The Underground — Issue #125
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: A doc that explains how the dinosaurs disappeared, a wonderful comic book character returns to the small screen, the first photo from Ready Player One arrives with what all fans expect, and a new eye into the universe to make us all feel smaller.
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. This could be what happened when the dinosaurs went extinct. If you can think past Jurassic Park, well, that’s hard, but you can marvel at how awesome dinosaurs were. These gigantic things were wandering the planet up until they were wiped out by a huge rock. There have been numerous investigations, but I think this documentary does a pretty good job of explaining.
What makes me love this doc is its urgency to portray history. If I had a time machine, I would travel way back in time just to see everything, write down forgotten history, and hopefully be invisible because dinosaurs are scary.
2. The Tick returns with hilarious results. I’ve previewed the pilot episode a while ago, but this trailer for the first season looks great. The Tick got screwed over on Fox, but hopefully it will it with old and new fans this time. If you’re noticing the main character, good, because he has been killing it in stuff like Shaun of the Dead, Space, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more. Peter Serafinowicz is the man, wait, no, he is The Tick!
Premise: In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an accountant with no superpowers comes to realize his city is owned by a super villain. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero.
How can you not want to watch this show after that premise? Check out the trailer below. It looks like some silly fun we all need right now.
3. The first photo from Ready Player One has arrived.
I know I will get sh*t for this from some jerk on Twitter, but I love this book. When I heard Spielberg was making an adaptation of the book… I was thrilled. It’s not only a great book, but imagining someone trying to make this into a film is wowsers.
Spielberg has given is adaptations like Jurassic Park (yeah, I mentioned it earlier), and Minority Report. How good do they look now? They look like they were just made. Minority Report is one of the best Sci-Fi films ever made, and it also influenced some pretty cool tech we all use today. If you didn’t read the book, here’s a little info on this soon-to-be-classic:
Premise: When the creator of an MMO called the Oasis dies, he releases a video in which he challenges all Oasis users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune. Wade Watts finds the first clue and starts a race for the Egg.
The journey to find that Easter Egg is full of callbacks to 20+ years ago. I wish we had the trailer to show you, but all we get is this photo that gives us a crap-ton of brilliant set design. Look at it! Even though the main character should be a little fatter (spoiler, sorta), I’ll forgive that because everyone is vain. Doesn’t matter, I will be there the day this movie opens.
4. The James Webb telescope is going to be stunning. You know of all those spectacular photos given to us by the Hubble telescope? Yeah, they are beautiful, but finally we get a replacement that will be flowers to your eyeballs.
If you compare it to a land-based telescope, you might be unimpressed by it. But uh…
The Hubble Ultra Deep-Field is something you may not want to look at if you’re narcissistic. It shows how tiny we really are. This new telescope will 100% make us feel smaller. I think that’s a good thing. We need to realize that we’re all tiny specs of dust when you look at the big picture.
I’ll shut up and let this helpful explanation of the James Webb telescope blow your mind. I can’t wait for the discoveries.
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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