The Underground — Issue #75
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: Mr. Robot arrives with a new trailer, a documentary about one of the best animation studios on the planet, a new TV show starring Kiefer Sutherland, the Pacific ocean if it were drained of water, and why cats act so weird.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention that’s our job: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about. That’s The Underground.
1. The Mr. Robot season two trailer promises more amazing story. The first season of Mr. Robot was one of the best first season to any show that I can remember. Each episodes became an event as the secrets behind the characters were revealed and left every viewer watching completely awestruck. The first season even managed to win a Peabody award because it was thought to be an incredible achievement for television.
The way the show managed to reach conspiracy level interest was because the writer’s tapped into what was going on in the world so well that it seems like what happened in the show predicted real news stories. You could literally turn on the news and see something similar happening that just happened on the show. It was pretty trippy.
Season two premieres on USA on July 13th. Watch the trailer below.
2. A documentary about the history of legendary animation studio: Studio Ghibli. If you know the reigning king of animation in America, you’d probably think about Pixar. Studio Ghibli has been around longer and has put out films that aren’t considered just some of the best animated films ever, but some that are considered the best movies ever.
RELATED: THE ESSENTIAL JAPANESE ANIME FILMS YOU NEED TO SEE
It was in the 90s that a film called Princess Mononoke was playing at an arts theater about an hour from my house. I was really into Japanese anime at the time, but it was early in my fandom that I haven’t expanded beyond the stuff that was played in America. When I saw this movie, I was blown away. It was like an epic adventure that looked beautiful on screen and had some of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard. The director was Hayao Miyazaki, and he started studio that has gone on to dominate the awards and box office when a new film is released.
Check out the history of Studio Ghibli below. All of their films are so inventive with fantastic stories behind them.
3. Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland with be a hit. It’s been a rough time for Sutherland to get a good TV series after 24 ended. Sure, the stuff he did was good, but it just didn’t get the ratings that 24 could pull in. However, this show look legit good.
Premise: Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor Kiefer Sutherland (“24”) returns to primetime in a conspiracy thriller as Tom Kirkman, a lower-level cabinet member who unexpectedly becomes president after a devastating attack on Washington. He will struggle to prevent the country and his own family from falling into chaos, as he is thrust into one of the most difficult presidencies in history.
It’s been a while since there has been anything White House related since The West Wing ended, so this may be a drama that I can actually watch live instead of DVRing it to watch on a Sunday afternoon.
4. This map of the ocean floors will blow your mind. When the ocean isn’t scaring the hell out of me because there are miles of dark deep water full of monsters, it does offer up a lot of Earth that you’re not used to seeing. If all the water was drained out of the ocean right now, you’d see huge mountain ranges and gigantic canyons littering the ocean floor.
When you remove that water, you also can see the separations caused by the tectonic plates crash into each other, cause earthquakes, and leave canyons and mountain ranges behind. Seeing all the fault lines in such detail really gives you an idea about how much the planet moves.
5. Why do cats act so weird? There has been only rare occasions where a cat wasn’t a complete dick to me where ever I went. I know the internet loves cats, the pictures are cute, they are caught doing silly things, but I would never want one as a pet. With a dog, you walk through the front door and they are excited to see you and hang out with you.
When you walk into a place where there’s a cat, you might as well walking into a house where someone just got in an argument: everything’s quiet, you hear no movement, and everything feels off. If you have a big house, that cat might as well not even exist. If you spent thousands on food, meds, toys, and all that for your cat, you just wasted money. Cats will wit under the be for 10 hours a day and ignore you. If they do come around, the person that owns that cat basically gives a list of rules for the cat.
“Oh, don’t per her too hard. When her tail makes that shape, it means you should stop petting her or she’ll bite.”
“I see, then if she bites me, I’m throwing your cat off a freeway overpass.”
Ok, that’s harsh, but why cats always act weird is pretty much explained in this video. The trick to owning a cat is too pretty much give less of a sh*t than the cat. That’s when the cat might want to hang out.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com