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.
757 Goodnight Moon Dragons
Book Club travels to the far future for the sci-fi/fantasy mash-up “Moonbound” by Robin Sloan. Here be dragons! Not to mention wyrd multidimensional witches at the bottom of a pool, Arthurian proto-heroes, friendly sentient robot hive minds, and plucky talking beavers!
Previous Episodes
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February 28, 2025 “Dune”756 Bald Men Wearing Trash Bags
Arrakis. Dune. Desert Planet. But maybe not the one you’re thinking of. In our own very peculiar way we honor David Lynch by discussing the feature film he probably liked the least, 1984’s “Dune.” Sting with a knife! Patrick Stewart riding a sandworm! How does it all compare with the modern version? Does it have its own special lower-budget charms? (Don’t mention the voiceovers…) What about the voiceovers? And how much does nostalgia fit into our appreciation of this movie?
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February 21, 2025 “Silo”
755 Is This… Dystopian?
From deep down in the lower levels to high up near the surface, we’re traveling through the post-apocalypic society of “Silo” on Apple TV+. Do eggs exist? What’s in daddy’s secret closet of mystery? Why are Pez dispensers outlawed? We begin with non-spoiler thoughts and then after the spoiler horn, we break down season one and two. (There are no spoilers for the Hugh Howey stories the show is based on!)
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February 14, 2025 “Saturday Night”
754 The Prequel Problem
Live, from The Incomparable, it’s Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” a film that purports to capture the 88 minutes before “Saturday Night Live’s” first live broadcast 50 years ago. All of our panelists agree it’s a well-made movie. There are many actors and comedians playing actors and comedians. But does it all hold together?
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February 7, 2025 “The Wild Robot”
753 Robot vs. Nature
Blending classic Disney animals with a mysterious Miayazki forest, “The Wild Robot” is a story of overcoming your programming and not allowing yourself to become trapped in loops of behavior—whether you’re a robot or maybe even a human being.
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January 31, 2025 Book Club: “Service Model”752 Empathy for My Python Scripts
It’s the end of the world and a robot apocalypse has happened, so what are the robots up to now? One robot butler takes an unusual journey through the darkly absurd world of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Service Model.” All bytes will be sorted and preserved, Uncharles.
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January 24, 2025 “Pan’s Labyrinth”
751 Big Fascist Dinner
Are fairy tales real, or are they mental refuges from the horrors of real life? Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” toggles effortless between bizarre, Miyazaki-like fantasy (inverted toads!) and an all-too-real tale of violence and treachery in fascist Spain. It’s dark, beautiful, full of disgusting bugs, and manages to use Del Toro muse Doug Jones as not one but two separate monsters!
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January 17, 2025 “Star Trek: Lower Decks”
750 The Coolest Job in Space
We send off the crew of the USS Cerritos and salue the completion of the five-year mission of “Star Trek: Lower Decks.” This show expanded what “Star Trek” could be—in several dimensions. And yet it was also utterly, completely a “Star Trek” series. We try to find the special alchemy that brought it all together.
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January 10, 2025 “The Mercy of Gods”
749 Just Clean the Beakers
The writers of “The Expanse” are back with a new series, and “The Mercy of Gods” is an alien invasion story that goes to some extremely dark places. But sometimes, dark is good… right? Right?! Plus: What are we reading?
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December 31, 2024 Best of 2024
748 Holes at the End of the World
Another year in the books, and there was a lot to appreciate about the stuff we consumed—movies, TV, books, video games, and more—in 2024. Our most prolific panelists collaborate on a massive list of the stuff we enjoyed over the past 12 months.
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December 20, 2024 “Tombstone”
747 Latin Rap Battle
For Kilmas this year we travel to 19th century Arizona for “Tombstone,” where Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and their shady pal Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer!) confront a bunch of rotten outlaw thugs and their own mortality. Will our noted hater of westerns, Erika, accept the possibility of a Kilmas miracle? Listen to find out!