The Incomparable Mothership

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.

Put on your catsuit and your tactical vest, because we’re about to talk about Marvel’s “Black Widow,” which some of us saw in theaters. (And some of us didn’t.) This is a movie delayed from pre-COVID times, it’s the first Marvel movie in the Disney+ era, and it’s set during 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War”—conveniently before the main character dies. With all that, it’s also a film that puts it...

Get out your ice skates, baseball bats, kitchen knives, and samurai swords—pretty much any weapon at hand, because we’re watching 2011’s “Attack the Block”! While not officially part of the Cornetto Trilogy, this British alien-invasion film shares a lot of DNA with those movies, and it’s about as close an analog to “Shaun of the Dead” as you’ll find—but with the comedy dial turned down a bit. It f...

Some people read with their eyeballs, and still others talk to their books—we do both! In part two of our three-part survey of novels shortlisted for 2021’s top SF and Fantasy awards, we’re discussing the magic and romance of “The Midnight Bargain” by C.L. Polk, the spooky “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and the murderbotiness of “Network Effect” by Martha Wells. Plus, what else are we r...

Look, we love the Muppets. But the franchise has been very quiet lately. It’s time to get Muppet movies back on the big screen! And so in this episode, all our panelists pitch new Muppet movies we’d like to see. And along the way they do a bunch of Muppet voices, too, because of course they do.

Back in 2014, we read Helene Wecker’s novel “The Golem and the Jinni,” and we liked it! Little did we know that she was listening to us… and that she would end up as an Incomparable panelist! Now a sequel, “The Hidden Palace: A Novel of the Golem and the Jinni” has arrived! In this special episode, Jason and Helene discuss the first novel, how real life can intrude on a publishing schedule, the va...

Put on your capes because we’re flying into superhero action with season one of Prime Video’s “Invincible,” based on Robert Kirkman’s long-running comic. Before the Spoiler Horn, we’ll tell you why this show is worth watching—and warn you about how it mixes its love of brightly colored superhero imagery and storylines with logical but unrestrained violence and gore. Then we break down some of this...

We know there are a lot of superhero movies out there. Sometimes it seems like there are so many, it’s as if a random-number generator just assigned pieces of intellectual property to film directors. But where some might despair at this situation, we looked at it as an opportunity to harness the terrible power of the random-number generator and use our own creativity to assign the right directors...

Olo! It’s time to discuss an underappreciated superhero movie that’s only become more relevant after a decade full of superhero movies. It’s 2010’s “Megamind,” which transcends being an extrusion from the Dreamworks animation factory (well, except for its pop-music soundtrack) to become something greater. With an all-star cast led by Will Ferrell and Tina Fey, this is a great riff on the Superman...

Our Book Club returns with a new way to approach this year’s SF novel shortlist: we’re reading all the Hugo and Nebula novels in three batches. First up: “Black Sun,” “The City We Became,” and “Piranesi.” Plus: What are we reading?

Don your winged jetpack and strap on your cybernetic arm, because it’s time to fight over a shield. Marvel’s second Disney+ series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” picks up the story of two of Captain America’s pals as they confront serious societal issues, the representation of America in the modern age, and a gaggle of super-powered foes. It’s a show that takes some big swings, even if it do...

Drop the camcorder and whatever you do, don’t run toward the bridge! 2008’s “Cloverfield” mixes giant monsters, post-9/11 reactions to urban destruction, rom-com tropes, “Jaws” style monster hiding, and found footage shaky-cam into an incredibly intense movie experience. Does it matter that the main characters are generic, or does it actually help? Is this a slasher film or more of a smasher film?...

We have reached the end (for now) of Miyazaki Club. So we gather back together to consider why we’re drawn to Hayao Miyazaki’s work, how we define the differences between films as different as “Ponyo” and “Spirited Away,” a list of the director’s favorite things, subs versus dubs, the music of Joe Hisaishi, and which of Miyazaki’s movies we all prefer.

After years of Monty telling us we should watch it, we’ve given in. It’s time to discuss 1981 South African karate movie “Kill and Kill Again,” a film featuring many middle-aged men kicking people, as well as a James Bond-style plot about a madman who wants to take over the world via an unusual application of potatoes. We cover strange ties to “CSI: Miami” and “The A-Team,” introduce you to the wo...

In space, all warriors are cold warriors! An ecological disaster leads to the breakup of an enemy empire, but in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” it’s the Klingon moon Praxis subbing in for the Soviet power station Chernobyl. Kirk and company struggle with their animosity toward the Klingons, but we are more concerned with what graduate school Gorkon’s daughter went to, the Klingon guard w...

Six episodes ago, Jason made Phil mad by suggesting that “Chariots of Fire” and “Amadeus” might not be worthy of their Academy Awards for Best Picture. This episode is Phil’s revenge, as we watch two acclaimed early-80s films and see how well they hold up. They’re both period pieces, but one is set to the electronic sounds of Vangelis and the other to the classical masterpieces of Mozart. Running...

Shakespeare Club returns! “The Taming of the Shrew” is a Shakespeare play that’s crying out to be adapted for modern audiences, which is why it keeps being adapted—with varying degrees of success. We discuss the play, the unpleasant Franco Zeffirelli 1967 film starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the film and TV versions of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate,” the teen rom-com “10 Things I Hate...

It’s a classic sitcom! It’s a Marvel movie! It’s both! It’s the first Disney+ MCU show, “WandaVision.” And it managed to be a walk through television history while simultaneously being an exploration of the stages of grief. Plus, an android in a turtleneck! We break it all down, from where Wanda and Vision go from here to what Monica Rambeau, Darcy Lewis, and Jimmy Woo should be doing next. Tune i...

Is this the end of Miyazaki Club? Probably not, but we’ve reached the end of our survey of all the feature films he’s directed with “Porco Rosso,” the story of a pig man, the airplane he loves, the woman he doesn’t feel worthy to love, and the seaplane pirates who terrorize the Adriatic after World War I. There are lots of clouds and planes and boats, as you might expect.

The sixth season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” features dark and unpleasant themes, a painful magic-as-heroin allegory, and creative decisions that manage to be cruel to both the show’s characters and its audience. But there’s also a musical!

We discuss the latest season of Amazon’s “The Expanse,” which separates its main characters for storylines all across the solar system. How well does that approach work? How do Amos and Peaches differ? Why should Alex never be a detective? And do we hate Marco Inaros the appropriate amount?

We’re using our powers over space and time to capriciously right wrongs throughout movie history. That’s right, it’s the Bad Best Picture Draft, in which our panelists will select a Best Picture Oscar winner, take its statuette away, and hand it to a more deserving winner.

Miyazaki Club gets weird with “Ponyo,” a story of a fish who gets the taste of human blood, lives in a bucket, can cure all diseases with a lick, and just wants to be human. Also there’s a plot for the sea to sweep away humanity, and the Moon comes perilously close to Earth. But cute!

After a long gap, our Book Club reconvenes, and if they can remember Micaiah Johnson’s “The Space Between Worlds,” they’ll recommend it to you. It’s a story about identity and society set across parallel worlds that are even more similar than they initially appear to be. Also, what else have we read lately? Curl up with a good book and keep an eye out for parallel-universe warlords!

From Canada comes “Letterkenny,” an unlikely comedy series about rural hicks, burnouts, and hockey players that’s hyper-verbal, charmingly prone to a donnybrook, and one of the funniest things we’ve watched recently.