The Underground — Issue #57
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: The best dramatic series of the Summer gives us its gag reel, how to defrost your windows with science, the beautiful trailer for a film starring Tom Hiddleston, a director roundtable from the most nominated films of 2015, and the best of CES 2016.
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. Mr. Robot gets silly and gives us a gag reel. Mr. Robot is probably the best show of 2015. We added it to our Best of 2015 list because the show basically took over the people watching each week, and then it took over people being told about it after its first season ended. I can’t tell you how many times I saw people tweeting something along the lines of “Binge-watching Mr. Robot. It’s SOOO good!” But what you get with a serious tone and great acting is a lack of humor.
Just released on YouTube is the gag reel from the first season of Mr. Robot. It shows scenes that are fairly serious and important before the actors begin cracking up and completely ruining the shot. Fair warning: there are spoilers in this, so if you haven’t watched the first season of the show, you should probably go ahead and do that ASAP, and then come back here to watch this glorious gag reel. Christian Slater is especially funny in it.
2. Defrost your windows like a champ instead of sitting in your car waiting like a chump. Living in Michigan, I have to deal with at least 6 months of garbage weather. There is nothing as defeating as getting ready in the morning, walking outside, and then noticing you forgot to warm the car up before you leave. Living through the winter in a state that has all four season means you have to prepare before you leave. Sometimes you have to wake up early to start the car 20 minutes before you leave. It sucks.
This video below gives you the fastest steps to defrosting your car so you don’t have to sit around and wait really long before you leave. One tip that I want to give is to never get a bucket full of hot water and pour it on your windshield before you leave. I mean, hot water will instantly melt all the ice, right? Yeah! But then it will freeze over within a minute and you have to scrape your car off like a dummy.
Check out the 4 easy steps to defrost your car windows below.
3. The official trailer for High-Rise has arrived and it’s stunning and faithful to the book. The book High-Rise has been in development hell for years before finally being made into a film. The book was written by J.G. Ballard, and he is known for such brilliant works such as Empire of the Sun, The Drowned World, and Crash. It’s a pity that he passed away in 2009 so as to not see one of his best books put on the big screen with one of our generations best actors (Tom Hiddleston).
Premise: The unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-story tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on ‘enemy’ floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for technological mayhem… In this classic visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as the inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, recreate a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
From the looks of the trailer, it looks like the whole movie is going to be a work of art. Check out the trailer for the film below, and then try your best to get that music out of your head.
4. The top directors from 2015’s most acclaimed films sit down and chat. It’s pretty tough to top this roundtable of directors this year on The Hollywood Reporter’s yearly Director roundtable. It includes directors include Quentin Tarantino (SU’s The Hateful Eight review), Tom Hooper (The Danish Girl), Alejandro G. Inarritu (The Revenant), Ridley Scott (The Martian), Danny Boyle (Steve Jobs) and David O. Russell (Joy).
Many of the films these directors have directed have made it on our Best of 2015 list, so hearing them talk about their process, where film is going, what great films they enjoy, and so on is pretty fun to watch. If you want to watch the best in the business talk about their process of directing movies, give this video a watch. Also look up some of their other films. Danny Boyle directed a personal favorite called Sunshine. Critically underrated film.
5. This past week in tech: CES 2016 edition. Now, Social Underground has already covered one of the best things to come out of CES this year: The Ehang 184 drone that will fly you anywhere, but there is so much more that has been covering the tech news feeds this past week. CES is basically the World’s Fair of new technological innovations that all the companies are trying to use to show off what they are coming up with. Some of it looks great, others look merely smaller versions of things we already have, and then of course there are TV’s as thin as a credit card. They can’t all be interesting.
Futurism has collected some of the best into this infographic to really show of the best of the best shown at the CES 2016 this year. Check it out below, and then put these items on your wishlist for the future.
Follow Jeff Sorensen on TWITTER
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