The Social Network - Paramount Network

(Image credit: Merrick Morton)

Following the lawsuit-littered birth of Facebook, this is a fascinating drama with a razor-sharp, Oscar-winning script and stellar performances, led by Jesse Eisenberg

Following the lawsuit-littered birth of Facebook, this is a fascinating drama with a razor-sharp, Oscar-winning script and stellar performances, led by Jesse Eisenberg.

He is super-smart Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, who starts a popular college website, which gradually - via some almighty fall-outs - becomes the global social network it is today.

Director David Fincher keeps a tight grip on the multi-stranded, flashback-driven story written by Aaron Sorkin (based on Ben Mezrich's book The Accidental Billionaires), making for absorbing, compellin viewing.

Eisenberg carries off the tricky job of portraying the hugely unsympathetic Zuckerberg, while Andrew Garfield gives an appealing, perky and earnest performance as Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg’s best friend and the site’s co-founder. Justin Timberlake makes a flamboyant impression as the villain of the piece, cynical Napster founder Sean Parker, who attracts Zuckerberg away from Saverin, causing all the legal troubles but also making Facebook into a world phenomenon, and Armie Hammer plays the posh Winklevoss twins, who are also betrayed along the way.