Rent Genius: Series 1 (2017)

Promising start - Genius: Series 1 review by SB

This is a review of episodes 1&2 only. The story of Einstein is told through a flashback device, with two parallel timelines, a later one set in the twenties and then the beginning of the Nazi regime in Germany, and an earlier in the 1890s where the young Einstein is battling a conformist education system which recognises his genius but doesn't know what to do with it. He disovers women, and also encounters difficulties there.

Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Flynn (the latter almost unrecognisable) are both quite good as the elder and the younger Einstein respectively - although the age gap between them looks too great for the actual span of years involved. The supporting cast is fine, and the settings in various mid-European cities and universities are well done. You do not need to understand physics, as this is essentially about Einstein vs the world.