Genius.
Series Premiere Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 9pm ET on National Geographic Channel
G E N I U S
This spring, National Geographic presents GENIUS, the network’s first-ever scripted series, based on the Walter Isaacson book Einstein: His Life and Universe and executive produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, with Howard also directing the first episode. The all-star cast includes Geoffrey Rush as Professor Einstein, Johnny Flynn as Albert in his youth and Emily Watson as the scientist’s second wife — and first cousin — Elsa Einstein.
Over 10 episodes, the series takes Einstein’s story beyond the halls of academia to explore his struggles to be a good husband and father, and a man of principle during a period of global unrest. His daringly creative mind often landed him in trouble with his loved ones and peers, but also helped him to usher in groundbreaking discoveries that reshaped modern science.
Starring Geoffrey Rush as the man whose name is synonymous with all things brainy, Genius, coming this April, is National Geographic’s first scripted anthology series.
The series boasts an all-star cast: Rush as the elder Einstein; British newcomer Johnny Flynn as the younger version; and Emily Watson as the great man’s second wife—and first cousin—Elsa Einstein. The first episode is directed by Ron Howard, making his bow as a director of scripted television.
The 10-episode series follows Einstein through his early days as a patent clerk with a rebellious streak, through his difficulties landing a teaching gig and on to, as Nat Geo says, unlocking “the mysteries of the atom and the universe.”
Executive producers are Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, the series is based on Walter Isaacson’s critically acclaimed best-seller Einstein: His Life and Universe.
Genius, the new anthology series that looks at the life of Albert Einstein and debuts tonight on National Geographic, is better than most but not brilliant. Starring Geoffrey Rush as the older version of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and Johnny Flynn as the younger and somewhat swashbuckling Einstein, the 10-episode first installment executive produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer is at its core deceivingly conventional. With it also pulling double duty as Nat Geo’s first foray into scripted dramatic television, it could be a case of opening jitters for the already renewed series.
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As I say in my review above, though, even when Genius gets a little Doctor Who jumping around in time, it remains solid and watchable. However, now matter how you do the numbers, it is ultimately unsurprising and lacking a certain shine. Despite the well-honed presence of Oscar and Emmy winner Rush as the marquee attraction and, in his small-screen scripted premiere, Howard directing the opening episode, Genius reveals just a fraction of its subject and relatively little of the science he pioneered. Certainly, the source material of Walter Isaacson’s 2007 book Einstein: His Life And Universe contains much the show could have further unlocked or explored – and I don’t merely mean theoretically.
Against the dangerous backdrop of the violent rise of Hitler and the Nazis in post-World War I Germany, plus the suspicions of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the real dramatic equation for me is summed up in the strong performances of Samantha Colley and Emily Watson. With Colley as Einstein’s genius-in-her-own-right first wife Mileva Maric, and Watson as his loyal but much cheated upon second wife and cousin Elsa Einstein, they provide Genius‘ real emotional jolt. In those performances there is nothing relative, if you know what I mean.
“In playing Albert Einstein, I found out that he was not the archetypal absentminded professor. He was an energetic, slightly rebellious, rakish, sort-of-bohemian poet. And he was quite amorous—he had many lovers. Einstein wasn’t exactly a ‘player,’ but he enjoyed women, and when his first marriage fell apart, he became what you would call a ladies’ man. He gave up on monogamy.”
He was amazing in his role as the young Einstein, and seemed to really invoke a sense of scatterbrain genius. It was tragic for a bit, but very interesting portrayal.
