The Incomparable Mothership

Our survey of the films of director Hayao Miyazaki continues with 2001’s “Spirited Away.” It’s a real weird one, and sure to be turbocharged nightmare fuel for kids… but as adults, we have more capacity to appreciate a film as absolutely bugnuts as this. (Some downloads of this file contained an audio error at 32 minutes, with multiple overlapped voices. Re-download the file to get a corrected ver...

Here’s the story Of nine lovely people Who were picking songs from favorite TV shows It was a very short draft Just four rounds With some picks no one knows

Happy New Year! We take this opportunity to look back at 2017, as our top hosts and panelists of the year talk about their favorite stuff from the year gone by. And then it’s time to list our favorite Incomparable moments and play some clips.

Our (increasingly inaccurately named) team of rebel UK podcasters takes on “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Join us for another deep dive into the themes, performances, and surprises of the latest “Star Wars movie.” We promise not to mention Porgs until the very end!

“Time and Relative Dimension in Space” meets “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” as a hardy rebel band of podcasters who are “Doctor Who” fans form The Incomparable’s second panel about “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”. We take on the themes of failure and redemption, the unexpected fan reactions, and specious comparisons between “Doctor Who” showrunners and Star Wars directors. And porgs. Alwa...

Grab a porg, put on your matching necklaces, and get out your ancient Jedi texts—it’s time to discuss “The Last Jedi,” episode VIII of the “Star Wars” saga. (And if we missed something, please understand that we’ve only seen it once so far!)

In this special episode we discuss our personal holiday traditions, including foods, travel, gift-giving, decorations, and media. We also debate the reality of tofurkey and learn many things about legendary bearded gift-giving characters courtesy of a country that’s shaped like a chicken.

Stand above the icy river waters and ponder what life would be without 1946’s holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Would you be shocked to discover that not everyone likes it? In this episode we’ve got two fans of the film to tell us why it’s great, and a detractor who is attempting to crash this car into the town’s oldest tree. What are the pros and cons of one of the definitive Christmas mo...

Yeah, baby, we’re back! It’s time to return to Sunnydale and discuss the second season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” considered by many fans (including Jason) to be its best. The main adversaries are a trio of vampires, including Billy Idol, the bizarrely insane Drusilla, and Angelus—because Latin names are more evil. Plus there’s an evil smurf, a tragic rendezvous at Giles’ apartment, a big rock...

Our Video Game Club is back in action as we play two short artsy-fartsy narrative games. “What Remains of Edith Finch” is a game about a young woman returning home to the Pacific Northwest and exploring the mysteries left behind by her family—which sounds an awful lot like other games we’ve played, but it’s very different! We also played “Tacoma”, by the developers of “Gone Home”, which (despite i...

Eat a peach, put on a white ball gown, and join us as we enter a fantasy world full of puppets and David Bowie musical numbers. In 1986’s “Labyrinth”, a teenager accidentally gets her baby brother kidnapped by goblins. To get him back, she has to enter a magical world and meet many strange creatures along the way. The credits are full of notable names, including Jennifer Connelly, Jim Henson, Geor...

Old Movie Club returns with two paranoid films set amid the intrigue of postwar Europe: 1949’s “The Third Man” and 1965’s “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.” The former features Orson Welles, a collection of suspicious characters in Vienna, and a whole lot of zither music. The latter features Richard Burton mixing insobriety with spycraft, and a very peculiar library. (This episode is presented i...

Here in North America, the leaves are brightly colored and there’s a chill in the air. What better time to stay inside, make a warm pot of tea, and curl up with a good book? Our panel has many suggestions for excellent books to read if you or a friend is looking for a good science fiction or fantasy novel.

Beloved (yet creepy?) children’s author Roald Dahl is in our spotlight this week, as we talk about some of our favorite books by Dahl, including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “James and the Giant Peach”, “Danny, the Champion of the World”, and “Matilda.” We also discuss film adaptations and all the uncomfortable bits that have been cut out of new editions of Dahl over the years. Look for th...

Join us for a draft of animated Disney movies! From across 80 years of Disney history, our panel will pick 24 of our very favorites.

It took thousands of pages over seven novels, but eventually Stephen King finished his genre-busting series, The Dark Tower—and eventually we finished it too! Join four faithful readers who have taken the journey with Roland and his Ka-Tet and are ready to report back. We’ve got 30 minutes of non-spoiler discussion for prospective readers, followed by a lightning-round palaver about all seven main...

On the 30th anniversary of the debut of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, we watched the show’s first and last episodes and used them to appreciate what worked right out of the gate (casting) and what took a bit longer to jell together into one of the great science fiction TV series of all time.

With Jason away “on assignment,” a Rebel force of podcasters takes over The Incomparable’s transmission tower to celebrate (and introduce you to, if you haven’t watched them yet) Lucasfilm’s animated extensions to the Star Wars canon: the six-season Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, which is entering its fourth and final season. Why do adult fans love them? Did they actually redeem t...

Our survey of Miyazaki movies crosses over with Anime Club in this episode, where we discuss Studio Ghibli’s 1995 film “Whisper of the Heart.” Written by Miyazaki but directed by Yoshifumi Kondô, it’s a coming-of-age story with some resonance with “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” except there’s no magic and the cat doesn’t talk. But it’s still one magical cat.

This week we learned that Lucasfilm has parted ways with Colin Trevorrow, who was previously slated to write and direct 2019’s installment in the “Star Wars” saga, and realized that the absolutely dumbest way to react to the news would be to draft a bunch of possible replacements. So in this episode we present our suggestions to fill that director’s chair, from the real to the ridiculous to the on...

The penultimate season of “Game of Thrones” is in the books, and we’re here to wrap the entire thing up. All of that slow travel and scene-setting from the previous seasons is swept away, and this is our reward. Reunions! Death speeches! Dragon-on-dragon action! And we discover the secret of Jon Snow—no, not his actual parentage, but the fact that he’s best when paired with other, more interesting...

Time for 1997’s “Batman & Robin”, featuring George Clooney as Batman, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl. At least we can laugh about it now… to keep from crying. (Part two of two.)

So when Batman won our Summer Superhero Spectacular, we embarked on a quest to talk about all the Batman movies. Which leads us to the unfortunate spectacle of us watching both “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin.” This week, it’s the Val Kilmer Era, so let’s go back to 1995 and marvel at Jim Carrey’s understated performance as the Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones’s equally subtle performance as Two-F...

Destiny has her hand on our backs, and she’s pushing! That’s why we’re talking about The Tick, Ben Edlund’s hilarious superhero satire, in all its forms. From the original comics to the groundbreaking animated series to the 2000s live-action series to the all-new series premiering on Amazon Prime Video this month, we’ll cover it all. The night is young and we have umbrellas in our drinks. Evildoer...

Using our authority as a podcast about popular culture, The Incomparable has established a new Television Hall of Fame. Enshrined within will be the greatest TV series of all time, as chosen by a panel of 10 Incomparable experts in draft format. New inductees include shows created across six decades, and in every conceivable genre. [This episode was originally two episodes, 364 and 365. It’s been...