika Ensign and David J. Loehr....
It’s time to channel that Tired Dad Energy, because we’re going to discuss Marvel’s “Hawkeye,” bro. Kate Bishop! Yelena! Echo! Surprise cameos, including one by an owl! It’s a TV series nobody watching “The Avengers” would have ever wanted, yet a worn and exasperated Jeremy Renner as the mentor to a young woman with strong archery skills ends up being a delightful holiday adventure. Jason Snell with Cicero Holmes, Dan Moren, Chip Sudderth and Lisa Schmeiser.
We’ve rounded up a posse and are saddling up to discuss the Netflix original film “The Harder They Fall,” a revisionist western starring Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, and Regina King. This movie is more ornery than a pole cat with a hangnail! We ride at noon! Cicero Holmes with Nathan Alderman and Shareef Jackson.
Get your college applications ready and prepare to gross out about organic web shooters—it’s time for us to discuss “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the conclusion of Tom Holland’s origin trilogy as the web-slinging hero… and a surprisingly substantial follow-up to five other Spider-Man movies, too. It’s “Spider-Man: Endgame,” and with great podcasts, there must also come great responsibility… to talk about Spider-Man. Jason Snell with Dan Moren, Chip Sudderth and Kelly Guimont.
More than three decades since the Wheel of Time book series began, it’s arrived as a TV series on Prime Video. We discuss the first season with the help of our resident Wheel of Time book expert and three non-book-readers. How much is or isn’t it the “next Game of Thrones?” Why would it need to be be? And how does a book series that was wildly progressive for the 1990s approach a modern audience? Moisés Chiullán with Glenn Fleishman, John Siracusa and Kathy Campbell.
Hot dog! It’s time for our annual look back at the year gone by. And it was certainly a year! Some of us caught up on stuff, while others who usually abandon their lists as winter turns to spring decided not to bother making lists at all! As is traditional, our panelists and listeners pick favorite Incomparable episodes and moments in this episode. Did the best moment of the year happen in last year’s clip show? Are there multiple clip loops running now? Has The Incomparable finally ground Jason...
Merry Kilmas to all who celebrate the works of Val Kilmer! This year, our Kilmas selection is “The Saint,” a very 90s spy movie featuring surprise sweater reveals, tension-free water pipe escapes, and a wide collection of accents, wigs, and pseudonyms—all from Val Kilmer, of course. Jason Snell with Aleen Simms, Dan Moren, David J. Loehr, Jean MacDonald and Moisés Chiullán.
We watched all eight hours of the Disney+ documentary “The Beatles: Get Back” and now we’re going to talk about it. Toast, vests, London Bobbies sucking on their chin straps, Debbie the receptionist, Paul as “second boss”, Yoko’s knitting, George Harrison’s pinstripes, and most importantly, the amazing view of a bunch of musical geniuses having a very difficult time creating anything at all. Jason Snell with Steven Schapansky, Monty Ashley, Guy English and Amy Gruber.
Grab your Tamagotchi Baby Monitor, because it’s time to discuss “Doctor Who: Flux,” a six-episode season that had a lot of plot, a lot of characters, and a lot of questions, many of them unanswered! We discuss what worked this season and what didn’t, anticipate the 2022 run of specials to end Jodie Whitaker’s era, and ponder what Modern Doctor Who looks like when Russell T Davies takes over the show (again) in 2023. Jason Snell with Steven Schapansky, Erika Ensign, James Thomson and Antony Johns...
We discuss Marvel’s weird and epic “Eternals,” which breaks a lot of Marvel-movie conventions while attempting to tell a different kind of story with a whole lot of new characters. It’s full of interesting choices, some of which pay off, while others end up amounting to not very much. Jason Snell with Moisés Chiullán, Quinn Rose and Chip Sudderth.
We’ve gathered the family around the table to celebrate F’sgiving, a thing we just made up in which we care enough to watch a film featuring F. Murray Abraham. In this case it’s “Last Action Hero,” a movie that Wikipedia claims is a cult classic. We don’t know about that, but it certainly is unjustly maligned. This is a big, loud action movie that is also a parody and celebration of big, loud action movies. Sure, it’s got its flaws—we’re looking at you, kid—but there’s a whole lot to like. Jason...
Put on your stillsuit and prepare your sand compactor. We’re venturing out into the uncharted deserts of Arrakis with “Dune,” Denis Villeneuve’s cinematic take on the oft-filmed Frank Herbert novel. We do some comparing and contrasting with David Lynch’s version, question whether this adaptation is for fans for for people who know nothing about “Dune”, and basically stare at a bunch of big spaceships hanging in the air. Denis Villeneuve knows what we like. Jason Snell with John Siracusa, Jean Ma...
Buy those bongos and make it a 30-piece drum set, because legendary one-season wonder “Freaks and Geeks” is finally available to stream. This is an amazing show with a fantastic cast about a bunch of geeks and burnouts in Michigan in the early 1980s. It’s a sweet and funny and awkward and painful story about growing up and trying to figure out who you are, while everyone else in the world wants to label you and make sure you never forget your label. We discuss our favorite ancillary characters, ...
Just in time for Halloween, our mega-sized Old Movie Club meets up in a spooky haunted house to discuss two horror-comedies that honor their source material more than you might think — it’s 1948’s “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” and 1974’s “Young Frankenstein.” We learn that werewolves can fly, quoting film dialogue on the playground can be cruel, and in the end it turns out that none of us are the doctor—we’re the monster. Jason Snell with Philip Michaels, Monty Ashley, Steve Lutz, Shel...
We return to “Ted Lasso” to discuss the second season of the Apple TV+ comedy-become-dramedy, with an increased view into mental health, questions of relationship power dynamics, the power of Rom-Communism and Holiday Specials, and much more. [The original version had two minutes of weird audio at 18:30. You can press “forward 30 seconds” four times, or delete the file and re-download.] Jason Snell with Myke Hurley, Kelly Guimont, James Thomson and Dan Moren.
Our Book Club reconvenes to discuss two final 2021 Best Novel nominees, “Harrow the Ninth” and “The Relentless Moon.” We also discuss all the Hugo Award nominees for short fiction, rank the books, and recommend some books we’ve been reading lately! Jason Snell with Scott McNulty, Erika Ensign and Aleen Simms.
Old Movie Club likes to watch… old movies. And these are old movies about the price and perils of watching (and listening). We view the Hitchcock classic “Rear Window” and visit the smelly, greasy, fuzzy ’70s film for “The Conversation.” Also, we call back to the Summer of Spielberg with a discussion of how Francis Ford Coppola’s career making art films like “The Conversation” was derailed by fantastic commercial success. Jason Snell with Dr. Drang, Philip Michaels, Dan Moren, Erika Ensign and D...
In this flash episode we discuss the head-scratching news from two of our favorite franchises, as the prodigal showrunners have returned! First it’s the news that Russell T Davies, who brought “Doctor Who” back in 2005, is reuniting with his producers from that era to produce and write the show. Then came the announcement that J. Michael Straczynski has been contracted with The CW to write a pilot for a rebooted “Babylon 5.” Can you go home again? Will they play the hits or strike out in new dir...
Get out your bus ticket and get ready to go live on the Internet, because it’s time to talk “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Marvel returns exclusively to theaters, and so do we, as we discuss Tony Leung, the dangers of deferred maintenance on articulated buses, hanging a lantern on a dragon, and the emotional weight of a single arrow. Jason Snell with Moisés Chiullán, Kelly Guimont and David J. Loehr.
Arr, matey! Not only be it days from the equinox, but it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. What better time to wrap up the Summer of Spielberg with “Hook,” a (misguided?) Peter Pan sequel starring Robin Williams as Peter, Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, and Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, all gallivanting around a very crowded and overlit stage-set version of Neverland. We discuss the movie’s appeal to early-nineties kids, Spielberg’s commercial sensibility as a director, and the film’s many...
As we prepare to exit the Summer of Spielberg, things have taken a bit of a turn. We’ve taken out our surgical tools to diagnose just what went wrong with “Ready Player One,” in which a director who is much more interested in movies than video games and who himself deeply influenced 80s culture is put in charge of a too-faithful adaptation of a book about video games and 80s culture. We spent a lot of our time imagining a much better movie that could have been made instead of this one. Jason Sne...
Hop on your tripod killing machine and watch out for common cold viruses — if it’s New Jersey, it must be an alien invasion! We cover 2005’s “War of the Worlds,” starring Tom Cruise as a dad who just wants to protect his kids from the end of the world. Well, maybe one of his kids. Screaming! Explosions! Implausible plot points! Not enough Miranda Otto! Maybe too much Tim Robbins! The 9/11 influence is strong in this one. Jason Snell with Shelly Brisbin, Monty Ashley and Jean MacDonald.
Stand up and prepare to operate your computer by waving your hands! The Summer of Spielberg continues with 2002’s “Minority Report,” a sci-fi noirish murder mystery combined with a vision of the future and a dose of social commentary. We discuss the future’s retinal-scanning obsession, Tom Cruise’s security eyes, and the amazing precog named Agatha. Is it now? I’m tired of the future. Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, James Thomson, Monty Ashley and Annette Wierstra.
The Summer of Spielberg turns its eyes to “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” a project begun by Stanley Kubrick and completed by Steven Spielberg. Whether it works for you may hinge entirely on if you consider it a science-fiction story or a fairy tale. We marvel at some great performances, are frustrated by some creative choices, and in the end find ourselves applauding the boldness of the ending. (Now pass us some tissues, we’re ugly crying.) Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Cicero Holmes and Monty...
The Summer of Spielberg continues with what was once the biggest movie of all time, “Jurassic Park.” And you know what? It holds up, though we have an awful lot of questions about John Hammond and his business choices. Unfortunately, we also watched the Spielberg-directed cash-grab sequel, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.” Jason Snell with Cicero Holmes, Kathy Campbell, Tony Sindelar and Jean MacDonald.
Prepare your mashed-potato sculpture and zip up your red jumpsuit, because we’re about to discuss the 1977 film classic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” We discuss why this film is Steven Spielberg’s tapas, French-American UFO projects, “American Graffiti” with flying saucers, and much more. Plus Dan reveals a most unusual location to watch this film for the first time. It’s shaping up to be a real Summer of Spielberg. Jason Snell with Cicero Holmes, Julia Skott, Annette Wierstra and Dan Mo...
Grab a TemPad and step through a Time Door, because we’re discussing “Loki”, Marvel’s Disney+ series about how the god of Mischief met his match and learned to love himself. Along the way we talk about the “Doctor Who” references, the deep-cut comics references, the mighty Richard E. Grant, and the spectacular look and sounds of this outstanding series. Jason Snell with Aleen Simms, Moisés Chiullán, Kathy Campbell and Nathan Alderman.
