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By Tony Markovich The rumor was right. Koenigsegg has just unveiled the Gemera, an all-new member to the family that sports four seats, two scissor doors, and a massively powerful hybrid powertrain that still allows for pure electric driving. In the...

This is a spoiler-free review for Season 1 of Netflix's I Am Not Okay With This, which debuts Wednesday, February 26.  [poilib element="accentDivider"] A seemingly perfect YA storm, the moody and mischievous I Am Not Okay With This -- about a teen girl who, in a sort of Marvel mutant awakening, discovers she has destructive telekinetic powers -- is a graphic novel adaptation that comes to us from the producers of Stranger Things and the director of The End of the F***ing World. It's pretty much the "coming-of-age drama with a hook" that Netflix has perfected - from those great aforementioned shows to others like Sex Education, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Big Mouth, American Vandal, and more. I Am Not Okay With This comes off as the least special of the lot, in a way, since it's the series that feels the most like a hodgepodge of the rest - and also features a notable number of '80s elements sprinkled in, which is almost an overused decade of influence at this point (like the over-homaged films of John Hughes). It's still good, and easily digestible (with only seven chapters clocking in at 20 to 30 minutes each), but it's also unsubtly stitched together from many other teen dramedies. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=i-am-not-okay-with-this-season-1-gallery&captions=true"] Getting this monster squad factoid out of the way, the series stars It Chapter One and Two's Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff, who didn't have many important interactions character-wise in those movies but do work extraordinarily well together here. So much so that you kind of wish Lillis' Beverly and Oleff's Stanley actually did have more scenes together in It: Chapter One. Oh, and Oleff's character is named Stanley in this story too. That's apropos of nothing, really, other than it just being interesting to note. Lillis plays a young woman at the center of her own superhero origin story - the disheveled, new-in-town Sydney. After her father's mysterious suicide, Syd becomes even more of a pariah while her grief and anger (and budding feelings for her best friend Dina, played by Sofia Bryant) start to trigger unexplained events. Finding a new friend-slash-boyfriend in her clever, weed-dealing neighbor Stanley (Oleff), Syd attempts to balance her family life, spiraling emotions, and possible supernatural abilities. As stated, Lillis and Oleff are very good here, creating two nicely layered, unique teens who find a way to use each others' company to escape their glum lives in a nowhere town. Stanley develops feelings for Syd while Syd silently pines for Dina and while that's usually enough hormonal drama to carry a young adult tale, I Am Not Okay With This has the added sheen of superpowers. Not in a distracting or square peg way though - the series always makes sure center everything on Syd and her struggles. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/24/altered-carbon-season-2-who-is-anthony-mackies-takeshi-kovacs-ign-premiere"] The story ticks off some of the usual tropes, including the actual referencing of comic books as being based on real science and/or folklore (so you can add Unbreakable to the list of influences), but I Am Not Okay With This never gets too big for its britches. It never takes unearned swings. Naturally, it saves its biggest shock for the season finale, but it's a moment that's been adequately built up to. Like Syd herself, the series is kind of unassuming and humble. Overall, it focuses more on the characters than its inclusion of mind powers (as you can tell from all the marketing that makes it look like a high school rom-dram) and in doing so the "super" elements are able to play as a bit more grounded. Because of this, the show is able to hammer home the themes of trauma, loss, inherited depression, and a spectrum of other potent emotional challenges. The cast, like the story, is small and effective. As is the runtime. I Am Not Okay With This may, at times, seem as sullen as Syd, but it comes to us with no fat to trim, which is very unusual for a streaming series.

Alibaba reportedly said its artificial intelligence can detect new Coronavirus infections with 96% accuracy.

Elisabeth Moss is screaming and running for her life. You’re watching The Handmaid’s Tale. Oh wait, no, it’s Us. Scratch that, I meant The Invisible Man.

It’s hard to keep track, because Hollywood just loves terrorizing Moss. The release of the scary-as-hell Invisible Man is just the latest in a string of disturbing situations that the Emmy winner has been put in. For three seasons and counting, she’s been mentally and physically abused on The Handmaid’s Tale. Then last year, she was killed by her evil doppelgänger in Us (not even N.W.A. could save her). And now with The Invisible Man, she’s being haunted by what she believes is her abusive ex, who, after seemingly committing suicide, is, you guessed it, invisible (and you thought your ex was tough to shake!).

And those are just the recent harrowing ordeals. Going back to her recurring run on The West Wing, Moss’ First Daughter Zoey Bartlett was kidnapped. They couldn’t just let her go to Lollapalooza and smoke some weed?! Of course not, because it’s Moss. The actress has also been on two different Law & Order series, playing two different characters who I assume were similarly terrorized victims. And I have not yet seen her well-received Sundance drama Shirley, but my colleague David Canfield’s review headline tells me all I need to know: “Elisabeth Moss goes gloriously demented in Shirley.”

She’s truly a master at losing her s— and letting out a terrifying cry. Just look at the way she’s dragged in this pic. You can’t teach that!

But I’m here to plead with Hollywood (and Ms. Moss) to let her have some fun! She got to show flashes before her aforementioned death in Us, but we need more. Someone get me the Elisabeth Moss rom-com she’s deserved since flashing great chemistry with Jonah Hill in 2010’s criminally underrated Get Him to the Greek! (No offense to Hill, but I’m dreaming of a Moss-Brian Tyree Henry pairing in our future.)

Speaking of Moss’ past projects, we have seven seasons of proof that Moss can do a lot more than just be scared (that’s what the Mad Men is for!). It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Peggy Olson (it was the ’60s after all), but Moss often shined most when she got to show off her character’s spunk and sense of humor. I have high hopes that we’ll be seeing more of that in her next few films, which include Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins.

In closing, I ask once again that we stop making this charming badass seem like the invisible woman:

The Invisible Man is in theaters now.

Related content:

Elisabeth Moss goes gloriously demented in Shirley: Sundance review Elisabeth Moss and Jon Hamm have epic Mad Men reunion at Independent Spirit Awards Winston Duke is a Hall of Fame movie dad in Us

The Game Developers Conference is canceled, sources tell IGN, with the show's organizers now confirming it as a postponement to a later planned date. Two developers familiar with GDC's plans told IGN of a planned cancellation ahead of the official GDC announcement, which reads: "After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March. Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we're genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time." The official statement goes on to indicate that the organizers "fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer," however it is unclear what the size or scope of that show is intended to be in comparison to the now cancelled one. "We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks," the statement continued. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=all-the-big-games-coming-in-2020&captions=true"] In lieu of the event, GDC is offering any speakers who planned on giving their presentations at the show an opportunity to make those presentations available online through the GDC YouTube channel and a free portion of the GDC Vault. GDC is also planning to set up streams in order to still hold the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards shows during the originally scheduled week of GDC. There is no news of refunds for attendees and anyone who may have had a physical booth presence at the show. Rami Ismail of the developer Vlambeer announced a fundraising initiative for devs who may have been financially hurt by the postponement through the digial conference gamedev.word which will host digital talks and pay-what-you-want game bundles to raise funds. Questions over the state of this year’s GDC began after major companies began announcing they’d be pulling out of the show over concerns about COVID-19. Big studios like PlayStation, Microsoft, Epic Games, Kojima Productions, Facebook, EA, and more have all announced that they would no longer be participating in this year’s event. This prompted attendees to wonder whether GDC would still be the convention they expected it to be, especially since one of the major benefits of attending is for developers to connect and learn from the major players. In Northern California, the state government announced that it was monitoring 8,400 people for COVID-19. Since GDC is hosted in San Francisco, California today’s news of canceling the show is a logical precaution. This is not the first game conference to be shut down by COVID-19 concerns as the Taipei Game Show in Taiwan was also canceled. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.

Virus enthusiasts from all over the world converged in San Francisco this week for America's largest security event: RSA Conference 2020. Before it began, fourteen companies withdrew from RSAC over concerns about the impending Coronavirus (COVID-19)...

It’s almost too perfect: After years of starring on The Big Bang Theory, the megahit CBS sitcom that showed viewers all over America what the inside of a comic book store looks like, Kaley Cuoco has gone on to portray one of the most popular comic book characters in the world: Harley Quinn.

“That is pretty cool, right? What would the guys think? Penny turned into exactly who they wanted her to be,” Cuoco tells EW with a laugh. “Big Bang was an unforgettable 12 years, I’ll owe my entire career to that show and getting me out there. It’s set in my heart.”  

Animation is obviously distinct from live-action comedy, since the actors are hidden behind animated characters. This is especially true of a character like Harley Quinn, who has previously been portrayed by Arleen Sorkin (on Batman: The Animated Series) and Margot Robbie (in Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey) with a ridiculously over-the-top cartoon voice. So when Cuoco took on the lead role for DC Universe’s Harley Quinn animated series, she wanted to make it her own. 

“There have been so many Harley Quinns, and obviously with Suicide Squad Margot was playing her so incredibly well and so specific, that I didn’t want her to sound like anybody else,” Cuoco says. “They initially wanted me to do a strong Boston accent, but I told Justin and Patrick , ‘my voice is a little recognizable, and I think it’s gonna be silly if we pretend it’s anything other than Kaley playing this role.’ So it really just became mostly me screaming. It’s a lot of me, and I’ve kinda turned it into my own thing. The show is unique, it’s not Suicide Squad, it’s so different and obviously so insane, that we’re able to make it exactly what we wanted.”

Harley Quinn does begin in a similar place as Birds of Prey, i.e. the title character’s breakup with the Joker (Alan Tudyk). But the comparisons don’t last long. Instead of the movie’s girl gang, this Harley surrounds herself with an even more eclectic squad: the irascible Dr. Psycho (Tony Hale), the shapeshifter and wannabe actor Clayface (Tudyk), the strong and gentle computer hacker King Shark (Ron Funches), and Harley’s best friend, the person always telling her to move past Joker and make a life for herself, Poison Ivy (Lake Bell). 

Harley Quinn also has a uniquely deranged sense of humor that makes it even more incredible that this show airs on DC’s proprietary streaming service. The literal opening moments involve a disguised Joker giving a toast on a yacht to rich people he and Harley are about to rob: “My fellow whites! Let’s raise a glass to this pyramid of money, built upon our favorite pasttime: F—–g the poor!”

“From the minute I opened the first script and it starts like that, I fell on the floor laughing,” Cuoco says. “You know exactly what the show is gonna be from the first moment, it’s so politically incorrect and crazy. But what I love about these writers have written some heart in it, including the possible maybe-relationship between Harley and Ivy…? Who saw that coming?” 

It’s been more than 25 years since Harley was first created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm for Batman: The Animated Series. In that time, she has become easily one of the most popular female superhero/supervillain characters of all. She’s not a traditional empowerment figure like Wonder Woman, but maybe that’s the point. 

“I think she actually represents more of the women out there than we think,” Cuoco says. ”Getting away from a bad relationship and having your friends around you to make you feel powerful and believe in yourself, that’s like feminism at its core. That’s what I love about her: She kicks ass, she loves her friends, she does bad things but for what she thinks are right reasons, she’s strong, she’s quirky, she’s fun (let’s not forget how fun she is), and absolutely adorable. She gets away with things that no one else does. She brings that charm that’s really hard to get away with, and then we allow her to go through these crazy things and make these crazy decisions, because we fall in love with her.” 

All 13 episodes of Harley Quinn season 1 are currently streaming on DC Universe, but there’s more where that came from. The show is already on tap for another 13-episode season, and Cuoco would be fine with even more: “We want to do the show for a long time. We all thought this would just be a fun little thing, but it’s kinda blown up. We’re really proud of that and we intend to keep this wild version of Harley going for a long time. I’m loving playing her, and as long as they keep letting us, we’re in.” 

Related content:

5 reasons you should watch DC Universe’s wild Harley Quinn animated series Exclusive Harley Quinn season finale trailer prepares her for a showdown with the Joker Harley Quinn creator Paul Dini reflects on 25 years of hijinks

A new patent has leaked online, showing PlayStation’s plans to create additional sensing apparatus for the company’s famous controller.

These sensors could be slipped over the grip sections of your controller – or placed on buttons – where they would measure your heart rate and sweat levels. Once the controller determines just how sweaty and nervous you are it will feed that info into your console, which then switches-up your experience accordingly.

Related: Microsoft reveals key Xbox Series X details

In the patent, the example of a horror game is given. You’d expect someone to be a bit nervous if they’re creeping round a zombie-infested wasteland – but you don’t want them to be too nervous, according to PlayStation, otherwise they might stop playing. The patent reads:

“It is advantageous to be able to detect when a user is becoming increasingly frightened and to modify in-game parameters (such as number of enemies, type of enemies, environmental lighting levels, or the sounds which are played to the user) so as to reduce the intensity of the gaming experience and put the user more at ease.”

Related: The best PS4 games you can buy right now

As some of us are a lot sweatier than others, there would need to be a set-up process to measure your normal sweat and heart levels – something which is outlined in the patent. The patent also mentions future plans to team the controller with a VR headset for an uber-immersive experience.

Another recurring key themes in the patent is the importance of low cost. One of the opening paragraphs reads: “there is a need to provide a low-cost peripheral that is able to provide increased functionality for a range of different applications.”

Hopefully, this means that the new feature won’t push up the price of the next DualShock. Fingers crossed.

The post The PS5 may automatically make games easier when you're stressed appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

The next installment in Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible series is in production in Italy. At least, it was until an outbreak of the coronavirus brought it to a screeching halt.

It was revealed by the New York Times that Italy has 150 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and in turn, at least 10 towns are now locked down, and schools in major cities are closed, along with sporting events--including an early end to the Venice carnival. Additionally, this means that the production of Mission Impossible 7 is put on hold for now.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson from Paromount Pictures explained why production has stopped. "Out of an abundance of caution for the safety and well-being of our cast and crew, and efforts of the local Venetian government to halt public gatherings in response to the threat of coronavirus, we are altering the production plan for our three-week shoot in Venice, the scheduled first leg of an extensive production for Mission: Impossible 7. During this hiatus, we want to be mindful of the concerns of the crew and are allowing them to return home until production starts. We will continue to monitor this situation, and work alongside health and government officials as it evolves."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Full spoilers follow for Star Trek: Picard Episode 5, “Stardust City Rag.” [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathan Frakes got his start as a director on Star Trek 30 years ago with the Next Generation episode “The Offspring” (which, funnily enough, was about a daughter of Data’s, just like Star Trek: Picard seems to be). In the years since, The Man Also Known as Riker became not just a clutch helmer on the various Trek shows of the Rick Berman era, but also a feature director who made the best TNG Star Trek movie (First Contact, man!) before segueing into a long career behind the camera on shows like The Librarians, Castle, Leverage, The Orville, and many more. But these days he’s also back in the Star Trek fold, having helmed three episodes of Discovery so far (he’ll be back for Season 3 too) and now Episodes 4 and 5 of Star Trek: Picard. (He’ll also be making his long-awaited return as Will Riker on Picard later this season.) I jumped on the phone recently with the ever-affable Frakes to discuss the transition to the world of Picard, what it was like working with his old friend Patrick Stewart again, how Riker almost didn’t make it into Season 1 of the new show, and much more. [caption id="attachment_2306480" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes on Star Trek: Picard[/caption]

Frakes and Stewart, Together Again

It seemed a no-brainer that Frakes would be reunited with his old captain when Patrick Stewart decided to return to the small screen for a new Star Trek show. Whether the character of Riker was to return or not, it seemed a fait accompli that Frakes would be behind the camera on Picard. On working with Stewart again, Frakes says he believes his old friend and colleague is better than ever in the role of Picard. “He's found new colors with which he paints that he hadn't had before,” he says. “He's energized, he's excited about how different it is from Next Gen. He's been away from it, and us, for almost 20 years, except for socially. And he's come at it with a wonderful vulnerable, accessible, complicated, mysterious, damaged, fascinating approach. And it's only aided by the fact that the writing on this show is spectacular with [Michael] Chabon and Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman and Kirsten [Beyer]. The writing is dense, it's complicated, and it has given him an opportunity, as I said, to show some really new colors.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=star-trek-picard-photos&captions=true"] Frakes does say that by the time he came aboard, Stewart had mostly figured out who Picard was some 20 years after we last saw him in Star Trek: Nemesis. “He was locked into it,” says Frakes. “See, he's a producer on the show, so he broke the story with these guys. He had a lot of input into, and approval of, where Picard is in life. So I was able to underline and enhance and encourage aspects of the specific stories that we were telling in [episodes] 4 and 5. But Patrick had a very big input in the development of the new Picard.”

Introducing the “Damaged” Seven of Nine

While Frakes directed three episodes of Star Trek: Voyager back in the day, they were all before Jeri Ryan joined the show as the former Borg Seven of Nine. Now Ryan is on Picard, however, giving the pair the chance to finally work together on a Star Trek series (they had formerly done the series Leverage together, and of course knew each other from the Star Trek convention circuit). In fact, Frakes got to reintroduce Seven in a terrific cliffhanger moment at the end of Episode 4 as she beams in just as her ship is about to explode, in classic Trek fashion. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/13/why-seven-of-nine-blames-picard] “I was thrilled to be the one to introduce that character,” laughs the director. “I don't think Jeri ever did better. Jeri's more comfortable with this, what we call Seven, as opposed to the Seven of Nine from Voyager. She's more mature. She's more evolved. Again, the writing, it's all in the writing.” Frakes and Ryan and showrunner Michael Chabon did have to work to figure out who exactly Seven is now and how she has changed and evolved since we last saw her in Voyager’s final episode back in 2001. “Boy, with Jeri, she was struggling with the new quote-unquote 'voice' of Seven, which was written in a much different way than the heavily Borg-ified Seven of Nine,” explains Frakes, who describes the character as “damaged and somewhat bitter and cynical” now. “So her concerns were addressed. I addressed them as much as I could, but I turned her over to Michael Chabon, and the two of them came to a very productive collaboration on how Seven now behaved and spoke and reacted. Because she in many ways, the way Patrick owns Picard, she owns Seven of Nine. And Chabon was wonderfully receptive to her input.” Of course, modern Star Trek is more inclined to depict "damaged, bitter, cynical" characters, but the helmer thinks that’s just the nature of the world we’re living in today. Things have changed since the days on The Next Generation where all the characters had to get along perfectly all the time. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=jean-luc-picard-the-first-duty-gallery-comic-con-2019&captions=true"] “That was the Roddenberry approach to there being no conflict, which made it very hard for the writers, when drama is built on conflict,” says Frakes. “And Gene's adage about the future, his beautiful vision of the future, was without conflict. Our episodes were meant to be morality plays, or cautionary tales. And the new Star Treks, Discovery and Picard, are filled with more complicated relationships where there is doubt and suspicion and resentment and qualities that Gene discouraged us from playing and discouraged the writers from writing.” Frakes thinks this is a necessary approach in the year 2020. “That's exactly what I think, and that's very much the intention of the show,” he continues. “And I think part of the early success of Picard is not only hung on Patrick and Michael and Akiva and Alex's talent, but also on the time of the painful situation we're in as a country.”

Picard Without Riker? It Almost Happened

We’ve known since last summer that Frakes would be appearing as Riker at some point this season on Picard, and many fans expected that to happen during one of the episodes that he directed. After all, he was there on the set every day anyway, right? But as it turns out, Riker almost didn’t even show up in Season 1 at all. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/22/patrick-stewart-why-did-picard-leave-starfleet] “My understanding is that when the series was broken - meaning the first 10 episodes were broken in terms of story - there was no Riker,” explains Frakes. “And that somewhere in the writing of the second half of the season, they found a way to include him. That's how it's been explained to me. Because when I was onboard, when I was doing 4 and 5, as a matter of fact ... I knew [Data actor] Brent [Spiner] was there, obviously, because that was quite clear, because he was in the pilot, and I obviously had Jeri in my episodes, and [Hugh actor] Jonathan Del Arco. But I thought that was the extent of the callbacks to that era. So I was as surprised as you.” But when it came time to actually get in front of the camera again as William T. Riker, well, Frakes admits that he was actually nervous about it because he hadn't acted in 10 years or more. “And I just spent two episodes watching the condition that Patrick has been in -- he is at the top, he's never really been better, in my opinion. He's in top form,” he laughs. “And Marina [Sirtis], who plays my TV wife, Counselor Troi, had just closed starring in a play on the West End, so I knew her acting muscles were full and strong. And I thought, ‘If I get f--king buried by my friends, I'm going to be so bitter.' So I spent every morning on the script, so that wouldn't be an issue. But don't let anybody say it's like getting back on a bike, because that's bulls--t!” Listen to Frakes. He knows whereof he speaks. And be sure to check out the Star Trek: Picard episodes he directed as well as his return as Riker later this season! [poilib element="accentDivider"] Talk to Executive Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura, or listen to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do both!

Uber is getting into the advertising business. The company has reached a partnership with the ad-tech company Adomni to bring roof-top ads to its fleet, Adweek reports. Drivers in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix will soon be able to put ad displays on th...

Not all epidemics are created equal. (DepositPhoto/)

Scientists, medical professionals, and governments around the world are working to understand how the new respiratory disease ravaging Hubei province spreads—and how bad it could be for the rest of the world. Part of this effort is epidemiology: the study of how infections move through populations and how to control them.

Epidemiology incorporates everything from geography to complex mathematics in its effort to understand the spread of disease. Here are some basic epidemiological concepts that can help you get past the panic, misinformation, and xenophobia that tend to drive conversations around a newly emerging illness.

Spread it out

One quantity scientists use to measure how a disease spreads through a population is the "basic reproduction number," otherwise known as R0 (pronounced "R naught," or, if you hate pirates, "arr not"). This number tells us how many people, on average, each infected person will in turn infect. While it doesn't tell us how deadly an epidemic is, R0 is a measure of how infectious a new disease is, and helps guide epidemic control strategies implemented by governments and health organizations.

If R0 is less than 1, the disease will typically die out: Each infected person has a low chance of passing the infection along to even one additional individual. An R0 larger than 1 means each sick person infects at least one other person on average, who then could infect others, until the disease spreads through the population. For instance, a typical seasonal flu strain has an R0 of around 1.2, which means for every five infected people, the disease will spread to six new people on average, who pass it along to others.

R0 values for well-known diseases. (Sara Chodosh/)

Measles is a champion disease in this respect. Its R0 is usually cited between 12 and 18, meaning each person with measles infects between 12 and 18 new people in an unvaccinated population. In the era before widespread vaccination, measles could easily sicken an entire school’s worth of children. Vaccinate your kids!

"Herd immunity" also depends on R0. The more people immune to a disease in a population, the fewer are available to be infected. If immunity reaches a critical level through vaccination or just naturally running out of new people to infect, the disease is starved out. Herd immunity is easier to achieve for lower R0 values because the disease doesn't spread as readily.

But it’s important to remember that R0 is a statistical estimate of how a disease spreads in a particular population if it's left unchecked. SARS and MERS both have higher R0 values (between 2 and 5) than the seasonal flu, but never spread widely enough to become worldwide epidemics. Flu, on the other hand, is always widespread despite having a relatively small basic reproduction number: the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate between 3 and 11 percent of the US population gets sick with the flu every year.

That brings us back to the coronavirus now known as COVID-19. Because the disease is fairly new to medicine, researchers are still tabulating the data required to calculate R0 more or less in real time. As of February 19, 2020, estimates placed R0 above 1.4 but below 4, well within the range for other coronaviruses like SARS. (See this excellent Lifehacker article for more about the issues surrounding COVID-19 and R0.)

Deadly serious

Another important number for understanding diseases is the "case fatality rate" or CFR: What percentage of people who have a disease die from it? On one extreme, we have rabies, which has a 99 percent fatality rate if untreated. On the other is the common cold, which has a relatively high R0 but is almost never fatal (the exceptions being mostly immunocompromised people). The seasonal flu has a low CFR, but enough people get it every year that the CDC estimates as many as 30,000 Americans may have died from it between October 2019 and February 2020.

Similarly, measles is extremely infectious, but rarely fatal (though its spooky effect on the immune system can make victims susceptible to other life-threatening diseases). Smallpox was less infectious with an R0 of 5 to 7, but its CFR of roughly 30 percent made it devastating. Measles, though less serious, has such a high infection rate that it needs a much larger vaccinated population for proper herd immunity; smallpox vaccines achieved herd immunity at much lower rates, and wiped the illness out entirely by 1980.

The CFR for an emerging disease like COVID-19 is remarkably hard to estimate accurately, simply because all the numbers involved are relatively small. A preliminary calculation from February 8, 2020 estimates CFR of about 1.4 percent—meaning out of 1,000 infected people, around 14 will die—but that’s based only on cases from outside China, since the data from that nation’s government has been unreliable. The numbers will likely shift over the next weeks and months, but the CFR for COVID-19 seems to be lower than for SARS and MERS. However, the high concentration of cases in one region of China is putting a huge stress on the healthcare infrastructure, which is a concern for any major epidemic.

Knowing what we don’t know

Epidemiology is a game of "ifs" and approximations. Case fatality rates, basic reproduction numbers, and other quantities are derived from real-world data using mathematical models of disease. Because infections depend on a complex set of conditions, including things like weather and holiday travel, two outbreaks of the same virus might result in different-looking epidemics. That's why R0 is usually given as a range of numbers and we hedge our language: not because our models are bad, but because reality itself is messy.

At the same time, epidemiology demystifies disease and guides how we deal with it. It both models how diseases jump from nation to nation in our interconnected age, and shows that citywide quarantines and travel bans don’t curtail the spread of an infection very much—while seriously disrupting the lives of the people who aren’t infected, along with their respective economies. And finally, epidemiology lets us compare COVID-19 to other epidemics, to inform us how bad it currently is and how widespread it might become if governments don’t handle it properly. We might not know everything about COVID-19 yet, but the knowledge from epidemiology helps us understand what it will take to beat it.

The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace definitely wasn’t lying when he previously told EW that Sue Dearbon “might not be the woman that Ralph is expecting.” That was very much the case when Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) came face to face with Sue Dearbon (Natalie Dreyfuss) on the CW superhero drama this week.

After months of searching, Ralph finally found Sue in Tuesday night’s episode “A Girl Named Sue,” and in the most unlikeliest place: diving out of an apartment right before a bomb went off and saving Ralph from the blast. The duo — who eventually get married in the comics — had chemistry from the moment they met, and it only grew as Ralph helped Sue find evidence she could use against her murderous and arms dealing ex-boyfriend John Loring, from whom she’s been running this entire time.

Their investigation eventually led them to a safety deposit box containing a very expensive-looking diamond — which Sue promptly stole before locking Ralph in the vault. It turns out the socialite hasn’t been on the run. She’s actually a cat burglar and manipulated Ralph into helping her acquire the diamond, which is connected to season 6B’s (a.k.a. “Graphic Novel #2”) over-arching Black Hole mystery. Following a fight with Black Hole’s assassin Ultarviolet, she absconded with the jewel, much to Ralph’s disappointment.

Turning Sue Dearbon into a cat burglar is a major departure from DC Comics canon. In the comics, Ralph meets Sue after crashing her debutante ball under the pretext of chasing jewelry thieves. To be sure, Dreyfuss was very surprised when she found out about the twist.

“It was kept pretty secret from me,” Dreyfuss told EW in an interview for this week’s installment of SiriusXM’s Superhero Insider. “It was kind of like I was landing on the plane and they were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to the leather store,’ and I was like, ‘What do you mean? I have like a cool jacket?’ And we built a suit and it was so cool to get to wear the catsuit.”

That being said, she loved the twist because it was clear that the writers wanted Sue to be her own character. “They don’t want her to just be like Hartley’s arm candy. They want her to be more than Ralph’s love interest, which is really cool,” said Dreyfuss.

Making Sue a cat burglar also allowed Dreyfuss to use a skill from her childhood. “I was a ballerina growing up so it’s fun for me to be able to jump in and do some of the choreography,” she said. “I was sitting sort of on the sidelines and I was like, ‘Hey, I can do that.’ And they were like, ‘Really?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I can see it, I can do it.’ And so they were really excited that I was able to jump in and do a lot of it myself, which was cool.”

Now that the cat burglar is out of the bag, the question is, how much of Ralph and Sue’s obvious connection was real and how much of it was fake?

“I think that’s going to come in and out of the unfolding of the season — what’s going on with this girl? There’s a lot to who Sue , she’s got a lot of layers. So I feel like that’s kind of coming out more and more each episode: What’s her motive here and what is their relationship really? And I think the fun thing about playing a character like that is that the audience will never really know how much I’m messing with them,” she said.

If there’s one thing we don’t have to question, though, it’s Dreyfuss and Sawyer’s crackling on-screen dynamic, which Dreyfuss says was there from the moment she walked in for the chemistry read.

“I walked into the chemistry read and I saw Hartley and I was like, ‘Well, hi, we’re old friends.’ So we had this really like easy chemistry because we’d been friends for 10 years,” she said. “The biggest thing was just like the comfort level of messing with him. You know, I know him, and I was already just ready to mess with him and the producers were like, ‘Yes, we love this,’ and he trusts me and it’s comfortable. So it was really fun.”

We’ll get to see more of that natural chemistry as The Flash digs even deeper into the mystery of Sue this season.

To hear our chat with Dreyfuss, listen to Superhero Insider this Friday on SiriusXM on-demand.

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on The CW.

Related content: 

The Flash recap: A weird Valentine’s Day ends with a twist Ralph finally meets Sue Dearbon in The Flash first-look photos The Flash boss explains and ’s surprising trips into the unknown

We're halfway through the first season of Star Trek: Picard with Episode 5, "Stardust City Rag," and the series continues to reach back into the annals of Trek history to recall major characters from a variety of sources. With Seven of Nine's appearance in Episode 4, "Absolute Candor," Star Trek: Picard is now dipping into Star Trek: Voyager's history, but folks from old episodes of The Next Generation like Bruce Maddox are still having a big influence as well. There's a lot of Trek to pull ideas and stories from, and Picard continues to demonstrate that it remembers everything.

We've dug through Episode 5 to uncover all the references and Easter eggs the show has hidden, and there are a couple of serious deep cuts. Here's a rundown of all the callbacks, references, Easter eggs and history hidden in the latest episode of Star Trek: Picard.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot's parent company.

Oh No, Icheb!

Episode 5 opens with an unfortunate situation for a former Borg drone. When Seven of Nine shows up to attempt a rescue, we learn the identity of the person on the operating table: Icheb. He played a major role in Seven's life back during Star Trek: Voyager. In that series, the Voyager crew discovered a group of Borg children who had been cut off from the Collective and rescued them. Seven became their de facto leader and teacher, and while most of the kids eventually found permanent homes, Icheb stuck around on Voyager and returned to the Alpha Quadrant.

Seven and Icheb got very close during their time together, with Seven coming to consider Icheb as a son. Apparently, Icheb accomplished his goal of joining Starfleet before he met a tragic end some 13 years before the start of Picard.

We've Finally Found Bruce Maddox

Bruce Maddox has been an important figure in Star Trek: Picard so far, but up until now, the character has been missing. The cyberneticist appeared way back in The Next Generation episode "Measure of a Man," where he argued in a Starfleet court that Data was Starfleet property, while Picard fought to have Data considered a person. Picard was successful in the case, but Maddox wound up striking up a friendship with Data while also studying him. We know that Maddox is responsible for creating Data's daughters, Dahj and Soji, but not much else is known about how he created the two new androids.

Maddox has been in hiding for quite a while at this point, and now we know why: he's being hunted by the Romulan Tal Shiar. That raises a question of how the Tal Shiar found out about the androids and Maddox in the first place--something we'll likely find out before too much longer.

Try Some Tranya

When Bajayzel has her meeting with Maddox, she offers him a particular orange drink: Tranya. That particular beverage is a callback to Star Trek: The Original Series, which Captain Kirk and his crew tried when they encountered an alien government called the First Federation. Kirk tried the drink in "The Corbonite Maneuver," where Balok, played by Clint Howard, insisted on everyone trying it.

Mr. Quark Vouches For Rios

Thanks to Raffi, Rios has a pretty decent pedigree when he heads to Stardust City to pose as a Facer. During the discussion of the deal Rios hopes to make to trade Seven of Nine for Bruce Maddox, Mr. Vup mentions that his references include a Mr. Quark of Ferenginar. Quark was a major character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine--he owned a bar on the station and was usually involved in whatever seedy enterprises took place there.

The Breen

The made-up deal Rios helped Quark strike was, apparently, with an alien race called the Breen. We've seen the Breen show up in a number of Star Trek series, but we don't know very much about them. They're a reclusive and warlike race that have faced off against the Federation a few times, and in Deep Space Nine, they allied with the Dominion against the Federation in an attempt to take over the Alpha Quadrant.

Seven's Borg Implants

Harvesting the cybernetic implants of former Borg drones is apparently big business in the Star Trek universe these days--so much so that criminals are willing to abduct Starfleet officers like Icheb in order to get them. Seven is such a price for Bajayzel because she has still has a large majority of her implants, despite many being removed by the Voyager crew after she was freed from the Collective. Picard notes that this is because Seven was assimilated by the Borg as a child. Her parents were researchers who studied the Borg before they were eventually captured and assimilated, and Seven spent most of her life as a member of the Collective.

The Collapse Of The Neutral Zone

Back when the Romulan Star Empire was a major force in the galaxy, the region between its territory and the Federation was designated as the Neutral Zone, and both governments stayed out of that space and weren't allowed to colonize there. Seven says that the Neutral Zone "collapsed" after the destruction of Romulus, suggesting that the area became a lawless region thanks to the power vacuum created by the absence of the Romulans and the Federation. The need to help the people who lived there gave rise to the Fenris Rangers, the vigilante group that Seven has been a part of for the last 14 years.

Annika

When Bajayzel reveals her past relationship with Seven, she repeatedly refers to her as "Annika." That's a reference to Seven's human name: before she was assimilated by the Borg, Seven was Annika Hansen. Seven spent her time on Voyager, and apparently the years since, trying to reclaim some of her humanity, but she obviously still doesn't go by her original name--although it seems she might have for a time, before the loss of Icheb.

Picard's Humanity

Clearly, returning to life after being assimilated by the Borg is no easy feat. Seven has struggled with trying to find her humanity again since she escaped the Collective, and that's something she shares with Picard, as we find in Episode 5. Picard was assimilated during The Next Generation before being saved by the crew of the Enterprise, but that experience has haunted him ever since. Picard's personal struggle with what happened to him was the subject of several episodes of The Next Generation, with Picard even briefly considering resigning from Starfleet because of the trauma. It also was central to the story of Star Trek: First Contact, in which Picard dealt with a whole lot of anger and pain as he fought off the Borg capture of the Enterprise-E and the Borg Queen's invasion of Earth.

Maddox, Jurati, and Soong's Breakthroughs

After Maddox is rescued from Bajayzel, he has a conversation with Agnes about Dahj and Soji, the two human-like androids he managed to create. Only one other person has been able to create sentient androids before: Noonien Soong, the man who created Data. Maddox used his studies of Soong's work and Data himself to create Dahj and Soji, and he credits Agnes with essential contribution to the breakthrough that helped him create the androids. Apparently, Agnes is not as excited about being a part of cybernetic history.

Netflix is teasing The Umbrella Academy Season 2 with six new character posters. The character posters shown in the gallery below, focus in on each character's eyes with a different color unique to them. Netflix captioned their first tweet before each of the six posters as, "This time travel thing? It gets messy. The cast of Umbrella Academy is back for Season 2!" [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-umbrella-academy-season-2-posters&captions=true"] As The Umbrella Academy Season 1 released on February 15, 2019, it's seemingly only a matter of time until a release date is announced. Filming for Season 2 wrapped sometime in November 2019 as actors Justin H. Min and David Castañeda posted on Instagram about it. Min posted on November 23, 2019, "And just like that, Ben and I are headed home. A huge thank you to our cast and crew, who've become a second family to me the last six months; I’ll miss seeing your beautiful faces everyday. And Toronto, I fall more in love with you every year — especially when I can run away right before winter gets bad. I can't wait for you guys to see what we’ve been working on. Season 2 is gonna be wild." In December 2019, Netflix showcased its top ten most popular 2019 releases with The Umbrella Academy making the list. Alongside other shows like Stranger Things and The Witcher, Netflix marked The Umbrella Academy ninth in the United States. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/02/15/umbrella-academy-season-1-review"] Let us know if you're excited for The Umbrella Academy Season 2 in the comments below. For more information, read our in-detail explanation about the show, and how it was seen by over 45 million people. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jeffrey Lerman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @Snakester95.

Netflix is moving full steam ahead on a second season of its fantasy series The Witcher. And even though Season 2 isn't expected to drop until 2021, we already have an idea of the new actors joining the cast next time. From a fan-favorite Game of Thrones alum to a new character never seen in the books or the games, here are all the new actors and characters debuting in The Witcher: Season 2, along with a recap of all the characters introduced so far. Beware of spoilers for The Witcher: Season 1 ahead! [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-witcher-explaining-all-the-characters-and-who-plays-them&captions=true"]

Nigel (actor: Kristofer Hivju)

The Season 2 premiere will introduce a mysterious new character named Nigel, described as "a charismatic, witty and funny man" who comes from an "aristocratic family and has been cursed for the crimes he has committed in the past." While there's no character with this background named Nigel in the books or games, the description suggests Nigel may actually be Nivellen, a cursed nobleman whom Geralt encounters in the short story "A Grain of Truth." Kristofer Hivju has reportedly been cast in the role. Hivju is best known for the amiable wildling Tormund Giantsbane in HBO's Game of Thrones. Hivju also joined another blockbuster franchise in 2017's Fate of the Furious.

Lambert (actor: Paul Bullion)

Season 2 will introduce Lambert, one of Geralt's fellows Witchers and a longtime rival. Lambert is best known for playing a major role in The Witcher 3, where he's shown to hold a deep resentment of Geralt despite having a similar background and training. Paul Bullion has reportedly been cast in the role. Bullion is best known for TV roles like Peaky Blinders and The Bastard Executioner. He also played Nicolae in 2014's Dracula Untold and will play a Sadaukar soldier in the upcoming Dune reboot.

Coën (actor: Yasen Atour)

In addition to Lambert, Season 2 will introduce another Witcher in the form of Coën. Coën plays a significant role in the novel Blood of Elves, where he helps Geralt and Lambert train Ciri in the ruins of Kaer Morhen. With Season 1 ending with the first encounter between Geralt and Siri, Season 2 may pick up from that point and focus on the three men training her in the art of swordfighting. Yasen Atour has reportedly been cast in the role. Moviegoers may recognize Atour from recent action movies like 2016's Ben-Hur, 2015's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and 2018's Robin Hood.

Violet (actress: Carmel Laniado)

Season 2 will introduce a new character named Violet, one who doesn't appear to have any analogue in author Andrzej Sapkowski's books. Violet is described as "a young girl whose playful and whimsical demeanour is a front for a smarter and more sadistic character." She's expected to appear in at least three episodes of Season 2. Violet will be played by Carmel Laniado, who previously appeared as Lady Rose in 2020's Dolittle and Young Lottie in FX's 2019 version of A Christmas Carol. [poilib element="accentDivider"] The follow characters appeared in Season 1, and many will be returning in Season 2.

Renfri (actress: Emma Appleton)

The breakout supporting character of The Witcher Season 1 is easily Renfri, played by Emma Appleton. Renfri's story is inspired by Snow White, with her being a princess cast out of her home and on the run, protected by a merry band of vagabonds. Renfri's story is directly tied in with the sorcerer Stregobor (more on him next). He believes she is one of several women who is cursed and evil, and he is trying to kill them all.

Stregobor (actor: Lars Mikkelsen)

The sorcerer Stregobor is a prime example of the dark, corrupt nature of magic users on The Continent. He is first introduced in episode 1 of The Witcher as the character trying to get Geralt to kill Renfri, but he also serves as Istredd's teacher and a key figure in the leaders of the northern sorcerers' circle, the Brotherhood of Sorcerers. Both Geralt and Yennefer clash with him frequently on moral and political levels.

Queen Calanthe (actress: Jodhi May)

Queen Calanthe, played by British actress Jodhi May, is Ciri's grandmother, the strong-willed and hot-headed warrior queen of Cintra. Calanthe is portrayed as fiercely protective of her family, particularly her only daughter, Pavetta (Gaia Mondadori). Calanthe crosses paths with Geralt when she hires him to come to a feast where she plans to determine who Pavetta will marry. Calanthe dies in the first episode of Season 1, but thanks to the various timelines threaded through the narrative of the series, we see her several times throughout the course of the season. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/the-witcher-why-season-2-wont-premiere-until-2021-ign-now"]

Eist (actor: Björn Hlynur Haraldsson)

The former Jarl of Skellige-turned-King of Cintra, Eist was a longtime flame of Queen Calanthe before she finally tied the knot with him following Pavetta's betrothal to Duny. He serves as a grandfather/father figure to Ciri alongside Calanthe, and is a loyal, if humorously inappropriate, husband to his queen.

Pavetta (actress: Gaia Mondadori)

Pavetta is the daughter of Queen Calanthe of Cintra and mother of Princess Cirilla. She marries Duny, a prince who was promised Pavetta by the Law of Surprise after he saved her father many years prior. Pavetta dies at some point during the events of The Witcher's first season, leaving her mother caring for her daughter and with Ciri promised to Geralt through another Law of Surprise binding.

Duny (actor: Bart Edwards)

Duny is a cursed prince who Pavetta falls in love with and marries, and who is the father of Ciri. Both he and Pavetta died on a shipwreck at some point over the years, which is why Ciri is raised by Calanthe.

Tissaia de Vries (actress: MyAnna Buring)

Tissaia de Vries is Yennefer's mentor and one of the rectors at the sorceress school of Aretuza. Though she plucked Yennefer out of a horrible life when she was young, their relationship is contentious, and Yennefer remained at odds with Tissaia for many years. Despite their differences, Tissaia and Yennefer team up one fateful time at the Battle of Sodden Hill to try to protect the northern regions of the Continent from Nilfgaardian invasion.

Cahir (actor: Eamon Farren)

Frequent subject of Ciri's nightmares, Cahir is a Nilfgaardian soldier who chased Ciri out of the burning remains of Cintra, staying hot on her trail as she ran away to try to find Geralt of Rivia. His story differs in the show than in the novels, as he stays on Ciri's trail and later teams up with Fringilla as heads to lead the charge on Sodden Hill.

Triss (actress: Anna Shaffer)

Triss is one of the most prominent side characters in The Witcher books and games, and frequently is presented as another possible love interest to him beyond Yennefer. In the show, she encounters Geralt during his encounter with King Foltest and the striga, and later reunites with her longtime friend Yennefer at the Battle of Sodden. Though we don't see much of their backstory, Triss is one of Yennefer's better friends among the sorceresses and a great ally of both Yennefer and Geralt. Triss is an incredibly powerful magic user, and we see in the show she has an affinity for nature-based magic, raising up poisonous mushrooms and creating a wall of roots to ward of Nilfgaardian attackers.

Jaskier (actor: Joey Batey)

Jaskier (known as Dandelion to Witcher book and games fans) is technically Geralt's best friend, but not because Geralt necessarily wants things that way. A reknowned bard and even more reknowned lothario, Jaskier is the comic relief of The Witcher. It's often his antics that get Geralt into his most notable scrapes, and the two cross paths throughout the years as Jaskier becomes more famous and more frequently annoys his white-haired friend.

Fringilla Vigo (actress: Mimi Ndiweni)

Over the years she becomes a true ally of Nilfgaard and is a devout believer in what the seemingly villainous country stands for. She leads the invasion into the Northern Kingdoms and spearheads the clash against her former allies and sorcerers at Sodden Hill. Fringilla is the niece of Artorius, the chief sorcerer in the Brotherhood.

Istredd (actor: Royce Pierreson)

Yennefer's first love, Istredd, is a sorcerer who came up in his training at the same time as Yennefer. He is one of the few characters on the show who knew Yennefer before her transformation, and the two had a romantic relationship. But after Yennefer discovered Istredd had been spying on her for Stregobor (despite the fact she had been doing the same for Tissaia), she cut ties with him after she completed her transformation. He credits Stregobor for getting him to refocus on his work, and despite Yennefer trying to rekindle their love once she realizes she may have made a mistake pursuing power over partnership, he declines her overtures. When we last see Istredd, he has allied himself with the Nilfgaardians.

Vilgefortz (actor: Mahesh Jadu)

Only introduced in the final two episodes of Season 1, Vilgefortz is one of the most important characters to keep an eye on in Season 2 and going forward. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers who tricks Yennefer into returning to Aretuza and helping Tissaia in the showdown that eventually became the Battle of Sodden Hill. He is a key player in The Witcher books and certainly someone who has more than it seems up his sleeves.

Yennefer of Vengeberg (actress: Anya Chalotra)

Geralt of Rivia's longtime on-again, off-again love interest and the subject of his last wish to the djinn, Yennefer of Vengeberg is an incredibly powerful and strong-willed sorceress and one of the three main characters of The Witcher. The Netflix series fleshes out a backstory only alluded to in the books, showing her as a hunchback taken in and trained by Tissaia. After years of growing up mistreated, Yennefer craves beauty and power, and undergoes the transformation to become a sorceress not fully understanding that, in doing so, she will lose her ability to bear children. Yennefer's storyline in Season 1 takes place over the course of about 70 years, and though she gets her time at court and has many lovers, she finds her life unfulfilled. Instead, she tries to fix the changes she underwent to become a sorceress and reclaim her ability to have children, constantly trying to find loopholes to get around the seemingly unfixable decision. She becomes bound with Geralt during one such attempt, when she tries to capture a djinn and force it to give her back the ability to bear a child. Despite years at odds with her former teacher, Yennefer is forced to choose a side and fight for something once Nilfgaard destroys Cintra and heads its invasion toward the rest of the Northern Kingdoms. She unleashes her full power at the Battle of Sodden, defeating the Nilfgaard forces, but at what cost?

Princess Cirilla (actress: Freya Allan)

In many ways the center of The Witcher stories, Princess Cirilla of Cintra -- or Ciri -- is bound by fate to Geralt of Rivia. She has unknown but powerful magical abilities, only touched on in Season 1 of the series but the origins of which are a core part of the central story of The Witcher books. Ciri is the daughter of Pavetta and Duny and the granddaughter of Queen Calanthe of Cintra. Her storyline in Season 1 takes place over the course of about two weeks, with her escaping Cintra and trying to find Geralt, only to come across elves, former Cintrans and even a nice family who want to capture her. She finally fulfills destiny as a Child of Surprise by uniting with Geralt in episode 8. In the books, she actually has met Geralt once already by the time they meet again after the fall of Cintra, but The Witcher Netflix series nixed that plot point in favor of having them finally come together in the final moments of Season 1.

Geralt of Rivia, the Butcher of Blaviken (actor: Henry Cavill)

You know him, you love him, Geralt of Rivia is the Witcher in this fan-favorite series. Henry Cavill has been itching for this role for years -- and you of course know Cavill from everything from Man of Steel and the DC expanded universe through Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Cavill absolutely loves Geralt as much as fans do, which we got him to prove when he aced our questions trying to see just how much he knew about The Witcher. Check out how that went in the video below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/18/how-much-does-the-witcher-know-about-the-witcher"] Who is your favorite character in The Witcher: Season 1? Let us know in the comments below. And for more on The Witcher, check out every episode review of Season 1 and its ending explained. Then find out more about Netflix'a animated spinoff, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

The new Mac Pro is Apple’s most powerful computer ever and, when specs options are maxed out, offers enough oomph to breeze through even the most power and memory-hungry computing tasks.

Many have tried to push the Mac Pro to its limits, but none have succeeded… until now. YouTuber Jonathan Morrison, who has been attempting to give the Mac Pro all it can handle, reportedly encountered the limits of the 1.5TB of RAM.

It wasn’t via an intense video editing or music making application – two of the most popular needs for the abundance of random access memory. The stress test was conducted using the humble Google Chrome web browser, as the iMore website reports.

Related: Best desktop PC

The notorious RAM-hogging browser was using 75GB of RAM, as shown by the Mac Pro’s activity monitor, so Morrison decided to go with it and see how high he could push the memory consumption.

pic.twitter.com/OTnIGLdwM5

— Jonathan Morrison (@tldtoday) February 7, 2020

So, he pushed. He opened 2,000 tabs… then 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000, which took the RAM consumption past 170GB. The real leap, allegedly came after opening 6,000 tabs in Chrome.

That took the RAM use to 857GB and rapidly rising beyond 1TB of RAM, judging by the Twitter thread Morisson used to document the experiment. At that point, he decided to halt the experiment for fear of killing his super-super expensive desktop OS.

send help pic.twitter.com/CVgMDf5pIC

— Jonathan Morrison (@tldtoday) February 7, 2020

 

Considering his previous efforts to trouble the mountain of RAM held within the cheese grater-esque Mac Pro, it’s massively surprising to see Chrome push the desktop to the limits. Previously he’d enjoyed 16K video playback from a single graphics card and deployed two world-renowned music producers. Neither experiment troubled the Mac Pro.

Just before Christmas it emerged the top-end, specced-out Mac Pro will set punters back in excess of £48,000, including all of the bells and whistles. The cheapest configuration is £5,499. We know which we’re picking.

The post The top-end Mac Pro may have met its match in Google Chrome appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Netflix has reportedly entered talks with Warner Bros. to extend Lucifer beyond its planned fifth and "final" season. According to TVLine, Netflix is considering resurrecting the supernatural drama for a sixth season despite it being previously announced that the devil's reign would be coming to an end after Season 5. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/01/new-to-netflix-for-february-2020"] The fifth season of Lucifer was originally set to be a 10-episode run, but Netflix significantly expanded the episode count while the show was still in production, ordering six additional episodes to take the grand total up to 16 episodes, which are set to be split across two parts on the streamer. This expansion of episodes served as a potential indication that the writers required a little more scope to tell the story and wrap up all of the loose threads from the fourth season of the series, loosely based on Neil Gaiman's depiction of the Devil from the Sandman comic book and its spinoff Lucifer. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-netflix-original-movies-and-tv-shows&captions=true"] However, it now seems that Netflix might be swooping in to save the fallen angel with a Season 6 renewal, offering the team the opportunity to expand the story even further. This is great news for Lucifans who have been campaigning for the show's continuation ever since it was cancelled by Fox after just three seasons on the air. In our review of Lucifer Season 4, we called it "Great" saying "Netflix's Lucifer has a shorter season and a tighter arc, but the campy show retains the humor and naughtiness we love." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Last September, it was announced that a reboot of Ron D. Moore's acclaimed Battlestar Galactica (which itself was a remake) was in development at NBC, headed up by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. Following online speculation about what the show might include, Esmail took to Twitter to clarify that the show would "NOT be a remake," but instead a new story within the mythology. Now creator of the 2004 series Ron Moore has confirmed Esmail's BSG designs, while speaking to Variety about his Starz series Outlander. “Sam called me and was very gracious," Moore said, about when the BSG reboot news came through. "He didn’t pitch me the story so I don’t know [what it's about]. But he said his plans and he wasn’t going to re-start the show and recast it, but he wanted to do something in the same universe." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-tv-shows-of-the-decade-2010-2019&captions=true"] "Sam’s amazing," Moore added, "and I love ‘Mr. Robot.’ I was like ‘You’re an amazing guy and amazing writer, go with God!’” Esmail's developing series will be an updated look at the Battlestar Galactica universe, taking its inspiration from Moore’s series, rather than the 1978 original from Glen A. Larson. Esmail's Battlestar Galactica will form part of initial original programming slate for Peacock, which launches in April 2020. Here's a look at everything headed to Peacock, including Will Forte's MacGruber series and the Saved by the Bell reboot/sequel! [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=everything-coming-to-nbcuniversals-peacock&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Plot twist: Mobile World Congress is not taking place this year. MWC 2020 was supposed to be from February 24 to February 27 in Barcelona, Spain, but today the organizers decided to cancel the entire thing because of fears regarding the possible spread of the novel coronavirus. Companies have been canceling their MWC or pre-MWC events in Barcelona left and right over the past couple of weeks, so this doesn't come as a huge shock, but it is nevertheless an unprecedented move in the history of the mobile world's biggest annual event. The GSM Association (GSMA), which organizes MWC,...

While many companies cancelled their MWC events due to the coronavirus outbreak, Xiaomi has made an announcement that it will stick to its original plan. The company tweeted a detailed list of precautions it will take to ensure the safety of its employees and the visitors to its booth. For presentations at the Xiaomi booth, the company will bring in employees from its European offices (after checking that they have shown no symptoms for 14 days). All displayed products will be frequently disinfected, following GSMA guidelines. For employees and senior staff coming out of China, Xiaomi...

British Airways just set a new record for subsonic flight -- with some help from nature. The airline has confirmed Flightradar24 data showing that one of its Boeing 747s completed a New York to London flight in just 4 hours and 56 minutes, handily b...

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) delivers the next chapter of the DCEU, which may come as a surprise to those who heard director Cathy Yan say that the movie “exists in a parallel timeline.” Now that we’ve seen the movie, it seems as though Yan was more speaking metaphorically about how that was her mindset going into the film -- she wanted it to stand on its own rather than be reliant on other films. But now that we know Birds of Prey is indeed a part of the shared DC movie tapestry, here’s a rundown on how Birds of Prey links to DC’s other movies with a handful of cool Easter eggs and how Harley's antics impact the Gotham City landscape and the larger DC movie universe. Note: just for clarification, the DC movie universe aka the DCEU includes Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, and now Birds of Prey, whereas Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker film stands by itself unconnected to these other films. Warning: full spoilers for Birds of Prey ahead! You can view a visual version of this feature by flipping through the slideshow below or keep scrolling to read it as an article. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=how-birds-of-prey-impacts-the-dc-movie-universe&captions=true"]

The Joker Is MIA

Birds of Prey picks up with Harley trying to get over being dumped by her ex, the Joker. We see Harley getting tossed out by one of the Joker’s goons, and you’ll notice that the setting isn’t in Gotham City. In Suicide Squad, we saw the Joker operating out of a lavish mansion, but now he appears to be residing a cabin out in a rural area, which implies that the Joker isn’t in Gotham and is likely laying low, probably to avoid getting caught by Batman. The Joker’s absence in Gotham has a profound effect on Harley and the city at large. Harley essentially broadcasts her breakup with Joker when she destroys Ace Chemicals, the place where she was reborn as Harley Quinn and cemented her perverse bond with her Puddin’. So without the Joker’s protection, it’s open season on Harley Quinn, meaning everyone with a grudge against her — and it turns out that’s an awful lot of people — are emboldened to seek her out and attack her in a bid for revenge, all because they know that the Joker isn’t around to retaliate. Black Mask takes this as an opportunity to finally claim Harley as his own and punish her for the long, long list of things she’s done to anger and otherwise annoy him. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/05/birds-of-prey-review"]

The Rise of Black Mask

While Black Mask trying to get his gloved hands on Harley is at the forefront of the film, we couldn’t help but notice that there also seems to be a power vacuum in Gotham City thanks to the Joker not being around, and Roman Sionis is trying to take advantage of it. We see Black Mask making moves to expand his criminal operations as he makes offers to fellow crime lords… and has them executed by Mr. Zsasz when they don’t play along.

Birds of Prey

Of course, the Birds of Prey assemble to stop Black Mask and bring him to a rather, er, explosive end. Members Renee Montoya, Huntress, and Black Canary decide to stay together to keep cleaning up Gotham. Now, in addition to the Justice League and the Shazam Family, the DC movie universe has another superhero team protecting innocents and beating up baddies. It's also worth pointing out that during Renee's emotional talk with Black Canary aka Dinah Laurel Lance, we learned that Canary's mother was a super-powered hero who protected Gotham City before her untimely demise. In the comics, the character of Black Canary has gone through many retcons over the years, but the movie seems to be implying that Dinah Laurel Lance's mother is none other than Dinah Drake, who eventually marries detective Larry Lance and has a child that carries on her metahuman gene. At one point Drake was a member of the Justice Society of America, a superhero team that operated a generation before the Justice League, and we know that the JSA will be featured in Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam movie, so it could be possible that we meet Dinah's mom in that movie. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=birds-of-prey-comparing-the-characters-looks-through-the-years&captions=true"]

Gotham City Sirens?

Of course, when a team of heroes appears, it’s inevitable that a team of villains will form to oppose them. The most obvious choice to fight the Birds of Prey is none other than the Gotham City Sirens. In the comics, they’re a group of female characters from Batman’s rogues gallery -- Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy -- who dish out their own twisted brand of justice across Cotham City. In fact, after Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn proved to be the breakout character from Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. got to work on developing four potential followup movies for her. One of those ideas was Gotham City Sirens, which we last heard had David Ayer tentatively attached to direct, but the film was put on hold when Warners decided to move ahead with Birds of Prey. Birds of Prey got the green light in large part due to Robbie championing it because she wanted to introduce the lesser-known Birds of Prey characters to the masses, knowing that many fans are already familiar with the popular Poison Ivy and Catwoman. But now that the Birds of Prey have been established on the big screen, it’s possible that a potential sequel could introduce Harley’s other comic book team. We can just imagine the sort of chaos that would unfold if Harley was a member of both teams as they’re fighting each other. The plant-controlling Poison Ivy is a longtime Batman villain who has a close, sometimes-romantic relationship with Harley Quinn. The jewel thief known as Catwoman, on the other hand, is set to appear in Matt Reeves’ upcoming film The Batman, with Selina Kyle being played by Zoe Kravitz. It’s currently unclear whether The Batman will be connected to the DC movie universe or if it’ll be standalone like Joker (one rumor says The Batman will be set in the past during the ‘90s), but if it does end up connecting, then Kravitz could reprise the role to join the Gotham City Sirens. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=who-is-the-strongest-hero-in-the-dceu&captions=true"]

Harley Quinn Will Rejoin the Suicide Squad

That’s a lot of speculation, but here’s what we do know about Harley Quinn’s next cinematic appearance. It'll be in James Gunn’s upcoming sequel-or-is-it-a-reboot, The Suicide Squad (release date August 6, 2021), which was teased in Birds of Prey. When Harley passes by a wanted poster in the Gotham City police station, she says, “I know that guy!” And lo and behold, it features Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang, who was one of Harley’s teammates on Task Force X.

Given that Birds of Prey ends with Harley hightailing it with her new sidekick Cassandra Cain, that means “Cass” could also make an appearance in the film. Cass was an assassin in the comics before she went on to become Batgirl, so maybe the Squad will be where the movie version picks up those skills.

But this also means some bad news for Harley: for her to be once again enlisted in Task Force X, she has to be incarcerated by Amanda Waller, so she’s probably going to get caught again between the events of Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad. Sorry, Harley!

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

Birds of Prey may be intimately focused on Harley’s quest for emancipation, but it also shook up the status quo of the DCEU quite a bit by eliminating a major crime lord, creating a new superhero team, and leaving the door open for a new DC property to take shape on the big screen. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/05/birds-of-prey-exclusive-fights-and-stunts-featurette"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

Listen to Greta! … Now on her own TV show.

Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist, is getting a series from BBC Studios’ Science Unit. Viewers will follow her global journey across the globe to map out the scientific evidence behind climate change, meet with leading scientists, and challenge just about everyone, including political leaders and business tycoons, to change.

The series, a name and official network for which have yet to be announced, will also highlight Thunberg’s journey into adulthood. The teen has been criticized multiple times over social media by President Donald Trump, who already made massive changes to scaling back America’s efforts to safeguard the environment, including pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Thunberg remained resilient and countered with impassioned speeches.

She appeared briefly via video presentation during the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night. In a tribute to the power of documentaries, a clip was shown of Thunberg’s conversation with filmmaker David Attenborough, whose work she credits as informing her about the climate-change crisis. Jane Fonda, who has been arrested multiple times for protesting the government’s inaction on climate change, also appeared on stage during the Oscars to present Best Picture to Parasite. “Nothing is more important than raising awareness, right?” Fonda said.

“Climate change is probably the most important issue of our lives so it feels timely to make an authoritative series that explores the facts and science behind this complex subject,” Rob Liddell, who will produce the series, said in a statement. “To be able to do this with Greta is an extraordinary privilege, getting an inside view on what it’s like being a global icon and one of the most famous faces on the planet.”

Related content:

Jane Fonda, Ted Danson arrested during D.C. climate change protest Joaquin Phoenix kicks off Oscars weekend at L.A. climate change protest with Jane Fonda See all the celebrities who’ve been arrested with Jane Fonda at D.C. climate change protests

Director Rian Johnson has teased the first details about Knives Out 2, suggesting the sequel will present a whole new cast, mystery, and location. Speaking with SiriusXM, Johnson gave a hint about what might be in store for the recently-announced Knives Out sequel, as he revealed his plans to create "another Benoit Blanc mystery" akin to Agatha Christie's classics. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/20/knives-out-rian-johnson-on-why-daniel-craig-is-his-perfect-detective"] "In my mind, I don't even think of it in terms of a sequel," the filmmaker explained. "Ever since we started working on this… look, if we can keep this going, the same way Agatha Christie wrote a bunch of Poirot novels, and then do that with Blanc and keep making new mysteries. Whole new cast, whole new locations. It's just another Benoit Blanc mystery and it seems like there's just so many different things you can do with it, you know?" Johnson also shared some insight into the writing process, as he noted that, even when following a specific genre formula, there can be different ways to infiltrate a narrative and change its core components to "attack something totally new" thematically. "What's actually satisfying at the end is not who did it and how and why," he said. "What's actually satisfying is the same thing as any other movie, which is there's a character you've been following that you care about, and you're worried about them, and then at the end in a way that's really satisfying, you come to a conclusion of their arc." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-movies-of-the-decade-2010-2019&captions=true"] Knives Out was a huge success for Lionsgate, earning close to $300 million at the worldwide box office. In our review of the modern murder-mystery, we commended Johnson for crafting a whodunit that is "a genuine crowd-pleaser", exploiting "clever plotting and smart sleight of hand" to leave "audiences guessing until the final few reels." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

DC has been a good home to screenwriter Christina Hodson. After writing Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), DC and Warner Bros. hired Hodson to adapt two other comic book properties, including Batgirl. Based on the glowing reception to Birds of Prey, the studio now has another strong voice behind their comic book movies. They haven’t always this much sense of authorship and crystal clear vision.

Birds of Prey is a comic book movie that doesn’t overstay its welcome and has more personality than explosions, although the grounded action is a visceral delight. It’s a tight, character-driven comic book movie that Hodson – a former executive at Focus Features – recently told us about writing. Plus, she discussed her favorite Harley Quinn stories, the Trainspotting influences, and her days as an executive.

I heard you say in an interview you wanted to shake up some boxes with the movie, so what other parts of the genre did you want to subvert? What did you want to do that was new?

I love the genre. I love action movies, I love superhero movies, I love comic book movies. I’m generally a movie nerd, but I was seeing a lot of them, and we’ve seen as you say, kind of the big CGI wild ending stuff, but there’s only so many times you can save the world from blowing up.

I wanted to see a different angle on Gotham City. I think, in particular, I loved Gotham in the Batman movies, all the Batman movies, but I wanted to see a different texture. Margot and I from very early on decided to set the movie on a very hot, bright, summer day just because I wanted it to be sweaty, stinky Gotham. I wanted to see silly things like, “What does a Gotham bodega look like?” “What is a $2 egg sandwich in Gotham?”

I think that was kind of one of the fun things about telling a more contained story was that we got to see a lot of these details. We got to go home with some of these characters. You get to see what Huntress’ bathroom looks like, you get to see what Harley’s apartment looks like, with its very strange details, like the pillow and the picture of Harley with the nuns. Again, I think laying in some of that texture into this world was really fun and something that I just haven’t been before.

What about the nonlinear structure? How early on did you imagine it?

Immediately. Honestly, that was one of the very first things that I came back to Margot with. We knew we wanted to do an ensemble team-up. We knew we wanted to do it in a different way and then the challenge was, “How?” I went and did some thinking, and the way I pitched it to her initially was, “I wanted to see the four completely different women, living completely different lives. Each of them kind of set on a different path and in some way, in some kind of trap.” Some metaphorical traps, some more literal traps. Whether it’s career, or financial or emotional, and then see where they would go, and then set them on a collision path with one another. And really, Cassandra became the catalyst that brings these four women together and causes them to collide in the third act.

But yeah, the nonlinear and the ensemble thing both came naturally. It was also just telling a story through Harley’s point-of-view. She’s a very unreliable mouthpiece. Having her as the storyteller, it felt very natural that she would be jumping around back and forth because different things are important to her. She doesn’t care about the beginning, middle, end. She cares about an egg sandwich and a hyena and you know, random shit.

With that character, you’re free to do an animated scene, a musical number, and the list goes on. How weird did you feel you could go? What else did you try?

She got pretty wild. I actually remember writing the Marilyn scene I finished the first draft, and I gave it to my husband to read. It was about two hours before I had to send it in and he was like, “I love it. It’s awesome. Think you need to get weirder in the first few pages.” Okay, so I rushed away and I had the half an hour and I just… I don’t know how Marilyn came into my head, but it just felt really right, and as soon as Margot read that, she was like, “Yes, I love it.” We got weird and wild and wonderful and it was really, really fun because it didn’t feel like we were at all being constrained and DC were incredibly supportive of that. [Executive producer] Walter Hamada, in particular, just being such an incredible advocate for the movie and so supportive of our weirdest ideas.

What are notes like on a DC property? What was important to Warner Bros. and DC that they wanted to see in the movie?

Honestly, I think for all of us it’s similar. It’s one thing to honor material, honor the source material, and honor the fanbase. You want to do right with fans, you want to present to them the characters that they know and love and have read. But also remember that in the DC universe most of these characters have been through so many different iterations. There is no one canonical version of any one of these characters. It’s about balancing being true to the material but also doing something fresh and exciting. So then they feel like that they’re seeing something new. You’re kind of adding to the fabric of this universe. So yeah, I would say we were pretty aligned in that in terms of wanting to do right by the fans and also kind of surprise and [excite them].

What are some of the elements of Harley Quinn from the comics that were crucial to you?

Aw, so many things. It’s hard to single out any single things. I mean, I can tell you some of my favorite comics?

Please do.

“Vengeance Unlimited” written by A.J. Lieberman, that’s one of my favorites that contains “Behind Blue Eyes,” the storyline of which you’ll see elements of in the movie. I love the early Chuck Dixon, Birds of Prey stuff, particularly Canary in those, and then more recently, [Amanda] Conner and [Jimmy] Palmiotti I think have done wonderful things with Harley, and in particular, seeing Harley without the Joker. The details like, Bud and Lou the hyenas, and Bernie the Beaver you’ll see in there. Bringing in little elements that hopefully fans of the comics will see and be excited to see, that was important to us.

Was Harley Quinn’s portrayal in Suicide Squad important at all to you or did you feel completely free with the character? 

You know, when I started working on the movie Suicide Squad was still shooting, so it couldn’t have been right in the beginning because I hadn’t seen it yet. I would say, we wanted to tell a movie that really stood on its own two feet. It’s a movie that we hope you can come to as a fan of the universe and of Squad. But also, if you’ve never seen anything, you could come to it brand new, fresh. I think with any of these movies you’re trying to bring in a new audience every time. I think it was just about balancing those two things. Balancing, of course, a character you’ve met before and you don’t want to completely take her on a new path, but she is on a new path. It begins with the breakup from the Joker and we get to see her being her own woman for the first time.

You’re the only credited writer on this and also Bumblebee. It is exceedingly rare for these sorts of movies to have one clear voice behind them. With your background as an executive, how has that past experience helped you there?

Well first off, thank you for noticing because it is hard and it is rare and it’s a lot of work. Sitting on these projects from beginning to end, I think it does help that I have a background on the other side of the table because I think I understood from the beginning of writing is a collaborative process. It’s about working with the rest of the team and that team is sometimes your cast, sometimes it’s your studio executives. It’s about hearing all of the voices, staying true to your vision but while also playing well with others. And it’s part of the job that I really truly love. I think it definitely helps having that background. I wish it would happen more because there are so many fantastic and talented writers, if a studio just gave them a shot to stay on a bit longer, it would do fantastic things for them. I like that happening a bit more.

Is there anything you miss about your executive days or are you just too happy being a writer?

Honestly, being a writer is so much fun and especially with movies like Bumblebee and Birds of Prey, which I’ve been able to stay on throughout. It has been wonderful. DC treats me so fantastically well. I’m very grateful to be staying with them and doing two more projects with them. I would be lying if I said that there was anything I missed about my old job.

Good. A while ago, I heard you compare Birds of Prey to another movie about friendship, Trainspotting. How did that movie influence you?

It sounds very weird. Honestly, Trainspotting is one of my most favorite movies in the world and likewise for Margot, and when we found that out, we were very excited. We would never dare to compare our movie to Trainspotting. I think it’s the masterpiece. The reason why we talk about it is because he was an early influence, just in that Trainspotting has a very unusual non-linear, non-obvious kind of… It’s an ensemble movie. There are a lot of characters in that movie and it managed to do something that feels completely fresh and anarchic and different and yet it follows a pretty classical three-act structure. Trainspotting hits all of the beats. If you go back and you read the script, it hit the end of act one on thirty, the classic midpoint at 60, and trying to act three on 90, it’s really a remarkable feat of writing. It’s just a fantastic fucking movie, sorry for my language.

[Laughs] No, that movie calls for it. What other movies were on your mind?

One that we talked about a lot for the dynamics between Harley and cast was Leon: The Professional. I just think that’s such a cool, interesting dynamic. Seeing the human side of someone who kills people for a living, and it tied in very well with “Behind Blue Eyes” by A.J. Lieberman. That was an influence, a bunch of them, they sound so odd but True Romance was another movie that Margot and I both just adore and does a similar thing to Trainspotting in terms of being nontraditional, nonlinear, but again these movies that are just in the back of our head. You never try and emulate Tarantino because you’ll fail but reading him is always good for you.

What about Harley Quinn’s voice? What’s unique about writing her dialogue? 

So on the Harley front, embarrassingly it just feels very easy now. Harley is a language I’m fluent in at this point, and I don’t know what that says about me as a person that does feel so easy and natural, but it does. I think it comes from spending a lot of time with Margot and a lot of time with the comic. Also, maybe just because I’m a bit weird myself.

What about writing Black Mask? To you, what makes a good villain?

With Roman, the thing that I love is the way that Ewan plays him. He never set out to play a villain and I think that all of the best villains are the heroes of their own story, and that’s very much Ewan approached the material. He’s a true narcissist who really thinks that he is the hero, he is not a mustache-twirling megalomaniac. He is a guy who thinks that the world should revolve around him because he’s the best, and I think that’s what makes him really cool and I just love everything that Ewan invoked in this performance. He’s dangerous and hilarious at the same time.

The post ‘Birds of Prey’ Writer Christina Hodson on Writing Harley Quinn and How ‘Trainspotting’ Influences Her Writing [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

The Norwegian Consumer Council has published an extensive report about how the adtech industry violates consumer privacy. At the same time, it is filing three legal complaints against six companies in this space. From a Twitter summary:

1. [thread] We are filing legal complaints against six companies based on our research, revealing systematic breaches to privacy, by shadowy #OutOfControl #adtech companies gathering & sharing heaps of personal data. https://forbrukerradet.no/out-of-control/#GDPR... #privacy

2. We observed how ten apps transmitted user data to at least 135 different third parties involved in advertising and/or behavioural profiling, exposing (yet again) a vast network of companies monetizing user data and using it for their own purposes.

3. Dating app @Grindr shared detailed user data with a large number of third parties. Data included the fact that you are using the app (clear indication of sexual orientation), IP address (personal data), Advertising ID, GPS location (very revealing), age, and gender.

From a news article:

The researchers also reported that the OkCupid app sent a user's ethnicity and answers to personal profile questions -- like "Have you used psychedelic drugs?" -- to a firm that helps companies tailor marketing messages to users. The Times found that the OkCupid site had recently posted a list of more than 300 advertising and analytics "partners" with which it may share users' information.

This is really good research exposing the inner workings of a very secretive industry.

This sitcom about game development just works.

Video games are a massive part of pop culture, from traditional gaming and mobile games to esports and streamers. So it's surprising that there haven't been more attempts at a high-profile show or movie covering the games industry. Apple TV+'s Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet, out now, is the latest in that sparsely populated tradition, stretching back to Grandma's Boy in 2006, The Wizard in 1989, and a handful more throughout the years. And amazingly, Mythic Quest gets a lot of things right.

It helps that the workplace sitcom is, at this point, a tried-and-true formula. Mythic Quest may not take the mockumentary approach that shows like The Office and Parks and Rec did, but it still owes them a lot. But even more importantly, Mythic Quest is probably the most accurate and honest fictional look into the world of game development that's ever existed in this format, despite the heightened situations and personalities that prevent the show from being 100% accurate to reality.

With that in mind, having watched all nine episodes of Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (which are now available on Apple TV+), we're going to break down nine things the show accurately portrays about the games industry.

1. TTP (Time To Penis)

This one is covered in the very first episode. Any gamer who's spent time in a game that allows players any sort of creative freedom whatsoever, whether it's building monuments in Minecraft or designing a custom emblem in an online shooter, knows how real it is. If you give players a shovel, they will dig dicks--full stop.

2. The Nazi problem

Mythic Quest doesn't shy away from some of the controversial issues plaguing the games industry, and with it, culture at large. The show's third episode, "Dinner Party," covers the challenge that game developers might face when they find that their fictional world has been invaded by, well, Nazis. Do you ban them all outright, censor their "free speech," or come up with a more elegant solution? Episode 3 is one of the strongest offerings in the show's first season, and it deals with a very real issue with a surprising amount of nuance.

3. The female perspective

Mythic Quest's lead engineer is a woman named Poppy Li, played by Australian actress Charlotte Nicdao, and the show isn't coy about how rare it is in reality to have a woman in that role (the lopsided ratio of men to women in game development jobs is a well-documented fact). Episode 4, The Convention, tackles this head-on when a group of girls visits the studio, only to find that Poppy is off-site at a convention. That leaves executive producer David Brittlesbee (David Hornsby, better known as Rickety Cricket on It's Always Sunny) scrambling to find another woman at the developer--one who's actually happy in her role--for the girls to meet.

4. The influencer-developer relationship

Many gamers look to streamers and other influencers for guidance and entertainment, but Mythic Quest doesn't ignore how fraught the relationship between game developers and game influencers can be. One of the show's recurring characters is "Pootie Shoe" (Elisha Henig), a young streamer who has outsized influence over Mythic Quest's fans. The developers often refer to Pootie as "a real piece of s***," but they're also completely at the streamer's mercy when it comes to how players see their game. And although Pootie himself starts out as a caricature, his character gets a lot of depth over the course of the season.

5. The unholy union of "art" and "commerce"

More than ever, video games are an unholy union of art and commerce, especially now that "games as a service" have taken center stage. Yes, video games are creative endeavors with real artistic value--but they're also often designed with psychological tricks like the Skinner Box (essentially a complex carrot-on-a-stick model) at their core, using every dirty trick in the book to keep players (and their wallets) engaged.

Throughout Mythic Quest's first nine episodes, this inherent conflict comes up again and again, particularly in the clashes between the creative side (Poppy and Rob McElhenney's character, Ian Grimm), and Danny Pudi's Brad, the studio's head of monetization.

6. Gaming references

Mythic Quest doesn't cram a ton of gaming reference into each roughly half-hour episode, but when it does bring something up, it's usually effective. For example, there's a Red Dead joke about halfway through the season that had us in stitches. The show also occasionally drops references to gaming sites like Polygon and Kotaku, but usually in a way that seems natural.

Crucially, it doesn't shy away from industry lingo and jargon--although it occasionally does over-explain things in a way that experienced gamers may find annoying. And hilariously, many scenes of Mythic Quest (the game itself) in action appear to be reskinned versions of Ubisoft games like Assassin's Creed and For Honor (Ubisoft helped produce the show).

7. Gaming's past

Mythic Quest also does a good job digging into gaming's past. Episode 5, "A Dark Quiet Death," is a masterpiece all its own. The episode heads back in time to gaming's earlier days and tells the story of two developers who are completely separate from the main characters, and start to finish, it's full of loving references to the days of yore, from a shop proprietor blowing in a SNES cartridge to a passionate description of the surprising darkness at the core of the 1993 Sega Genesis game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.

8. The big egos involved

Anyone who's watched an E3 press conference or the annual Game Awards knows that the game industry is filled with big egos and explosive personalities. Really, all you have to do is follow the game industry headlines every week to see developers and studio executives feuding with each other and with players, talking out of turn about things they shouldn't discuss, and generally being boneheaded in public. With Rob McElhenney's Ian Grimm acting as both Mythic Quest's creative director and the studio's egotistical figurehead, the show fairly portrays the drama that can happen when a personality that big clashes with fans, other developers, and more.

9. A heightened office dynamic

People who work in the game industry will generally tell you that on a day-to-day basis, it's often like any other job: You work 9-5 (or longer), put your time in, try to relax on the weekends, and deal with the same workplace issues anyone else does. That said, it's also a reality that people who work in the game industry are often more passionate about their jobs than those in less creative industries, and that comes through perfectly in Mythic Quest's first season.

Yes, many of the pickles these characters find themselves in would never happen in reality (or at least, there would be much more dire consequences if, say, a game's head of monetization turned every item in the microtransaction store free to prove a point). And many of their conversations are abjectly inappropriate for any workplace (the studio's HR rep has her work cut out for her). But there's something truthful at the show's core, and it makes the whole season extremely enjoyable.

Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet is streaming now on Apple TV+.