The Incomparable

Merry Kilmas! We begin our seasonal celebration of actor Val Kilmer with one of his most mysterious works, 1996’s “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” You’ll go in wanting to see Marlon Brando and David Thewlis, but you’ll exit talking about Goat Man and Dog Butler and why the last half hour of the film makes no sense at all. It’s a legendary disaster of a movie, and maybe that’s what Kilmas is all about!

Pick up a baseball bat and climb into the Woodie car that’s bigger on the inside, because it’s time to discuss HBO’s “Lovecraft Country.” This is a breathtakingly ambitious multi-genre anthology series with recurring characters. It’s about race and sex and society and love and hideous supernatural monsters. It’s set in the Jim Crow era, but also the past and the future and other planes of existence. And if you like the genres that we cover on The Incomparable, it’s worth your time.

Happy Life Day! To celebrate this important occasion, The Incomparable hereby presents a commentary track, to be viewed alongside The Star Wars Holiday Special. You’ll need to find the Holiday Special via the usual rebel channels. We watched the version with ads in it, so if you find a different version, pause the show during the ads.

It’s silly draft time! In this episode we’re drafting TV series that only lasted a single season. No, miniseries and unaired pilots and shows that got a second season don’t count! Also, everyone gets “Firefly.”

Game over, man, game over! We return to the world of xenomorphs and Weyland-Yutani Corp. as we discuss 1986’s “Aliens,” James Cameron’s fascinating follow-up to the Ridley Scott original. We discuss space marines, alien-friendly elevators, white milky blood, and subsequent Alien movies that are very much uncanonical.

It’s one of the best things on television right now. It’s “What We Do in the Shadows,” a show that honors vampire lore while placing them in ridiculous mundane situations. A mockumentary sitcom featuring vampires might seem like an entry from TV Mad Libs, but this show (based on an indie feature film also by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi) uses its stellar cast and sharp writing to create a bizarre world of energy vampires, complaining familiars, new-age witches, and—the horror—local politics.

Football is life! But even if you don’t care about sports, you should still watch “Ted Lasso” on Apple TV+. It’s a very funny show that’s also full of empathy and respect for its characters, which never goes for the cheap joke, and takes the tropes of every sports movie you’ve seen and uses them in ways you’re not expecting. And we’ve left plenty of space before the Spoiler Horn for our cross-Atlantic panel to explain why you should watch it and why we love this fusion of American and English sensibilities. We believe in Ted Lasso, and you will too.

Duck into the prone position and aim your bow, because it’s time for us to talk about “The Last of Us Part II”, the sequel to a beloved apocalyptic video game. We follow the characters on their pursuit of cross-country revenge, filled with flashbacks and the infected. But on this journey, as we trade our adrenaline for tears, we learn that we were the last of us all along.

It’s time to play the music It’s time to light the lights It’s time to draft the Muppets On the Incomparable tonight

Once more unto the breach, dear friends! This episode kicks off a new recurring feature, Shakespeare Club. Our first subject is “Henry V.” We watch Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 film and discuss Shakespeare’s Expanded Henry Universe, tennis balls, d’elbow, and what a jerk young Harry actually is.

Our Old Movie Club takes on two Billy Wilder comedies from 1939 and 1959, to see if they still hold up 81 and 61 years later. Erika Ensign’s selection is “Midnight,” starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche, and Philip Michaels counters with “Some Like It Hot,” starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe. Both films are about people pretending to be something they aren’t. And then the fun begins… hopefully!

Launch the Photon Torpedoes! In this episode we’re drafting mostly obscure characters from all of Star Trek lore, and creating our own TV series pitches with the results. If you think our drafts have gone off the rails before, you haven’t seen anything yet!

Grab a shotgun, climb on a stolen motorcycle, and get out your 90s slang phrasebook, because it’s time to watch one of the definitive summer blockbusters, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” We marvel at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s perfectly robotic demeanor, Robert Patrick’s steely stare and creepy walk, and Linda Hamilton’s—well, pretty much everything. Hasta la vista, baby.

Hop a flight piloted by a Dodo and leave behind the world you know! Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the perfect escape. Journey to a deserted island to do digital equivalents of chores you’re avoiding doing in the real world! One of the most subjective experiences in all of gaming turned out to be just what millions of us needed this summer. Guest host Moisés Chiullan and his six panelists are proof that “the friends you make along the way” really is the whole point after all. Well, that and draft-format podcasts.

Grab a wad of counterfeit cash and get ready to swim up a waterfall! Our Miyazaki Club goes back to the beginning, to the great animation director’s first feature, “The Castle of Cagliostro.” It’s a franchise work-for-hire being executed by a budding genius, which is a fascinating combination. The film mixes cartoony action and heist-movie tropes with clouds and landscapes and flying machines that come straight from Miyazaki’s brain.

Ten years ago today, The Incomparable began. To celebrate a decade of whatever this is, Jason gathered a dozen of the podcast’s top panelists for a round of toasts.

Inflate your pool floaties, prepare a wedding speech, and whatever you do, don’t go in the glowing red cave, because we’re discussing the delightful film “Palm Springs,” starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, and J.K. Simmons, and currently available (to Americans, anyway) on Hulu. It’s the kind of movie we’ve seen before, but with so many interesting twists on the concept that it always feels fresh. In addition to pointing out what makes the movie work, we’ve got a bunch of nerdy questions about its premise, the multiverse, where you can find C4 and a policeman’s uniform on short notice, and the ultimate disposition of one very strange goat.

Want to pick up a comic book or graphic novel and don’t know where to start? Our panel has a bunch of very different ideas for you to choose from! We’ve made a list of nearly two dozen for you to try—all available in collections, all ready to pick up without knowing anything about history or backstory or continuity or anything.

It’s our annual read of the annual science fiction and fantasy shortlist, the Hugo Awards nominees! Our panelists catch up on the three books that weren’t covered in our Nebula Awards episode, and then Jason and Erika spend a little time on the short fiction nominees. And the raging debate on whether a planet is space or not continues!

Alex Garland has followed up his film “Ex Machina” with another philosophical drama about technology, the miniseries “Devs.” It’s unique, beautiful, thought provoking, and doesn’t remotely stick the landing. We spend a lengthy pre-Spoiler Horn slot discussing why you might want to watch it (and why you might not), and then we break down the strengths and weaknesses of the show overall and the final episode in particular.