The Incomparable Mothership

The Summer of Submarines resurfaces with James Garner going on a secret mission to an enemy island in 1959’s “Up Periscope.” The Skipper is not a skipper, but he’s got some interesting romantic ideas. Some scenes are impressively bad from multiple angles. And we realize that we’re starting to get good at this submarine-movie business, maybe? <p>Jason Snell with Philip Michaels, Shelly Brisbin, David J. Loehr and Erika Ensign.</p>

We return to 1995 not to hack into the Net but to wander, Netless, around Vienna with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Palm readers! Street poets! Plays featuring cows! It’s “Before Sunrise,” a movie in which nothing happens… except maybe the most extraordinary thing in two people’s lives. <p>Jason Snell with Brian Hamilton, Erika Ensign, Annette Wierstra and Steven Schapansky.</p>

Our Awards Book Club closes up shop for 2025 with a final set of rankings, the presentation of an award we made up, and an overview of all the Hugo-nominated short fiction. <p>Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty, Aleen Simms and Heather Berberet.</p>

We celebrate the tenth anniversary of our Summer Superhero Spectacular tournament with something slightly different: A draft of our favorite superhero movies. <p>Jason Snell with Andy Ihnatko, Chip Sudderth, James Thomson, Annette Wierstra, Tony Sindelar, Moisés Chiullán and David J. Loehr.</p>

2025 Awards Book Club nears the end with award nominees “Asunder,” “The Ministry of Time,” and “The Tainted Cup.” Plus: What else are we reading? <p>Jason Snell with Scott McNulty, Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms and Heather Berberet.</p>

We went to the theater to see James Gunn’s “Superman” (2025) and are back to report about the pleasant experience. Gunn sets a new direction for DC superheroes, and fans of Zack Snyder may want to look elsewhere. From Krypto the Superdog to a surprising squirrel save, from The Marvelous Miss Lane to that Elemento guy, we’ll break the whole thing down. <p>Jason Snell with Tony Sindelar, Dan Moren, Shannon Sudderth, Chip Sudderth and Brian Warren.</p>

We remain submerged for a very long time to watch a very long film, 1981’s “Das Boot.” This certifiable classic is certainly long and German, encompassing almost everything you might expect in the genre. There’s action, suspense, a lot of character moments, and long periods of tedium spent listening for bad sounds, punctuated by moments of terror as the boat goes to eleven (and beyond). <p>Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Brian Warren, Casey Liss, Dan Moren and Philip Michaels.</p>

The Summer of Submarines joins forces with Old Movie Club to take on 1958’s “Run Silent, Run Deep,” starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. It’s a tense thriller that has inspired sub and sci-fi movies for many decades. Erika’s gleeful reaction to the film’s abrupt ending may surprise you! <p>Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Philip Michaels, Shelly Brisbin, Dan Moren and Casey Liss.</p>

The summer of submarines kicks off with 1995’s “Crimson Tide,” a taut character drama that pits a captain (Gene Hackman) against his XO (Denzel Washington) in a conflict that escalates as global tensions rise outside their nuclear submarine. <p>Jason Snell with Philip Michaels, Lisa Schmeiser, Dan Moren, Casey Liss and Erika Ensign.</p>

With the guiding hand of Prof. Siracusa choosing the curriculum, we watch select animated shorts from the Netflix series “Love, Death + Robots.” John’s quest to find the perfect photorealistic CGI animation continues. Tony does his companions a solid if he’s ever killed on a moon. The others debate if they represent love, death, or robots. We try to reconnect with our inner pool-polishing robots. It’s a real team effort. <p>Jason Snell with John Siracusa, Annette Wierstra, Brian Hamilton and Tony Sindelar.</p>

The second (and final?) season of the BBC/Disney+ collaboration era of “Doctor Who” is at an end, and so our crew of fans is here to pick up the pieces and ponder what went right and (unfortunately) what went wrong. Where does this franchise go from here? <p>Jason Snell with Steven Schapansky, Erika Ensign, Chip Sudderth, Annette Wierstra and Heather Berberet.</p>

We conclude (for now?) our coverage of the TV adaptation of The Wheel of Time, which was just canceled by Amazon. Three seasons in, we cover whether we think it is still worth watching despite cancellation (we do) and how well the show’s third (and final?) season fulfills the promise of it coming into its power. <p>Moisés Chiullán with Sarah Hendrica Bickerton, Heather Berberet, Bryan Guffey and Kathy Campbell.</p>

Our Awards Book Club continues its run through the roses with a tougher than expected review of Vajra Chandrasekera’s “Rakesfall,” Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Alien Clay,” and Kelly Link’s “The Book of Love.” <p>Jason Snell with Scott McNulty, Aleen Simms and Erika Ensign.</p>

Guillermo del Toro’s career started small, with the small-scale vampire (sort of) horror (sort of?) movie “Cronos,” in which an old man finds a mechanical object containing a magical bug that gives him eternal life in the bad way. Meanwhile, young Ron Perlman hates his evil uncle but continues to do his bidding! It’s a fun 1992 throwback that is still recognizeably del Toro. <p>Jason Snell with Steve Lutz, Moisés Chiullán and Tony Sindelar.</p>

From the skyscrapers of Coruscant to the pyramids of Yavin and with numerous stops in between, season two of “Andor” covers the rise of the rebellion and leads to the doorstep of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” What makes it special among Star Wars series? Did season two improve on the groundbreaking first season? It’s Star Wars, so we break it down in detail. <p>Jason Snell with John Siracusa, Dan Moren, Tony Sindelar and Steven Schapansky.</p>

We return once more to 1995, this time for a movie set at the turn of the century! It’s “Strange Days,” a cyberpunk movie with only a little bit of cyber but a lot of punk, along with grease and stink. <p>Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Tony Sindelar and Monty Ashley.</p>

The highest-grossing film of all time is straight-up sci-fi and yet in 15 years at this place we’ve never talked about it. That ends now, as we put on our oxygen masks and venture out into the moon of Pandora to meet the local Na’vi and the interloper Sky People and discuss why James Cameron’s “Avatar” became an enormous hit and then disappeared entirely (other than the theme-park attactions) until re-emerging with a sequel that was also an enormous hit. <p>Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Brian Warren, Brian Hamilton and Chip Sudderth.</p>

Our walk through the 10 different novels nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards in 2025 begins! In this episode we discuss “Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory” by Yaroslav Barsukov, “A Sorceress Comes to Call” by T. Kingfisher, and “Someone You Can Build a Nest In” by John Wiswell. <p>Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, Scott McNulty and Heather Berberet.</p>

The year is 1995. The films: “Hackers” and “The Net,” in which computers are proven to be dangerous for society. One is a ridiculous movie about teen hackers that knows it’s silly, and the other is a ludicrous thriller about adult hackers that doesn’t. <p>Jason Snell with Monty Ashley, Shelly Brisbin, Erika Ensign, Joe Rosensteel, Moisés Chiullán and Tony Sindelar.</p>

Huff some ether, dress for an ORTBO, and always keep an eye out for a private place beneath a tarp—we’re here to discuss the second season of “Severance,” a story that goes beyond the first season with some twists and turns that might be Kafkaesque, but are definitely Kafka-ish. <p>Jason Snell with Brian Hamilton, Brian Warren, Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman and Heather Berberet.</p>

Spray on some insect repellant and don your hazmat suit, because Del Toro Club has re-formed to discuss a gigantic layer cake of infinite bugs, 1997’s “Mimic.” Parts of it are very Del Toro indeed, while other parts leave us scratching our heads about why something that had a whole lot of potential ended up playing as a pretty good B (not bee!) Movie instead. Are the Weinsteins to blame? (Yes.) <p>Jason Snell with Moisés Chiullán, Steve Lutz and Tony Sindelar.</p>

In a world full of creative projects turned into intellectual property, our panelists join together to choose remakes and reboots that please us, those that displease us, and those items that are out there, waiting to be remade. <p>Jason Snell with Brian Hamilton, David J. Loehr, Erika Ensign, Lisa Schmeiser, Moisés Chiullán, Monty Ashley, Philip Michaels, Shannon Sudderth and Chip Sudderth.</p>

Our Ghibli Club gets together to discuss 2016’s “The Red Turtle,” an unusual Ghibli coproduction, as well as this year’s Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature, “Flow.” <p>Jason Snell with Steve Lutz, John Siracusa and Aleen Simms.</p>

In honor of the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” six of us create custom-built episodes of SNL by participating in a fantasy draft of sketches, hosts, musical guests, commercial parodies, digital shorts, and more. <p>Jason Snell with Kelly Guimont, David J. Loehr, Lisa Schmeiser and Shelly Brisbin.</p>

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! <p>Jason Snell with Aleen Simms, Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty, Joe Rosensteel and Heather Berberet.</p>

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? <p>Jason Snell with Steve Lutz, Erika Ensign, Dan Moren and John Siracusa.</p>

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!) <p>Jason Snell with Heather Berberet, Glenn Fleishman, John Siracusa and Aleen Simms.</p>

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? <p>Lex Friedman with Monty Ashley, David J. Loehr and Kelly Guimont.</p>

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. <p>Jason Snell with Brian Warren, Brian Hamilton, Annette Wierstra and Katie Mack.</p>

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. <p>Jason Snell with Joe Rosensteel, Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, Scott McNulty and Katie Mack.</p>

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! <p>Jason Snell with Moisés Chiullán, Steve Lutz, Tony Sindelar and Monty Ashley.</p>

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. <p>Jason Snell with David J. Loehr, Moisés Chiullán, Scott McNulty and Joe Rosensteel.</p>

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? <p>Jason Snell with Scott McNulty, Heather Berberet and Aleen Simms.</p>

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. <p>Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Annette Wierstra, Brian Warren, Kelly Guimont, Moisés Chiullán, David J. Loehr, John Siracusa, Dan Moren and Chip Sudderth.</p>

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! <p>Jason Snell with Monty Ashley, Brian Warren, Erika Ensign, Annette Wierstra and Tony Sindelar.</p>

This year’s Ape Club holiday party is 1972’s “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes,” in which the people of Future 1991 use apes as slaves until there’s an uprising led by a talking ape with a familiar name: Caesar. Were the 1970s ape sequels all as bad as we were led to believe, or is “Conquest”… actually kind of good? Join us and find out! <p>Jason Snell with John Moltz, Annette Wierstra, Brian Warren and David J. Loehr.</p>

Merry X-Mas, and goodwill to X-Men! Surprisingly holding down the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe for 2024 is “Deadpool & Wolverine,” in which Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman desecrate “Logan” while honoring it, skewer Marvel movies while saving them, and encounter an extremely unlikely collection of Marvel movie cast-offs and has-beens. <p>Jason Snell with Cicero Holmes, Kelly Guimont, Lisa Schmeiser and Moisés Chiullán.</p>

Miyazaki Club morphs into Ghibli Club as we discuss 1991’s “Only Yesterday,” written and directed by Isao Takahata. It’s a story of one (childless workaholic?) woman’s search for herself in the past and the present, plus, of course, a deep dive into organic farming. <p>Jason Snell with John Siracusa, Steve Lutz, Aleen Simms, Moisés Chiullán and Lisa Schmeiser.</p>

In honor of Thanksgiving, we review the 1987 classic “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” featuring Steve Martin and John Candy as trapped-together travelers just trying to get home, if there’s even a home to get back to. Jason comes to the realization that this is the Odyssey in the Midwest. Ben Stein has a special sign just to troll pained travelers. And that’s what Thanksgiving is all about, Charlie Brown. <p>Jason Snell with Shelly Brisbin, Brian Hamilton, Brian Warren and Andy Ihnatko.</p>

Several panelists consider Pixar’s “Inside Out” one of their favorite films. Now it’s time to process “Inside Out 2.” Some struggle with the sequel more than others. But at least Bing Bong makes a tiny cameo. <p>Lex Friedman with Brian Hamilton, David J. Loehr and Kelly Guimont.</p>

Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Keith David, and a lack of bozos… It can only be 2000’s “Pitch Black,” one of the finer entries in the always-popular “Alien” homage movie genre. We enthuse about elevated filmmaking, great decisions, and low-budget effects. <p>Antony Johnston with Erika Ensign, Tony Sindelar and Todd Vaziri.</p>

Just in time for Halloween week, Old Spooky Club returns for 1985’s “Fright Night.” It’s an entirely ’80s comedy-horror movie with zero cynicism and only a single layer of meta. Chris Sarandon is the perfect vampire, even when he’s villanously chowin’ down on a topless lady as he exchanges intense stares with the neighbor kid. If you’ve never experienced it, you don’t know what you’re missing. <p>Jason Snell with Steve Lutz, Annette Wierstra, Erika Ensign and Kelly Guimont.</p>

Do you like gladiator movies, Joey? It’s 1980’s “Airplane!”—the comedy version of “Zero Hour!”—with serious actors playing ridiculous parts more or less straight. How does the comedy hold up? What’s unique about the approach? Why was it such a huge hit? We put the ZAZ boys under the microscope. Surely we’ll all have a good time! (Don’t call us Shirley.) <p>Jason Snell with Shelly Brisbin, Philip Michaels, Dr. Drang and Steve Lutz.</p>

Don’t order the fish! Old Movie Club celebrates Aviatober with 1939’s “Only Angels Have Wings” and 1957’s “Zero Hour!” One bears a striking resemblance to forgettable 1980s TV series “Tales of the Gold Monkey,” and the other is undeniably the inspiration for the more notable 1980 movie “Airplane!” (That’s foreshadowing.) <p>Jason Snell with Shelly Brisbin, Philip Michaels, Monty Ashley, David J. Loehr and Micheline Maynard.</p>

It was the late ’80s and comic writer Grant Morrison was fast becoming Grant Morrison. Come back with us to look at his run on Animal Man, issues 1-26, in which a has-been/never-was superhero becomes an outspoken animal rights activist, witnesses the near-undoing of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and meets his own maker—who looks strangely like Grant Morrison. Before Deadpool and She-Hulk broke the fourth wall, this was Peak Meta. <p>Chip Sudderth with Lisa Schmeiser and Tony Sindelar.</p>

Dan Moren’s “The Armageddon Protocol” is now on sale. He joins Jason to discuss how to wrap up a long-running series (while leaving doors open for future adventures), juggling an increasingly complex home life with a two-book contract, the broader publishing options available to fiction writers, and (of course) sandwiches. <p>Jason Snell with Dan Moren.</p>

Miyazaki Club returns to discuss 2010’s “The Secret World of Arrietty,” a Studio Ghibli production with a screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki based on a series of children’s books. Why are we so unnerved by the linear storyline and lack of weirdness? Why does Jason have Bay Leaf head canon? And why is surface tension the true star of the show? <p>Jason Snell with Steve Lutz, Moisés Chiullán, John Siracusa and Aleen Simms.</p>

“Warner Brothers called and they’re demanding that we do The Matrix IV, with or without you?” So motivated, Lilly Wachowski made a movie that revisits “The Matrix” that’s about revisiting “The Matrix.” Could it be that this 19-years-later sequel… is better than the other sequels? <p>Jason Snell with Chip Sudderth, Erika Ensign and Kelly Guimont.</p>

The Matrix Trilogy ends with “The Matrix Revolutions.” There’s a big fight in Zion, a lot of stuff in the Matrix we didn’t actually remember, everyone becomes Agent Smith, Chip is devoured by thousands of mosquitos, and Kelly resists the bleakness. <p>Jason Snell with Chip Sudderth, Erika Ensign, Kelly Guimont and Joe Rosensteel.</p>

Whoa. Years later, we’re back in the Matrix as we cover the sequels to the mind-blowing 1999 original. First up is “The Matrix Reloaded,” which features thrills, spills, underground orgies, and long philosophical monologues. How well does it hold up? What surprised us? Were we excited, or terrified, to see Zion and all those mech suits? Take the appropriately colored pill and join us. <p>Jason Snell with Joe Rosensteel, Erika Ensign and Chip Sudderth.</p>