The Incomparable

806 Demon in a Photocopier

Our Book Club reconvenes to discuss Emily Tesh’s “The Incandescent,” which offers a teacher’s perspective on a magical school (that’s mostly not magical, but infested by demons), an interesting story structure, and some very well-drawn characters. Plus: What else are we reading?

805 Universal Basic Rooster Income

Find a cat bed and some apricots, and prepare to upgrade your chicken! While Jason’s away, we play Embark’s hit game “Arc Raiders”, a multiplayer extraction shooter where people can… be nice to each other? (Most of the time, anyway.) We talk survival tips, resource management, and—to nobody’s surprise—John’s got some opinions on the user interface.

Host Brian Warren with panelists Ben McCarthy, John Siracusa, and Chip Sudderth.

804 I Pay This Movie Rent

Want to see a dead body? Bring your comb, stock up on cherry flavor Pez, and stay really quiet if you see a deer. We return to the 1980s and honor Rob Reiner by discussing 1986’s “Stand By Me,” a movie Jason has somehow never seen. It’s not a movie with Things That Happen, but that’s just fine with us.

803 Doing the Good Loon’s Work

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with The Incomparable. It’s time to discuss that Canadian hockey show everyone’s been talking about. “Heated Rivalry” just wants to know, “Will you come to the cottage this summer?”

802 Farm-to-Table Body Parts

Guillermo del Toro’s waited his whole life to make a “Frankenstein” movie, and now he’s done it. We carefully select the (Oscar-nominated!) film’s best bits, chop them up, and then sew them back together in the grossest way possible. (We know Del Toro would approve.) You don’t need to have a degree in Frankensteinology to take a seat at the lympahtic charcuterie board, but it helps!

801 Chekhov’s Chunga Palm

Hello, Carol. This is a recording. At the tone, you can leave a message to request anything you might need. We’ll do our best to provide it. Our feelings for you haven’t changed, Carol. But after everything that’s happened, we just need a little space.

800 Draft Science

After 800 episodes, we are in serious danger of repeating ourselves, but that never stopped us before. Some of our most prolific panelists fulfill the prophesy and draft Incomparable drafts. Jason begs them to give him new ideas, because after 800, he’s almost run out. And we use our powers for good and evil to mark classic episodes for deletion.

799 Earth 2120 (feat. Xenomorph)

Noah Hawley’s TV take on the Alien franchise, “Alien: Earth,” is crashing into a building near us, bringing gross aliens old and new, suspicious synths, terrified (and bloody) humans, and a new class of hybrid life forms with the minds of children and superhuman bodies. Does the show give us enough Xenomorphs? Is the eye alien a breakout fan favorite? Was replaying “Alien” on a different ship a good idea? Why is Trillionaire Island so understaffed? We break it all down.

798 Trust Dan, Not Fish

Our most frequent panelists of the year join Jason to talk about their favorite stuff from the year gone by, and we also pause to recall some favorite Incomparable moments. Synergy!

797 Iceman Was Right

Kilmas comes but once a year! This year we’re climbing into the cockpit and revisiting 1986’s “Top Gun,” starring some airplanes, Val Kilmer, and Tom Cruise. It’s a very subtle movie. Were Tony’s parents right in protecting his young mind from it? And most importantly, why do we remember Val Kilmer’s character being the villain when he’s actually the conscience of the entire film?