The Incomparable Mothership
Hosted by Jason Snell
The Incomparable Mothership is the flagship of the Incomparable podcast network. It’s all about geeky media we love, including movies, books, TV, and more, featuring a rotating panel of guests and hosted by Jason Snell and friends.
804 I Pay This Movie Rent
Want to see a dead body? Bring your comb, stock up on cherry flavor Pez, and stay really quiet if you see a deer. We return to the 1980s and honor Rob Reiner by discussing 1986’s “Stand By Me,” a movie Jason has somehow never seen. It’s not a movie with Things That Happen, but that’s just fine with us.
Previous Episodes
-
February 6, 2026 “Heated Rivalry”803 Doing the Good Loon’s Work
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with The Incomparable. It’s time to discuss that Canadian hockey show everyone’s been talking about. “Heated Rivalry” just wants to know, “Will you come to the cottage this summer?”
-
January 30, 2026 “Frankenstein” (2025)
802 Farm-to-Table Body Parts
Guillermo del Toro’s waited his whole life to make a “Frankenstein” movie, and now he’s done it. We carefully select the (Oscar-nominated!) film’s best bits, chop them up, and then sew them back together in the grossest way possible. (We know Del Toro would approve.) You don’t need to have a degree in Frankensteinology to take a seat at the lympahtic charcuterie board, but it helps!
-
January 23, 2026 “Pluribus” season 1
801 Chekhov’s Chunga Palm
Hello, Carol. This is a recording. At the tone, you can leave a message to request anything you might need. We’ll do our best to provide it. Our feelings for you haven’t changed, Carol. But after everything that’s happened, we just need a little space.
-
January 16, 2026 title_boring
800 Draft Science
After 800 episodes, we are in serious danger of repeating ourselves, but that never stopped us before. Some of our most prolific panelists fulfill the prophesy and draft Incomparable drafts. Jason begs them to give him new ideas, because after 800, he’s almost run out. And we use our powers for good and evil to mark classic episodes for deletion.
-
January 9, 2026 “Alien: Earth”
799 Earth 2120 (feat. Xenomorph)
Noah Hawley’s TV take on the Alien franchise, “Alien: Earth,” is crashing into a building near us, bringing gross aliens old and new, suspicious synths, terrified (and bloody) humans, and a new class of hybrid life forms with the minds of children and superhuman bodies. Does the show give us enough Xenomorphs? Is the eye alien a breakout fan favorite? Was replaying “Alien” on a different ship a good idea? Why is Trillionaire Island so understaffed? We break it all down.
-
December 31, 2025 The Best of 2025798 Trust Dan, Not Fish
Our most frequent panelists of the year join Jason to talk about their favorite stuff from the year gone by, and we also pause to recall some favorite Incomparable moments. Synergy!
-
December 19, 2025 “Top Gun”
797 Iceman Was Right
Kilmas comes but once a year! This year we’re climbing into the cockpit and revisiting 1986’s “Top Gun,” starring some airplanes, Val Kilmer, and Tom Cruise. It’s a very subtle movie. Were Tony’s parents right in protecting his young mind from it? And most importantly, why do we remember Val Kilmer’s character being the villain when he’s actually the conscience of the entire film?
-
December 12, 2025 “Escape from the Planet of the Apes”796 Grape Juice Plus
Our Ape Club reconvenes to celebrate the holidays with a viewing of 1971’s “Escape from the Planet of the Apes!” Is this an ape movie or an episode of “Mannix”? What happens when you change lanes on the Freeway of Time? Why is Zira the smartest of all creatures, ape or human? And was Dr. Cornelius framed by big government? Apes smart, humans dumb!
-
December 5, 2025 “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”
795 Put the Magic Baby Down
Set in a bright retro-future world, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” doesn’t have anything to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe… yet. We analyze the latest attempt to translate Marvel’s first family to the big screen, including the trade-offs involved in introducing characters, not retreading the origin story again, turning Galactus into Rumplestiltskin, and the inevitable downbeat ending that never comes.
-
November 27, 2025 “Nosferatu” (2024)794 Oops! All Rats
We celebrate Fangsgiving with a visit to darkest Transylvania (and Germany) for the plague-stricken, rat-infested tale of “Nosferatu”, a legally questionable knock-off of “Dracula” more than a century old that surprisingly reinvigorates the classic lines of the Dracula story.