Television series

Genius

Name: Genius
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 2017
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Clémence Poésy, Alex Rich, Michael McElhatton, Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Other titles called Genius: the 2016 film.

Biopic

Genius dramatizes the lives of history's greatest minds through their personal struggles and creative breakthroughs. Each season focuses on one figure—Picasso, Einstein, or MLK—weaving together ambition, romance, and the messy human cost of genius. It's prestige television that treats intellectual achievement as inherently dramatic, designed for viewers who want their history lessons lit beautifully and scored memorably.

TVMaze rating

2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like character-driven biography that treats brilliant people as messy, impassioned humans, and you enjoy handsome period detail and big, showy performances.

Skip it if you want a tight thriller or something quick, since episodes run about an hour and the talky, deliberate pace can drag when you're hoping for momentum.

What it asks of you: Hour-long episodes that want your full attention, with a shifting, unhurried rhythm that rewards patience more than quick viewing.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Crown2016

Explores how exceptional people navigate power, duty, and private desires across decades. Combines intimate character work with historical grandeur, letting you inhabit someone else's impossible choices.

But Very long commitment, and if you're not invested in the Royal Family, it can feel like watching people in beautiful rooms worry about protocol.

Chernobyl2019

Dramatizes a real disaster through the eyes of the people trying to prevent catastrophe. Tense, meticulously crafted, and uses historical stakes to explore human courage and failure in real time.

But Unrelentingly grim. No comic relief, no victories that don't come at terrible cost. Watching it feels like work.

The Imitation Game2014

Banderas's peer Benedict Cumberbatch plays another towering intellect wrestling with secrecy, isolation, and the gap between public myth and private truth. Intimate and claustrophobic where Genius is expansive.

But Heavily fictionalized, and the narrative framework can feel more important than the historical figure at its center.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Genius

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

My Dinner with Andre1981

Both prize the interior lives of artists, but this one trusts the conversation itself rather than wrapping it in narrative. No dramatization, no score—just proximity to thinking.

Two theater icons discuss art, meaning, and what it costs to pursue them seriously. Pure conversation, no plot, but it captures something essential about how remarkable minds actually think and argue. Intellectual life as lived experience, not dramatized event.

But Nothing happens. It's literally two men talking in a restaurant for 110 minutes. If plot momentum matters to you, this is torture.

Oppenheimer2023

Christopher Nolan's epic explores a brilliant, conflicted man confronting the consequences of his genius. Technically audacious and morally complex, treating intellectual power as fundamentally dangerous.

But Three-and-a-half hours, non-linear structure, and demands full attention. Easy to lose the thread if you check your phone once.

Hidden Figures2016

Centers Black women mathematicians solving NASA problems while fighting institutional racism. Fact-based but dramatically alive, with genuine humor and emotional stakes that don't feel engineered.

But Resolves too neatly for some tastes. The obstacles are real but the narrative sometimes smooths over how much harder their lives actually were.

A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia1992

Explores a famous genius—T.E. Lawrence—in the aftermath of achievement, when fame and legacy become their own trap. Quiet, introspective, and interested in disappointment.

But Glacially paced and deeply melancholic. Built for contemplation, not momentum.

A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia poster

Radioactive2020

Marie Curie's life as myth-making and sacrifice intertwined. Visually inventive and interested in how we construct narratives around brilliant women, which adds a layer Genius often lacks.

But Stylistically uneven, and the metaphorical elements sometimes overshadow the actual historical figure.

The Knick2014

Soderbergh's medical drama about brilliant surgeons in 1900s New York. Fast, propulsive, and treats technical mastery as genuinely thrilling. Genius of craft rather than thought, but the structure mirrors what Genius attempts.

But Cancelled on a cliffhanger after two seasons, so closure is incomplete. Also very graphic with surgery.

Marie Curie2016

A tighter, more focused portrait of ambition and partnership. Strong performance, economical storytelling, and genuine attention to the science beneath the biography.

But Made for British television, so smaller in scale. Lacks the cinematic sweep that makes Genius feel momentous.

F for Fake1973

A meditation on the gap between the artist and the legend—what gets lost, what gets invented. Genius celebrates that legend; Welles deconstructs it.

Welles's essay-film about art, authenticity, and the stories we construct about genius. Formally wild and radically skeptical about biography itself. If Genius makes you believe in the myths of great men, this will make you question whether myth-making is even honest.

But Fragmented, playful, and deliberately elusive. It won't give you the satisfaction of a coherent narrative or clear answers about anything.