The Underground — Issue #140
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: A documentary about how the rich on Wall Street screwed over the poor, a murder mystery set in the world of immortal humans, recovery after a wildfire, and a fantastic documentary on the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
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 trailer for Dirty Money will infuriate you. I grew up poor. Let me tell you about growing up poor: it sucked big time. I’m 32, so when I grew up, we crossed the point where internet was everywhere, and when it was barely there. Before there was a food stamp card, we had to use actually food stamps. They were colored like Monopoly money. Everyone in the checkout line knew you were poor when you paid with them instead of swiping a card. The worst was hearing the obviously rich people explain it to their kids like you didn’t exist.
Why tell all that? The people in this documentary screwed over people that I loved to get richer. It didn’t matter to them as long as they could put another car in their garage. Charging thousands of dollars for a life saving pill, hiking up prices on people who can barely get by? This is what happens everyday in the stock market. The richest 10% own 84% of the stocks, but we’re supposed to clap when the Dow hits 25,000. I don’t think so.
Check out Dirty Money. It comes out Jan. 26th on Netflix. Expect to hear me cheering that day, but also getting very depressed because we haven’t put a stop to it all.
2. Altered Carbon gets a second, full trailer that shows of its greatness. We finally get to see the full trailer of Netflix’s new Blade Runner-esque looking TV show. How does it look? It looks incredible. Netflix is really taking chances on shows that would’ve gotten turned down on a major broadcast network. This show looks like it costs a billion dollars.
Premise: Altered Carbon is set in a future where consciousness is digitized and stored in cortical stacks implanted in the spine, allowing humans to survive physical death by having their memories and consciousness “re-sleeved” into new bodies. The story follows specially trained “Envoy” soldier Takeshi Kovacs, who is downloaded from an off-world prison and into the body of a disgraced cop at the behest of Laurens Bancroft, a highly influential aristocrat. Bancroft was killed, and the last automatic backup of his stack was made hours before his death, leaving him with no memory of who killed him and why. While police ruled it a suicide, Bancroft is convinced he was murdered and wants Kovacs to find out the truth.
Even the premise of the show is insane to read. A murder mystery set in a world where we basically figured out how to be immortal. Check out the trailer below.
3. Recovering from a devastating wildwire. If you haven’t been paying attention lately, you might have missed the chaotic wildfires that have devastated California. We’re talking a level of fire that looks like a disaster film. Homes were destroyed, families were forced to evacuated, and people lost their lives. What’s never shows much on the news is the recovery effort that happens for weeks and months after. That happens in almost all disasters. You haven’t been hearing much about Puerto Rico after the hurricane, have you? The majority of it still doesn’t have power. Wow.
Below is an infographic about the recovery after a wildfire. It displays how the environment can come back even stronger after a fire destroys everything.
4. January 15th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. When it comes to great men of the 20th century, Martin Luther King Jr. cannot be forgotten. He fought for the rights of minorities in a time where it was publically accepted to beat the hell out of a colored man or woman. Well, it wasn’t “accepted” as much as it was totally allowed to happen by police officers.
Martin Luther King Jr. used non-violent protesting to get his message of acceptance and equal rights out. He gave his life for it. Many gave their lives to give people of color human rights in a country that was founded on freedom, yet displayed horrible acts against it.
Since the great man gets his own well-deserved holiday on the 15th, you should probably give this documentary about the man a watch. Give all the things about him a watch. There are movies Selma and HBO’s All The Way that feature him greatly. You won’t be sorry.
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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