David Fincher's film about the inception of Facebook (and all ensuing lawsuits) has been at cinemas in the US since the beginning of the month and has just had advance screenings over here in England. To put it simply, this film is the best one this year. Better than Shutter Island. Better than Kick-Ass. Better than all the rest. Even better than Inception. And that I thought was impossible.
The two main characters; Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg and Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield are excellent. They are shown to be polar opposites, yet seem to be solid friends, Saverin's cool businessman persona juxtaposed with Zuckerberg's almost Asperger's personality fit together well.
In fact, Garfield is so good as Saverin that I'm watching the new Spiderman films, purely to see him act again. Eisenberg's next few films will be under massive scrutiny, due to his huge performance in this film.
The opening scene in the 'Thirsty Scholar Pub' is so archetypal of Aaron Sorkin's work, even people who had no idea he had written the screenplay, adapting it from Ben Mezrich's 2009 nonfiction book The Accidental Billionaires, would have most definitely guessed that he something to do with it. It also heralds to the conversations that can be heard on 'Gilmore Girls'. The way in which Eisenberg seems to squeeze four sentences worth of words into the time that any normal person says one sentence, seems to fit the character of Zuckerberg perfectly. The ability to seem to talk to himself because he spouting out any single thought he has. Great physical representation of his personality. No one would actually noticed all that about that opening scene, just someone whose media consumption has been ruined by Media and Film Studies and the necessity to over analyse everything to the moon and back.
Overall, the film shows Zuckerberg in a wholly negative light, that much is obvious due to the film's focus of the man's lawsuits from separate parties regarding Facebook. Throughout the film, I grew ever more aware of the necessity to ram the fact that this film's execs seem to think he is a bad person. Might have something to do with the fact that Saverin was the key consultant that the author used for information. Might not. However, there were glimpses of actual niceness from the lead, that I wanted to see more of. It made him more accessible as an actual person. Not just this all powerful entity who has seemingly entered our lives, 500 million of us. On the flip side, Saverin is supposed to be shown as the victim in this story, through many careful construed moments that make him seem unlucky (enter more negatives here). The cynicism within me thinks that no one in this film is actually like this in real life, the only person I wish was, would be Zuckerberg because I love his whole personality, seems to have a insanely dry sense of humour. Perfect. And he blogs, there is hope for all of us.
I have heard people say that the film doesn't really go anywhere. This is how every single thing that Sorkin has done works; you've got to know what you're getting yourself into. it's not a action packed heart stopping thriller, its full of clever dialogue that draws you into the story, but always keeps you away enough. This is due to the fact that no one has the patience to listen to a whole conversation, luckily there is no need to know every single word.
Also, Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker, the entrepreneur who founded Napster, the free music sharing website. This casting has been seen by many as quite surprising, the ability to use his celebrity persona and use it to both catalyse the amount of hype about the film and also see himself in his character in some instances, he definitely deserves the process that has been heaped on him for this performance. The words 'revelation' and 'superb' have been banding about on the forum for weeks.
Fincher, also known for films such as Aliens 3 and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, has perhaps pulled off one of the great CGI moments. The 'Winklevii' are both played by Armie Hammer, of 'Reaper' fame. This is done by superimposing his face, seamlessly I may add, on to a body double by the name of Josh Pence. I didn't even notice it until I was reading the credits when walking out of the cinema.

Also, being of a certain age, it was just too weird seeing Brenda Song (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody) and Malese Jow (Unfabolous) in grown up roles for once, but that's just getting older I suppose.
A moment should be taken to talk about David Fincher, the director. The bloke hasn't made a bad film in the whole of his feature film. Okay, Aliens 3 wasn't an epic and Panic Room was pretty average, but definitely no turkeys in his filmography for sure.

You can work out how good something is by the amount of times that you can quote it in a conversation. The writing of this film serves up many opportunities for quotations. There are way too many to name on here, but trust me. Big up, Aaron Sorkin.
To put a story quite short, this film is amazing and needs to be seen by everyone, and because its about Facebook it will be seen by absolutely everyone, no doubting it. I'm not at all surprised that The Social Network is being seriously talked about for next year's Oscars.

Believe the hype.

Show 3.

Scrubs




Starring.. Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Judy Reyes, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, Neil Flynn, Ken Jenkins...




First airing in 2001 on NBC, this series centring on the goings on at Sacred Heart Hospital. The first 8 seasons are shown through the eyes of John Dorian (J.D) (Braff). He is shown to grow up from an intern in Season 1 to medical professor in Season 9. His relationships with his colleagues become a major part of the show's storylines and funniest episodes. From his on/off romantic relationship with Elliot Reid (Chalke) (Ross and Rachel-esque) and his bromance with Chris Turk (Faison). The bromance especially forms a lot of the humour in the show. Turk's partner throughout a large portion of the show, Carla Espinosa (Reyes) is a nurse that at first is repulsed by him but later becomes his girlfriend, then fiance, then wife and finally mother to his children. J.D's reluctant mentor, Dr. Perry Cox (McGinley) is an acerbic Resident that J.D seems to relate to, for some strange reason, even though he is fond of calling him girls' names constantly. There are few occasions where he shows a positive view of Dorian's work and even validates him to a certain degree, even goes as far in 'My Fifteen Minutes' to praise him greatly in front of the hospital's board of directors. In season 8, Cox is given the job of Chief of Medicine which is open since Kelso's replacement, Dr Maddox (Courtney Cox) was forced out. Original Chief of Medicine, Bob Kelso (Jenkins) is seen as the show's villain. He nearly always chooses the hospital's budget or its overall wellbeing over the patients and their wellbeing. Throughout the seasons, his evil is shown to be a front so the decisions he has to make aren't so bad for everyone. The times he doesn't act like this are sparse and tend to shift the audience's perception of him to positive. When he retires from his post at Sacred Heart, he becomes much less hated by the other characters. He hangs around the hospital's coffee shop, eating muffins because of his 'free muffins for life' competition win in an earlier season. He and Dr. Cox even become friends because they both have been Chief of Medicine and he wants Kelso's guidance. The 'Janitor' played by Neil Flynn, from the pilot episode, has an adversarial relationship with Dorian. An incident involving a penny being stuck in a door created the relationship which endured throughout the series. His actual name has a certain mystery about it. In the season 8 finale, he tells J.D that his name is 'Glenn Matthews' but moments later he is acknowledged by a different name from another member of staff. It is unclear whether it is his actual name or not.
I like this programme because it is unlike any other I watch. The single camera setup in sitcoms is something that is much more popular since the show's inception in 2001 with shows such as: Cougar Town, Peep Show and The Mighty Boosh. Although Scrubs was one of the more famous shows that used the single camera setup, it has been used since the early part of the 60's with shows like The Brady Bunch. I like the fact that there is no laugh, I find that the inclusion of one in most shows often dilutes the hilarity of the supposedly funny moments. The show's humour is often described as 'zany' but that is rubbish it is just completely different to most of the things that are on TV right now. I'm for one very sad that it has been somewhat cheapened by the final season being nearly the opposite of the ones before it. The change of narrator and location has made it a shadow of its former self. I choose to forget about that and focus on the 8 glorious seasons before. The best thing about the whole show is Zach Braff. It is quite right that the creator's managed to get the late John Ritter to portray his dad because there is a great similarity between them in their acting styles. J.D is the protagonist of the whole show and he is also the one character that I feel I can easily relate to. It's not because he's the only young white male on the main cast, he just seems to 'speak to me'. Not really, he just makes me laugh and his internal monologue means I know how he feels and can see myself in him occasionally. Also Dr. Cox's elongation of words never fails to make me laugh. This show should never be taken of E4. I'm out. 

Show 4.

One Tree Hill


Starring: Chad Michael Murray, Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Galeotti, James Lafferty, Sophia Bush, Lee Norris, Antwon Tanner...


Focusing on the basketball team at Tree Hill High, Tree Hill, North Carolina, originally trailing the lives of half brothers Nathan (Lafferty) and Lucas (Murray). Their relationships changes throughout the show starting as warring enemies to affectionate friends. Both of their relationships with the female characters are also under a lot of scrutiny. The show when it was in its infancy, the show seemed to focus on five central characters; the aforementioned Lucas and Nathan Scott, Haley James, Peyton Sawyer and Brooke Davis. All the main characters change almost unrecognisably throughout the current 8 seasons. For the first four seasons, the show is set when the characters are at high school and from the fifth season onwards it is set at least five years from the group's graduation. Music plays a massive part in the show, in the first few series this is shown through Peyton's almost obsessive need for music. It is used by many bands as a vehicle to showcase their music. This is because they know that a large amount of 12-30 year olds watch around the world especially in the US and UK where a great deal of music is listened to, especially the type that features. Since the fifth season when it went forward in time, the show has evolved its storylines to incorparate things that have become more relevant to the group since they have grown up. In the seventh season, due to Lucas and Peyton's departure, Schwahn decided to introduce a number of new characters. Haley's sister, Quinn is brought in, fresh from a separation from her husband, her storylines focus around her coping with her new found singularity. Nathan's sports agent and newfound best friend, Clay is brought in. He is shown to be a ladies man at the beginning of his time on the show but as his back story is explored it is shown that he has a lot of baggage. His women related antics are shown to be a direct result of the fact that her wife, Sara died suddenly, leaving him alone and destitute. Also, there are a couple of other new characters, Alex Dupre, a seemingly washed up actress and Julian Baker who has appeared in previous seasons but becomes a regular in season 7, his relationship with Brooke and blossoming film directing career have been his major story arcs.This show has been a major part of my tv schedule since I found it when it was in its 3rd series being shown on British television on e4. It is pure escapism for someone who lives in the Jeremy Kyle guest holding pen that is Weston-s-Mare. No one is ugly in Tree Hill, for the most part the ideology of the show is that of positivity, minus the Columbine style school shootout and crazy stalker masquerading himself as Peyton's half brother. The focus of the first four seasons or so on basketball really got me interested in the sport. I was not the only one that was like this and basketball became the big sport in my school for a period of time, this shows the appeal of the show. Any show that has lasted for 7 years can't a bad one. I definitely rate this and I'll probably watch it over and over again on dvd for years to come. Although it will be repeated on tv so buying the dvds would probably be a waste of money. Great show. 

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Show 5.

Gilmore Girls


Starring: Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Scott Patterson, Melissa McCarthy, Keiko Agena, Yanic Truesdale, Edward Herrmann, Kelly Bishop...




First broadcast in 2000 on the WB and then later on the CW, Gilmore Girls is a story about a mother (Graham) and her daughter (Bledel) who live in fictional Stars Hollow, Connecticut.
The show explores many different themes that range from family life to class divides in society. Relationships features heavily on the dynamic of the show, Lorelai's relationship with her parents, Richard (Herrmann) and Emily (Bishop) Gilmore creates a lot of both the humourous and heartfelt moments throughout the show's seven seasons. 
It has become synonymous with its fast paced dialogue, gestured by the show's tagline "Life's short. Talk Fast." The speech is often peppered with pop culture references, however vague and obscure. There are so many of these references, that the DVD releases of each series comes accompanied with a booklet full of 'Gilmore-isms' to explain them all.
The way that the show references so much in a short space is impressive and one of the reasons I enjoy the show so much. I love the dynamics of the cast and especially Lorelai's way of interacting with every single person in the show. The continuity of relationships in the show is a great feature, the questioning of Luke (Paterson) and Lorelai's relationship - will they, won't they? Clichéd but always great for watching. Throughout the whole seven seasons, in my opinion, there isn't a weak link in the main cast. A couple of the actors that feature heavily; Jared Padalecki (Dean Forester) and Milo Ventimiglia (Jess Marino) have gone on to star in bigger shows; Supernatural and Heroes respectively. It can be seen as a vehicle to get onto bigger and better things.
There is talk of a Gilmore Girls film being seriously considered by the people that could make it happen, the idea has now definitely moved on from being just fans pleading for it to happen. they are looking for a silver screen adaptation so much because a large chunk of avid viewers hated the way in which the final episode tried to copy the first episode. This didn't satisfy them sufficiently.
I'm not surprised that TIME magazine has named it one of the "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME." It's a show that isn't particularly plot-driven - this might hinder the film version - but also it makes you want to know more about the characters and their stories, making you watch on. That is all you can ask from a great TV series really.

Show 6.

Family Guy

Starring... Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Mike Henry...


                                                                         The only animation in this list, MacFarlane's satirical view of popular culture centres around the Griffin family consisting of Peter & Lois, Chris, Meg, Stewie and anthropomorphic dog Brian. It is famous as being the only show that has been reinstated due to high DVD sales of previous seasons. Although comparisons have been drawn with 'The Simpsons', it has been held in high regard by critics on the whole, with only a small minority of them looking at the series negatively. Also, the series has been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, a feat that has illuded the yellow infested sitcom. This made the series one of only two animations that have been nominated in this category alongside 'The Flintstones' in 1961. Cutaways are used as one of the the main ways to create a joke and they are also used to formulate future jokes in the episode. The best joke, in my opinion, is the episode titled 'Three Kings' this is the one that pastiches three Stephen King stories. This one is 'Shawshank Redemption' Andy Dufrense (Peter Griffin) is talking to the Warden, metamorphosing himself as Carter Pewterschmidt. They are conversing and the Warden is being difficult, Andy askes him to stop being obtuse. the shot changes to the Warden looking like an obtuse angle. Smart humour, for sure.


                                                                   P.S Shut up, Meg.