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Full spoilers follow for this episode. Click here if you want to learn how to watch Star Trek: Discovery.

And there you have it. The fan theory is proven correct as Shazad Latif is revealed in this episode of Discovery to be playing two separate characters: Lt. Ash Tyler and the Klingon Voq! At least, it seems like there are two characters -- we don’t really know if Tyler even exists or not. But for the purposes of this season, so far the Tyler we have known -- and kind of loved -- was actually Voq the whole time. Heavy.

And while the online theorizing had figured this one out early on -- which is an increasingly common situation for Peak TV (see: Westworld) -- the last couple of episodes had basically confirmed the notion that Tyler was just Voq in disguise. Still, the manner in which we got the actual reveal this week was quite striking and very effective. First there was the Tyler freak-out during Burnham’s meeting with the rebels (“Remain Klingon or die!”), which had Tyler/Voq basically fighting himself. But the truly heartbreaking moment came when Burnham finally learned the truth about her lover; it’s not just that both of their worlds are shattered by this reveal, but also that Tyler/Voq doesn’t seem to even care. (Read my interview with Shazad Latif to learn more about the Tyler/Voq situation.)

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Major Crimes has closed its final case.

The TNT procedural, after a run that exceeded more than 100 episodes, capped its sixth and final season by bringing series villain Phillip Stroh back for one last time, and by forcing those left in the department’s Major Crimes Division to move on without their Commander, Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell), who shockingly died four episodes earlier.

Raydor’s death casts a long shadow over the events of Major Crimes‘ climax, a feeling which was very much by design. As creator James Duff explains, the arc of the show was such that its captain needed to die after leading our heroes into the final battle, without being there to see it through herself. It’s only fitting that Stroh (Billy Burke), whose existence dates back to the earlier days of The Closer, was the final adversary.

For Duff, the end of Major Crimes, a spin-off of the Emmy-winning (and also long-running) The Closer, marks the end of a 14-year-ride. The creator broke down the final season of the TNT drama with EW: Why he killed off Raydor and when he decided to do so, what it meant for the rest of the show, and how he feels about exactly where the series landed before cutting to black for the last time. Read on below for our full interview.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Since we last spoke, quite a bit has happened!JAMES DUFF: Yeah.

Let’s start with the big question: Why did you decide to kill off your protagonist several episodes before finishing your show?There were a ton of reasons. Let me start with the creative reasons: I have an actor in a leading role who has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and I wanted to give her something extraordinary to play. She did an amazing job. She knocked it out of the stratosphere. Also, we knew we were not going to be back because of the way the network had treated us. Well, we had no idea they were going to cancel us before we even aired; that was a huge surprise. Not because we didn’t know that they were going to do it — it’s just that we didn’t know they were going to do it then. There was a chance, actually, that they could’ve ordered more episodes after we finished the run, and we didn’t want that to happen either. We knew the show was finished even though that has not been announced. This is what would have happened: Mary would have been trapped inside our show after it had literally died, and she would not be offered work. She’s a mature artist. I wasn’t going to put her on the shelf and hold her there just to see if something would happen on some wild hope. We accepted our fate.

What was that conversation with Mary like?Mary and I looked at each other and said, “This is obviously dead. How do we want to manage that?” And we also wanted to give viewers a chance to mourn with us as we fade to black — a chance to grieve the show and to accept that the show is over, that the show has ceased. This was the way we thought we could accomplish a lot of different goals, with this one action. And we did. I feel like we made the right choice. Also I would point out that the character archetype who leads their heroes to the final battle, but does not get to participate in that final battle, is as old as Western thought. We wanted to give the show a mythic structure for its last four episodes, five episodes, and that’s what we did. I feel like I did the right thing — not just for now. I didn’t do the right thing just for the people who are watching now. Series don’t go away anymore. They run and they run and they run; people come to them and they arrive at them. This is how the story ends. This is how we put a period on it. I’ve felt an obligation to write from my soul to my heart this ending. And as we got to the very end, you saw, it could not have ended this way if Sharon had been around.

Were you at all worried about audience response? It’s a risky choice — something that audiences aren’t always so used to, saying goodbye to their hero before the story is over.I knew it was going to be a controversial decision, and I knew also that a lot of people would be upset. But the vast majority of people are not upset, and our ratings have gone up! So much for the “We’re never watching!” crowd. I fully expected a great deal of controversy and I also fully expected that controversy to lift our ratings, and that’s exactly what happened. Even if it weren’t going to lift our ratings, I had an obligation to my friend that transcended ratings and that transcended how any group of audience is going to feel right now. My obligation to Mary was far greater than my obligation who feel like they’d been shortchanged.

You mentioned that there was some uncertainty as to just how definitive the cancellation would be when you made this decision to kill off Sharon. Was there any plan for extending the show, should TNT have gone that route?We gave the network a chance to say “Don’t do this.” It’s not like the network did not approve it. I had, before, put Mary in difficult situations just to force the network’s hand in terms of picking up the show or not picking up the show — twice before, I’ve done that, and they ended up picking up the show and told me not to do that. “Don’t do that, and we’ll pick up the show.” That’s not what happened this time. We knew where we stood. The original idea was, I’ll start this heart issue of Sharon’s and I’ll play this heart issue over two years. We felt like we had a good shot at coming back. But in the event, I played it over nine episodes. I could have ignored the writing on the wall and just let the show peter out. But that didn’t seem fair, either; it didn’t seem like a great way to treat the people who had watched it all this time. It felt like they deserved a period at the end of the sentence.

What was the feeling as you wrote toward that finish?It was very upsetting. Ages before other people, we were watching the show. It was like watching your home disappear. This was our professional life. When you think about it, a lot of the people who were here, we were together for more than 13 years; we went through kindergarten and graduated high school together, and started off college. There was no reason other than the change in direction from our network why we should go, because the audience wasn’t asking us to go. The audience wanted us to stay. It was very difficult. It was a very, very difficult parting, and lots of people were hurt, angry, and upset. But it also helped people accept it, like, “Okay, this is what we’re doing.” It really helped us appreciate the last few episodes we had together as a working family. Mary called in on our last day of shooting and talked to everybody on speakerphone. She’d never had off, believe it or not! She and her husband had never had off in the fall, ever, in their whole lives. So suddenly she had some time off in September; her kids were out of school, and she and her husband went on a fall road trip and had a blast. She called from the road and shared our final day with us.

How did you map out the rest of the season, beyond Sharon’s death?We always knew that we were going to finish with Phillip Stroh this year. We hired him early on. We knew we were going to do it. TNT had ordered us to do these longer-form stories — five-parters and four-parters. So we took on the assignment of, why would Phillip Stroh come back, and how can we tell his whole story? Who would his accomplice be — because he always has one. And what would the challenge be for the squad? We could not have told this story this way with Sharon in place. That was also something that we demanded of ourselves: This story had to be what they were prepared to do without Sharon. It’s impossible to think of Sharon saying “by any means.” Although that is a legal term and it is a term that you sometimes hear, it is impossible to imagine Sharon saying those words. And impossible to imagine some of the stuff that has happened, under her watch. And the end is impossible: You could not have had this story unless Sharon had passed on, and was not around anymore. It’s just impossible to imagine it. That’s what we wanted to do: a story that demanded everybody take on some responsibility for what was about to happen, and to see how well they would do without her. They learned what they hoped to accomplish in her absence.

What kind of note did you want to end on? How do you feel about the execution?I feel very good about the finale. People may come away from the finale feeling different things; right now, I don’t know how people will immediately feel, but we all felt like we did the right thing. The very end, the very last scene, is slightly defiant. I feel like we set the stage to allow these characters to possibly fly into legendary status, and we’ll see what happens as the years unfold. Like I said earlier, I’m not just writing a series for today because this series is already in syndication. It’s probably going to run several times over the course of the next 10 years in different venues and on different platforms. This story is going to go on for a while. I feel like we now have the right ending for it.

You’ve been in this world for more than a decade, and TV has changed quite a bit. What’s next?I’m thinking about that right now. We’ll see where the industry takes me. I’m going to spend a few minutes looking around and seeing what the business is like because, yes, it’s changed a lot in the last 14 years. It’s changed a great deal. I need to see where I fit in, in the new world, and if I fit in. I’m hopeful that I can find a way to do another show.

The first season of The Handmaid’s Tale won big at the Golden Globes on Sunday and the Critics’ Choice Awards on Thursday, bringing home more trophies to go along with the eight Emmys the cast and show nabbed in September. Understandably, following up such an acclaimed run can feel a bit daunting.

“The biggest barrier of season 2 was season 1,” showrunner Bruce Miller tells EW. “You sort of intimidate yourself. But at a certain point, you can’t spend all your time second-guessing things. Instead, you just have to remember to try and tell a good story.”

Season 1 adapted Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed 1985 novel, ending with Elisabeth Moss’ Offred — whom we now know by her real name, June — pregnant and being taken away in a Gilead-controlled van, heading either to dire punishment for an act of rebellion or to freedom. But season 2 (which will premiere in April on Hulu) will enter uncharted territory, albeit with input from Atwood, who serves as a consulting producer on the series. “Margaret and I had started to talk about the shape of season 2 halfway through the first,” Miller says.

The EP is reluctant to give too much away. “I’m not being cagey!” Miller protests. “I just want the viewers to experience it for themselves!” But he is willing to reveal that this season will explore the lives of the refugees (like Samira Wiley’s Moira) who’ve been able to escape Gilead as well as those who have been exiled to the Colonies (see photo below), the polluted and contaminated areas of North America.

Miller is particularly excited about an upcoming scene that depicts a handmaid’s funeral in Gilead. “Everything from the design of their costumes to the way they look is so chilling,” says Miller, who adds that production benefited from real snow on set in Canada. “These scenes that are so beautiful, while set in such a terrible place, provide the kind of contrast that makes me happy.”

He feels the same way about working with Moss. “Lizzie is such an incredible partner on this with me. Sometimes while writing the scripts, I just really wanted to surprise her,” he says. “She’s even better in season 2, if you can believe it.” We do.

The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 will debut on Hulu in April.

James Cameron has addressed allegations made by Eliza Dushku that she was sexually molested by a stunt coordinator on the set of his film True Lies, praising the actress for her bravery in coming forward.

“Eliza is very brave for speaking up,” Cameron told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour on Saturday, where he was promoting his AMC series Visionaries. “Had I known about it, there would’ve been no mercy.”

On Saturday, the 37-year-old actress alleged in a Facebook post that one of Hollywood’s leading stunt coordinators, Joel Kramer, molested her during the filming of the Cameron-directed 1994 film when she was 12 years old. Kramer has denied the allegations, calling them “atrocious lies” in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. 

“I remember, so clearly 25 years later, how Joel Kramer made me feel special, how he methodically built my and my parents’ trust, for months grooming me,” she wrote in an emotional post on her Facebook page, claiming that Kramer had brought her to his Miami hotel room “with a promise to my parent that he would take me for a swim at the stunt crew’s hotel pool and for my first sushi meal thereafter.” However, she claims that Kramer placed her on one of the room’s two hotel beds, disappearing into the bathroom before emerging naked, with a small hand towel over his genitals. Dushku alleges that Kramer then laid on top of her and “rubbed all over me” until he climaxed.

Here are Cameron’s comments in full:

“I just heard about it. I haven’t given a lot of thought to the specific situation today — I just heard about it, but obviously Eliza is very brave for speaking up. I think all the women are that are speaking up and calling for a reckoning now. I think this has been endemic throughout human systems, not just Hollywood, but because Hollywood deals with— women who were victims 10, 15, 20 years ago are famous today, so they get to have a louder voice when they come forward, so bravo for them for doing it. And I’m glad Eliza did that.

It’s just heartbreaking that it happened to her. I know the other party — not well, he hasn’t worked for me since then. The fact that this was happening under our noses and we didn’t know about it, going forward, it’s important for all industries, certainly Hollywood, to create a safe avenue for people to speak up, that they feel safe, and that anybody who might be a predator or an abuser knows that that mechanism is there, that it’s encouraged, and that there’s no shame around it, and that there will be consequences. I think we all collectively, just as the human race, have to do that. I don’t think this is a Hollywood problem. I think that Hollywood is in the unique position of actually shining a spotlight on it, as Hollywood has historically done on a lot of social issues. It’s kind of one of the things we do and do well.

This is a great moment in history, unfortunately it’s founded on personal tragedy for so many of these women. This is not a reckoning for Hollywood, this is not a reckoning for America, this is a reckoning for the human race. This shit has been going on since Day 1. So whenever there’s a male in a position of power, and he’s got a piece missing and doesn’t understand the consequences of what he’s doing — and maybe out of this can come some education that can pull some man who would otherwise go down that path back from the brink as well. Because I think a lot of it has to come from some kind of lack of empathy, they’re clearly not feeling what this is going to mean for this person further down the line. Hopefully we’ll be making films about this stuff and we’ll put something in place as industry practice to do it as much as we can to prevent it. Because this is happening right now. Directors are historically pretty oblivious to the interpersonal things that are happening on their set, because they are just focused — and I’m probably one of the worst offenders of that, being focused on what I’m doing creatively. But had I known about it, there would’ve been no mercy. Now, especially that I have daughters, there’s really no mercy.”

"Knowledge is a dangerous thing."

So says Michael Shannon's Beatty in an extended trailer for HBO's Fahrenheit 451 film adaptation, which aired during the project's TV Critics' Association press tour panel. The new take on Ray Bradbury's seminal dystopian novel takes that theme of dangerous knowledge and updates it for the modern technological and political age.

While the novel Fahrenheit 451 is set in the unspecified future, Bradbury's story couldn't have anticipated the ways technology would have advanced 65 years after its 1953 publication. When director Ramin Bahrani took to adapt the story, his first big challenge to modernize it was to figure out how to make it still relevant in a time when all of the world's books can exist on the Internet on our smartphones.

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Did you know that all you had to do get time with a top-end VR system was kill someone when you were a juvenile? I am not sure they are going to react all that well to Job Simulator, but on the up-side, it is 10% off today on Steam. This year, Colorado started an early-release program for people convicted as juveniles who have already served 20 years of their sentences. To get ready for life on the outside, inmates in the three-year program use virtual reality to prepare for stressful situations and practice skills they never learned as teens, like doing laundry and grocery shopping. Six Colorado inmates sentenced to decades in prison as teenagers in the '80s and '90s thought they would never get out. During their 20-plus years behind bars, technology has changed the outside world dramatically. On the downside? Payday 2 VR beta is there to help them out with any other skillsets they might be lacking in. Discussion

Motorola has announced two new Moto Mods for compatible devices, the Lenovo Vital and the Livermorium Slider Keyboard. The Lenovo Vital is easily the more interesting of the two. It is a health monitor that can be slapped on the back of your phone and measure your heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, core body temperature and for the first time, accurate systolic and diastolic blood pressure from your finger. The other Mod isn't remotely as interesting. It's a slider keyboard mod that slides out from under your phone and lets you type like it's still 2008. This Mod...

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons takes a break from doing Farmers Insurance commercials to sink his teeth into this excellent new science fiction thriller from Starz, premiering on January 21st. If you’re a fan of shows like Fringe and Sliders, then Counterpart is right up your alley.

Simmons plays Howard Silk, a cog in the wheel of a U.N. spy agency in Berlin. After 30 years of doing the same old thing, Howard is desperate for something new and interesting to come along. And boy does he get his wish.

Apparently, there was a Cold War experiment that opened a doorway to another identical dimension and only a select group of people are aware it exists. As if that wasn’t weird enough, Howard gets a harsh awakening when he discovers that there is another Howard Silk that looks just like him. This is where Counterpart gets interesting.

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Vortx is ridiculous. It's a cube that you place on your desk, next to your PC or laptop, and it blows hot or cold air in your face, depending on what's happening on-screen. The air responds dynamically to the action: If you're running through the fie...

Huawei believes it has found the solution to two of the most common frustrations with WiFi routers -- blind spots and slower speeds at further distances. The company's new WiFi Q2 routers blend a conventional mesh system with power-line communication...

Way back when, in the days before smartphones, folks had to use a PDA to get work done when they were out and about on the go. The form factor was typified by Psion, which died off at the turn of the millennium when it was clear other devices would t...

Shopping for fresh produce online has always been a bit of a gamble since you're not actually selecting the fruits and veggies yourself. Santa Clara, California-based startup Robomarts aims to change that by bringing online produce shopping to your f...

LAS VEGAS, NV — The Razer Mamba HyperFlux is a wireless mouse but it doesn’t need a battery.The gaming mouse, which includes a charging mat, the Firefly Hyperflux, will release in the first quarter of 2018. 

Razer’s HyperFlux technology which uses the mousepad to create a magnetic field that constantly powers the mouse. The Firefly Hyperflux is a two-sided charging mouse pad, with both hard and cloth sides for different comfort and friction options. The hard side may be more conducive to fast movements in MOBA-style games like DOTA 2, while the cloth side can help with aiming in first person shooters like Overwatch.

Unlike competitors which use their mats to charge a battery, Razer has removed the battery altogether, resulting in an extremely lightweight mouse, weighing in at just 0.2 pounds. If you don’t want to use the Firefly or are gaming where you won’t have it, there’s a 6.9-foot cable in the box to play with the Mamba in wired mode.

 

Our friends at Toms guide had a chance to be hands-on with the device. Here is what Andrew had to say about it:

“I was legitimately surprised by how light the Mamba felt in my hand. On first impressions, it felt even lighter than some wired mouses I’ve used in my time. While Razer wasn’t demoing it early with any games, I got to try both sides of the Firefly and found it very easy to change out. My personal preference is the cloth side, but I appreciate having the option.

I also appreciated that it holds the tiniest bit of charge before powering off, so if you pick up and move the Mamba on the Firefly, you won’t disconnect in the middle of a tense game.

My only real gripe was that the USB cable that connects the mouse or mouse pad to the computer was tight, making switching to a wired mode more difficult than it needed to be.”

 

*Images above from Andrew Freeman / Tom's Guide

Specifications wise, the Mamba Hyperflux uses a 16,000 DPI 5G optical sensor. Razer touts its Adaptive Frequency Technology, which continuously scans the 2.5GHz frequency band to find the most powerful signal so the connection will be at its best and minimize drops in the middle of your Destiny 2 raid.

The mouse uses Razer’s mechanical switches and has nine programmable buttons, some using the Adjustable Click Force Technology Razer fans won’t be surprised that both the Mamba and the Firefly support Chroma lighting options with 16.8 million colors.

Pricing is listed at $249 with availability 1Q 2018. 

Related Reading:

• Cherry Announces the MW 4500 Mouse with 45° Palm Rest, 1200 DPI Sensor
• Logitech Boosts Precision of G203 Prodigy Mouse to 8000 DPI via Firmware Update
• Razer reveals Basilisk Mouse: Made for First Person Shooters

Written with Andrew Freedman / Tom's Guide

Pizza Hut is channeling Black Mirror with its new self-driving pizza delivery car concept.

At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Pizza Hut announced it is teaming up with Toyota to potentially have pizzas delivered in autonomous vehicles in the near future. Toyota unveiled designs of the self-driving concept vehicle called e-Palette (below), which Pizza Hut wants to make full use of.

The e-Palette self-driving concept vehicle.

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Spoilers follow for certain aspects of this week’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “Despite Yourself.”

Sunday marked the return of Star Trek: Discovery after its brief mid-season hiatus, and, wow, did it hit the ground running. Episode 10, "Despite Yourself" (read our review here), shoved the USS Discovery into the Mirror Universe (the alternate reality Trek staple where everyone is evil), put Cadet Tilly in the captain's chair (which she is ill-prepared for to say the least), revealed that one major character may be a mind-wiped sleeper agent (I won't say who), and featured a shocking and unexpected

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It's been almost three months since Intel announced a 17-qubit superconducting chip, meant to pave the way for a future powered by quantum computers. Today at CES, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich showed off its latest superconducting test chip, the 49-qubit...

Now that the totally wireless earbuds craze is here, companies are looking to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Thanks to the Over-the Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017, the US government freed up access to certain assisted hearing devices in a mo...

It's no secret that not every Kickstarter or Indiegogo project becomes a reality. Often times, these ideas get crowdfunded but don't get turned into an actual product, but thankfully that wasn't the case for the Moodo smart air freshener. The project...

Mymanu's Clik+ headphones come with a big promise: live translation between 37 languages. We saw something similar recently from Google and Bragi, but both of those are operating as a middleman, serving up the audio with an app doing the heavy liftin...

Legendary rock producer Chris Tsangarides passed away early this morning (Sunday, January 7) after reportedly being taken ill at the start of the year. According to his daughter Anastasia Tsangarides, Chris was battling pneumonia and heart failure at the time of his death. He was 61 years old. The British Grammy-nominated record producer, sound engineer, and mixer is best known for his work with many heavy metal bands, including JUDAS PRIEST, ANVIL, GARY MOORE, THIN LIZZY, HELLOWEEN, ANGRA, ANTHEM, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN and TYGERS OF PAN TANG. Tsangarides also worked with a number of pop and alternative artists, including DEPECHE MODE, TOM JONES, CONCRETE BLONDE and THE TRAGICALLY HIP. BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi said that he was "so saddened to hear" of Tsangarides's passing. "He has been a part of my life since '70 when he worked as tape operator on the SABBATH album 'Sabotage' and he's worked with me on lots of other albums and stuff," he said. "What a lovely bloke he was and we always got on really well and had a great laugh too! He'll be sadly missed. RIP, my friend." SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler added: "Sad to hear of Chris Tsangarides passing away. He worked on the 'Sabotage' album, a thoroughly lovely bloke. R.I.P. Chris." JUDAS PRIEST said: "We are saddened to hear of the passing of our friend Chris Tsangarides. His contributions to our metal and so many others will forever remain. Love and condolences to his family." ANVIL frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow said in a statement: "It's with profound sadness I say goodbye to a dear friend... Chris Tsangarides was our beloved record producer who I am grateful to say appeared in [the ANVIL documentary] 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil' with us. He was truly an amazing human being who had a deep passion for music. He understood not only the music but even more so the musicians. He became part of our lives and he will be sorely missed. Rest easy, my friend." Former BLACK SABBATH and WHITESNAKE bassist Neil Murray called Tsangarides "a lovely man and very talented." He added that Chris will be "sadly missed by all who knew him, I'm sure." Scottish hard rockers THE AMORETTES also mourned Tsangarides's death, saying they were "utterly devastated" to hear about his passing. "Chris produced our 'Game On' album, the record that pretty much started us on this crazy journey," they said. "Just as we are gearing up to release our newest album, we want to just send our love to all his family and friends. Chris, you were an absolute gentleman, and it was a pleasure. Rest in peace, dark lord." British alternative rock band BLIND TIGER wrote on its Facebook page: "Chris, you were our mentor, our inspiration and our friend. We'll never forget the things you have taught us over the years. You saw something in us and gave us the opportunity to grow into the band we are today. You are and always will be our hero. We love you, Chris. You will never be forgotten." Ex-TIGERTAILZ singer Kim Hooker said that Tsangarides "was a legend. The list of greats he worked with speaks for itself," he wrote. "He was up there with the best of them. Above all, he was the one who guided me through my numerous mental episodes at the 'Bezerk' sessions. I love you, Sponka. RIP my dear friend." TYGERS OF PAN TANG wrote on Facebook: "The band are saddened by the news that legendary rock producer Chris Tsangarides has passed away... A true godfather in the rock music world and will be sorely missed. He worked on 'Wildcat', 'Spellbound' and 2012 album 'Ambush'... The guys would like to send their deepest condolences to his family and friends." SAXON drummer Nigel Glockler said: "So very sorry to wake up to the news that Chris Tsangarides has passed. A truly fantastic producer and even better person." THIN LIZZY wrote in a statement: "It is with great sadness that we hear of the passing of producer Chris Tsangarides who worked with the band on 'Renegade' and 'Thunder And Lightning'. Our thoughts go out to Chris's wife Jane and family at this time." Several years ago, Tsangarides spoke about his lengthy and diverse resume during an interview with Tape Op. He said: "I developed such good friendships when I was working at studios. As a 'house dude,' you've got to do whatever the hell is booked in. I liked it. When I started producing, again totally by fluke, I was asked to record a Gary Moore solo record called 'Back On The Streets'. He said to me, 'You can produce this, by the way.' I thought he was joking and realized he wasn't. I said, 'Okay. You play it and I'll record it.' That's basically what we did — with a guitar player as awesome as him and a drummer like Simon Phillips. Then he brought in Phil Lynott and Brian Downey from THIN LIZZY, and we recorded a track called 'Parisienne Walkways', which got released and becomes a fuckin' massive, huge hit. Suddenly I was a successful producer. I did what I always did — made people laugh, we recorded and had a great time. I was very, very fortunate to have that break. People get interested in coming to you after that. "Anything to do with an 'art' kind of job, whether you're an actor or a musician or whatever, you never know if you're going to be successful or not. Anything that's been really successful for me has never been contrived. We just do it because that's our music. "One of the biggest records I ever had was CONCRETE BLONDE ['Bloodletting'] and that's hardly heavy metal by any stretch of the imagination. They were into THIN LIZZY, so that's how they got in touch with me. After doing CONCRETE BLONDE, I got to do EXODUS [in part because they] liked CONCRETE BLONDE — go figure." Tsangarides added: "That's what people don't understand. Just because you might be perceived as one thing, it doesn't mean you don't do anything else. That's the way we like to compartmentalize our lives. 'You're a heavy metal producer.' Well, yeah, I produce heavy metal records, but... I see the merit, the work, the love and the rest of it for everything I do. I've been very lucky in that respect. Another band from Canada, THE TRAGICALLY HIP, are an absolute monster act over there. It's opened up avenues of alternative styles of music, which keeps me working. It wasn't by design. I'm not a guru that looks into some crystal ball, knows what's going to go on and follows the route. It's just that I've been incredibly fortunate in being to able to work with such diverse acts. I've been lucky that people have been open-minded enough to realize there's a lot of things you can learn from heavy metal records, or from country and western records."

Gaming, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles are three top priorities for NVIDIA currently. Jensen Huang took the stage to discuss the three pillars, eventually working toward the monumental announcement of a new processor built to handle the massive amounts of computing needed to bring the autonomous vehicle dream to life.

Autonomous vehicles could reduce cost-per-mile to the same level of car ownership, if not below. Huang says that it will revolutionize trucking and extend the range of drivers by allowing them to rest for hours while traveling. Huang also spoke on the fact that there are massive computing problems that must be overcome before AV becomes a reality and announced the world's first autonomous machine processor: The Drive Xavier. The new processor will be available for sampling in Q1 and it has been 8000 engineering years in the making.

Huang showed off in the image below how space efficient the new processor is when it comes to the chip system being placed in the vehicle.

Via video, Huang and his team showed off a vehicle on the road that was being powered by the new Drive Xavier after only being made available two weeks prior. Huang hopes to be in production by the end of the year. Another video showed a human passenger riding along for an 8-mile autonomous route that showed the car safely navigating the roads, abiding by traffic laws, and yielding to other vehicles.

Baidu and ZF in China have selected the Drive Xavier for their AV car development. Aurora and NVIDIA will partner up to build the autonomous vehicle compute platform. Uber is partnering with NVIDIA to create self-driving Ubers.

The NVIDIA Pegasus is powered by two Drive Xaviers and, in theory, Huang says it can power a "robot taxi" with only 400 watts of power. This tech will also be sampled this year. 

Huang also revealed the NVIDIA Drive IX, a platform that can be used to power human-driven vehicles with autonomous tech. The included tech will essentially take the "smart car" idea to the next level by allowed it to track your gaze, notice if your drowsy, operate with voice commands, and more.

Now that LG's Alexa-equipped refrigerator is no longer a novelty, the company is moving on to the next step: appliances that work in harmony. It's introducing a range of smart appliances that thrive on sharing information to help you get things done....

HP has initiated a voluntarily recall of a number of laptop batteries. These batteries are used inside various Envy, ProBook and ZBook notebooks over the past two years due to fire and burn hazards. The manufacturer claims that it had received eight reports of battery packs overheating, melting, or charring. In total, HP intends to recall 50,000 batteries.

The affected battery packs were made in China and were shipped with select HP ProBook 640/645 and 650/655, HP x360 310 G2, HP Envy m6, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11, HP ZBook 17 and HP ZBook Studio G3 notebooks. The laptops were available worldwide from various sellers from December 2015 through December 2017. During the same period, the batteries were also supplied as accessories.

Some of these laptops come with user removable batteries, whereas the other feature integrated ones. HP does not provide any exact model numbers of laptops or battery packs that are affected but advises customers who own a potentially affected notebook to visit an appropriate website and download a special utility (basic version, full version) that automatically checks whether or not a particular battery is potentially unsafe.

If the HP battery program validation utility finds that the accumulator in use needs to be replaced, it will recommend to update system’s BIOS and enable “Battery Safety Mode” that prevents it from charging. After that, customers should contact HP and order a new battery that will be sent to them free of charge. For laptops with internal batteries, HP will also provide a technician to switch them.

Battery recalls are not uncommon these days. This is the second laptop battery recall by HP in the last 12 months. In January 2017, the company recalled 100,000 units. Since in many cases the batteries that explode or catch fire cause injury and/or property damage, HP is taking the issue with very seriously and is trying to avoid any incidents.

Related Reading

• Panasonic Recalls 280,000 Tablet Battery Packs Due to Fire Hazard
• HP Recalls Over 100,000 Laptop Batteries Due to Potential Fire and Burn Hazards
• Apple Recalls "Duckhead" Power Adapters for Select Mac Laptops and iPads
• Microsoft to Recall Power Cables for Previous-Gen Surface Pro Tablets

Next week's CES 2018 tech extravaganza promises to be quite a show, and the latest in a long line of new products to be previewed is a rollable OLED TV screen from LG Display, measuring an impressive 65 inches from corner to corner.

The new screen is in fact a bigger version of a flexible 18-inch display the company showed off back in 2014. At the time, LG promised that larger versions of the technology were on the way, and it seems we'll be seeing evidence of that next week in Las Vegas.

Based on the preview images LG has sent out, the screen slides down into a compact base when it's not needed, which could be useful in all kinds of home theater setups. As an added bonus, the TV display boasts a 4K resolution for all your Netflix binge watching.

Roll up, roll up

Other details about the display – not least if and when you'll actually be able to buy it, and for how much cash – are thin on the ground. Tech firms will often tease new gear ahead of CES itself just to get the hype train rolling, and in this case we're happy to oblige.

Of course there's a big difference between being able to get something like this ready for a CES show and having the technology in place to produce it at a reasonable cost for the mass market, but even at the prototype stage this shows LG is getting better at building these kind of rollable OLED screens.

TechRadar is going to be on the ground in Las Vegas next week, so we will of course bring you news of all the best gadgets and gizmos as they're unveiled. A trip to the LG Display booth to take a proper look at this rollable TV screen is definitely on our to do list.

• Why the future of phones, wearables and watches is flexible

If you want to bid farewell to New Girl, save seven Tuesdays in a row starting in April.

Fox announced on Thursday that it will uncork the season 7 premiere of the Zooey Deschanel sitcom on April 10 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, while the two-part, one-hour series finale will air on May 15 at 9 p.m.

The comedy about a quintet of friends, which also stars Max Greenfield, Jake Johnson, Lamorne Morris, and Hannah Simone, will say goodbye in the future: The long-rumored time jump is true, and the final season kicks off three years down the road. The season 6 finale saw Jess (Deschanel) once again revealing her feelings to her friend-turned-ex-turned-friend Nick (Johnson), Cece (Simone) and Schmidt (Greenfield) learning that she is pregnant, and Winston (Morris) getting engaged to Aly (Nasim Pedrad). In the future, Jess and Nick, still together, return from a European book tour, Schmidt is staying at home with daughter Ruth while CeCe is a working mom, and the now-married Winston and Aly are expecting a child.

Season 7 will welcome back a fair amount of guest stars, including original cast member Damon Wayans, Jr., Dermot Mulroney, David Walton, Nelson Franklin, Sam Richardson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Rob Reiner. Want some new faces, too? JB Smoove and Tig Notaro also will pop up in the final batch of episodes.

It’s official: Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is getting a new series on the air.

Syfy announced a pickup for Nightflyers, based on Martin’s novella and the 1987 film of the same name. The story: “Eight maverick scientists and a powerful telepath embark on an expedition to the edge of our solar system aboard The Nightflyer — a ship with a small tightknit crew and a reclusive captain — in the hope of making contact with alien life. But when terrifying and violent events begin to take place they start to question each other — and surviving the journey proves harder than anyone thought.”

Syfy will air the series in the U.S. while co-producer Netflix has picked up the international distribution rights (which means that despite its basic cable origins, the project could very well look like an expensive show).

Jeff Buhler (Jacob’s Ladder) wrote the adaptation for television and will executive produce alongside Daniel Cerone (The Blacklist), who will also serve as showrunner. Mike Cahill (I Origin) will direct the pilot.

 Gretchen Mol (Boardwalk Empire) is set to star as Dr. Agatha Matheson, alongside Eoin Macken (The Night Shift) as Karl D’Branin, David Ajala (Fast & Furious 6) as Roy Eris, Sam Strike (EastEnders) as Thale, Maya Eshet (Teen Wolf) as Lommie, Angus Sampson (Fargo) as Rowan,  Jodie Turner-Smith (The Last Ship) as Melantha Jhirl, and Brían F. O’Byrne (Million Dollar Baby) as Auggie.

In almost any other television show, Walton — Jimmi Simpson’s character in the Black Mirror standout episode “USS Callister” — would be the villain, and Jesse Plemons’ Robert Daly would be our hero. Daly is slightly awkward, tech-savvy, nostalgically obsessed with his favorite television show; he has the exact credentials of an underdog protagonist meant to be a stand-in for the audience, like Scott Pilgrim, or Wade Watts in Ready Player One.

In another television show, maybe the audience would even cheer as Daly got revenge against the good-looking jocks of the office who wronged him, and against the slick company CEO who edged him out of his proper credit. The filmography of the ’80s and ’90s is dense with Revenge of the Nerd-style fantasies in which geeks finally win the day.

But this is 2018. “Geeks” are no longer the underdogs; they’re the mega-tech billionaires who, through drug-fueled sex parties in Silicon Valley, have built companies toxic for female employees. They’re the poisonous engine behind the harassment of GamerGate and the fetid petri dish of the Alt-Right; they are a generation of boys who grew up thinking they’re the victims, never grasping the extent to which they’ve become the bullies.

“What I do love about performance is, when he’s so extra f—ing angry, he gets so much more theatrical and it’s the most horrific combo,” Simpson says. “And we’re watching the leader of our country do the exact same thing every time. When it creeps through, you’re like, oh my god, this is an appeal for everyone to understand how hard he’s had it. It’s the grossest.”

That is the brilliant and timely message of “USS Callister.” And so it’s Simpson’s Walton — the smooth, electric-guitar-playing CEO turned broken Star Trek plaything — who gets the hero moment at the episode’s climax, sacrificing himself for the sake of his cohorts. The jocks are sympathetic and funny; the geek is a vindictive manipulator, a perfect representation of modern toxic masculinity.

RELATED VIDEO: Rosemarie Dewitt Teases Her Black Mirror Collaboration With Jodie Foster

Playing the hero has been a recent development for Simpson, whose résumé before Westworld is a litany of awkward weirdoes and basement-dwellers, like the guinea-pig-loving hacker Gavin Orsay in House of Cards or a member of the milk-drinking McPoyle clan on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Simpson still sometimes gets sent glasses of milk at bars). 

“I have a problem with the term leading man,” Simpson says. “It’s so limiting; it involves not upsetting anyone. Obviously we have anti-heroes now, but if we’re talking about the two tropes — character actor and leading man — I would so rather be a character actor. That’s why I have a career.”

I met Simpson at a tiny corner table in the back of Figaro Bistrot in L.A.’s Los Feliz neighborhood, and the interview only began in earnest after he apologized twice for making me come out of my way (I hadn’t). In person, he’s far more like his Westworld character, William — at least back when he was a White Hat — than any of his techie alter egos. Simpson is a smile-and-shake-your-hand, walk-you-to-your-car kind of guy. He would almost certainly pick up a rolling can if I happened to drop it. He insists we order food.

When it comes to preparing for roles, Simpson takes an academic approach, analyzing the text with the dedication of an obsessive grad student. (For his role as Detective Russell Poole in Unsolved, USA’s upcoming drama about the murders of Biggie and Tupac, Simpson has filled a whiteboard in his home, serial-killer-style, with notes about the character. I saw a picture on his phone.)

“The process is: first of all, what would I do; and then the actual story: why does this character exist? What’s his purpose? And you come up with all of these reasons, and then when you get in the room and you have the 60 seconds, you let all of that go, and you’re going to naturally be guided by the preparation you’ve done. If you wing it, yeah, you might kill it, you might be really funny, or you might really tap into something, but I think it’s more likely after I prepare.”

But sometimes, as was the case with Black Mirror, some character choices come through fate: “I go in the first day of work absolutely flu-ridden. I’ve never had the flu this bad in my life. It stuck around for a f—ing month. But I told Charlie and the director Toby vilified version, it’s going to be like made me less appealing. It might work. That outfit is just hanging on me. It works.”

Even though his Black Mirror character sacrifices himself to save the day, Simpson doesn’t quite see Walton as a hero. “He starts the whole situation. It’s his lack of empathy that creates all of it. He did a common human sin: selfishness. But then, Jesse’s character took that, selfishness, and turned it into revenge. Now, that’s a more nefarious, thoughtful attack. My guy was thoughtless, but we have to understand, thoughtless is a problem, right?”

Notably, in the episode’s final scene, the crew — digital consciousnesses that had previously been entrapped in Daly’s Star Trek-analog stimulation — are aboard a new digital ship, all shiny and white, able to explore the universe without their tyrannical overlord. But Simpson’s character is missing. Did he “die” in the engine blast when the ship went through the black hole? Or was he still immortal? Is he burning, without dying, forever?

“We talked about that! Because we shot that kind of last. Everything was gutted, and we got this new ship and cool outfits, and the cast was like come on, you should be here. What? He’s just in the air? We don’t like that. First of all, it’s so Charlie. But it’s essential, I think. These people have been tortured for what feels like hundreds of years. My take is — and you’ll have to ask Charlie, I’m not writing his script — but, yeah. Screaming cells for all eternity.”

It’s a pitch-black ending for a character in an episode that ends on a relatively (for Black Mirror) happily ever after.

“It’s not about getting redemption,” Simpson says. “I mean, that’s the way it’ll play, but as the man who’s making this human being, he’s not trying to redeem himself; he’s trying to make it right for the people, because he f—ed it up. It’s not about now give me a thumbs up; I’ll never see their thumbs up, but hopefully they’ll be free.”

The show’s true villain, the toxic masculinity so often personified by angry white boys behind computer screens, is still alive and well at the episode’s end: as the crew takes stock of their new freedom, they receive a voice chat with another video game player (voiced by Aaron Paul) who, with “blow me” swagger, declares himself the king of space. He’s no real threat to them, but still, he’s there, the episode’s final voice reminding us exactly what the point of all this was.

“I think about it a lot: being a white man, and the absolute lack of conflict every white man faces,” Simpson continues. “There’s nothing to get them to snap into reality unless they face personal trauma, and in this country they cannot conceive of things being more difficult for them, and so when things are, they act like it’s unfair.”

I ask Simpson about his House of Cards costar, Kevin Spacey, one of the many white men in Hollywood taken down post-Weinstein for allegations of sexual abuse and harassment. (In late October, actor Anthony Rapp alleged to BuzzFeed News that Spacey drunkenly initiated inappropriate sexual contact in 1986, when Rapp was just 14 years old and Spacey was 26. Following Rapp’s claims, Spacey issued a statement on Twitter saying he didn’t remember the incident and apologized “for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” He also came out as gay in the statement, and in early November he announced he was seeking treatment. The following day, Spacey was fired from House of Cards after more men came forward with allegations against the actor, some who say they were minors at the time and others who worked with Spacey on House of Cards.)

“I never worked with him, I don’t even know if I was ever on the same set with him,” Simpson says. “I saw him at a reading and I saw him at the wrap party one year, and we didn’t really exchange many words. I knew he was gay, but I didn’t know he was…” Simpson pauses. “A troublemaker. But I heard from a friend he had a young assistant once and that made me pause. It was the ‘assistant’ term that made my head cock a little bit, because if I heard ‘young boyfriend,’ it’s like, well, some dudes are a little grosser than others. But when you say ‘assistant,’ that makes me think there’s subtext there. But I never heard anything. No one on set, that I heard, said he was doing anything on set.”

Simpson is optimistic about the show’s decision to focus entirely on Robin Wright’s character. “I think it’s the greatest idea they’ve ever had. I could not be a bigger fan of hers throughout her entire career. What she does on that show is spectacular — one of the strongest actors out there. I’ll watch the show faster now.”

All four seasons of Black Mirror are available on Netflix.

Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Tuesday’s episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Read at your own risk!

Friday’s episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was, quite literally, a bloodbath.

Though Fitz (Iain de Caestecker) suggested the Destroyer of Worlds take part in a fight to the death, Daisy (Chloe Bennet) was one of the few who did not die. Telepathic Inhuman Ben (Myko Olivier) was killed for lying to Kasius (Dominic Rains). Tess (Eve Harlow) was strung up for protecting new Inhuman Flint (Coy Stewart), who killed Grill (Pruitt Taylor Vince) to save Coulson (Clark Gregg) & Co. from being turned over to Kasius. May’s (Ming-Na Wen) fate hangs in the balance after being sent to the surface of the Earth. Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) slit Kasius’ throat, so he might be dead.

Fortunately, Fitz, Daisy, and Simmons were able to go on the run, but the question remains: Where can you really run in a post-apocalyptic future? Will Team S.H.I.E.L.D. now be trying to find their way home?

“Yes,” Gregg tells EW. “Long story short, but the No. 1 objective that’s been set up so magnificently since episode 1 is somehow or another, we have to go back to the past — not just because it’s where we belong, but because we have to find a way to keep the Earth from being destroyed. We have the added difficulty of the strong suggestion that Daisy is the one who did it.”

But there are more immediately pressing matters, namely that half of the team is now on the run, while the other half is still stuck on the lower levels of the Lighthouse. “Now they’ve got Kasius and everything at his disposal in full pursuit of them,” Gregg says, “and there’s a clock ticking that they either reunite the team and find a way out of here, or they’re going to be eradicated and perhaps get the remainder of humanity that’s living here terminated as well.”

Unfortunately, one team member is in even more peril than the rest. In order to spare May from being killed by Ben, Fitz convinced Kasius to send her to the surface, which is basically a death sentence. “There has been this idea that there’s a pocket of survivors out there who have been radioing that they have to explore, so that’s going to be part of what we do,” Gregg says. “But I don’t know how much we’ll be able to go on a rescue mission for May if we’re fighting off Kasius’ army of Kree warriors.”

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

Sheldon Cooper is a hit as an adult and a kid.

CBS announced today that it has renewed Young Sheldon for a second season. The comedy is a spin-off of The Big Bang Theory and focuses on Sheldon as a 9-year-old, played by Iain Armitage.

“Young Sheldon has made a huge impact on our schedule in the short time it’s been on the air,” said CBS President Kelly Kahl in a statement. “While the show’s DNA is clearly rooted in The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon has staked out its own place in the TV universe with a unique creative tone, brilliant writing and a gifted multi-generational cast. We can’t wait to see Chuck, Steve, Jim and Todd’s vision for how the Cooper family deals with Sheldon growing a year older…and smarter.”

Young Sheldon ranks as the No. 1 new comedy this season in viewers (16.17 millions), adults 18-49 (3.3 rating) and adults 25-54 (4.9), and is the No.2 comedy in all of TV behind its mother ship, Big Bang.  

The single-camera comedy series also stars Zoe Perry, Lance Barber, Annie Potts, Raegan Revord, Montana Jordan, and the voice of Jim Parsons. It follows Sheldon, who attends high school, and his family in east Texas.

The Good Fight has never shied away from tackling Donald Trump’s polarizing presidency — and season 2 will do so in a very big way.

The CBS All Access series, a spin-off of The Good Wife, was one of the first dramas to comment on Trump’s election, depicting a slack-jawed Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), a devout Hillary Clinton supporter, watching the inauguration last January.

But in season 2, the show will go deep into exploring the possibility of Trump’s impeachment.

The set-up: The show’s fictional law firm is contracted by the Democratic National Committee to make a legal argument for removing Trump from office because they fully expect to win the House during the 2018 mid-term elections. 

“The Democratic Committee is auditioning the firms to take on impeachment hearings because they expect to in November,” co-creator Robert King told reporters the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday. “Our firm — because it’s a majority African-American firm — is one of the ones they’re pursuing. A lot of it is a debate about how he could be impeached and also going into the 25th Amendment. You also find when you get a lot of Democrats together that they’re talking about this as if it were a coup — so we’re not just looking at it one way. There’s a little bit of digging into the weeds on a lot of the legal issues surrounding impeachment, especially because are really counting their chickens before they hatch.” 

King emphasized that the show will be heavily satirizing the Democrats rather than merely prosecuting a case against Trump. “The Democrats are licking their chops at the possibility of turning the House over and impeachment,” he says. “So it’s really a satire of Democrats wanting to impeach a sitting president in a way that would make them angry if it were Republicans going after Obama … There’s a lot of argument among them — especially because Michael Boatman’s character is very much a Trump supporter. We wanted to see what the debate would be…” 

And what did the producers learn while researching the 25th Amendment during the writing process?

“It’s pretty f–ked,” King says. “I mean, the 25th Amendment is not really a sensible possibility. The other thing is Audra McDonald’s character thinks that the way to prosecute impeachment is to be as shameless as to what they think Trump is — so to say they have the tape of the golden shower, but as soon as the people ask, ‘Well, where is it?’ pivot to the next thing. Don’t go after one thing like did with Clinton — with obstruction of justice or perjury — to go after a whole plethora and move from one to the other. Again, we’re satirizing it. I’m not saying we support that. In fact, if anything, I would say we don’t support that. But it seemed like a very interesting way to represent the democratic intensity about how they’re going to … The bottom line is the best way to attack it is do the same thing: ‘When they go low, we go lower’ is the concept … You don’t know which one you support at the end.” 

The Good Fight season 2 begins streaming Sunday, March 2.