First Look: ‘Genius’ Arrives on Nat Geo With Albert Einstein’s Extraordinary Life Story (VIDEO)

Genius - Geoffrey Rush
National Geographic/Dusan Martincek/National Geographic
Geoffrey Rush plays Albert Einstein in National Geographic's Genius.

Albert Einstein’s life—thrilling, eccentric, engaged in the ways of the world and, most importantly, in the workings of the mind—was meant to be a story told onscreen. National Geographic gives us that pleasure in the 10-episode first season of its anthology series aptly titled Genius.

The series, premiering Tuesday, follows the so-called “father of the atomic bomb” from his younger days as an arrogant and brilliant budding German physicist (played winningly by Johnny Flynn), to his later life as a Nobel Prize winner (Geoffrey Rush in an authentically amusing performance) living in Princeton, N.J.

While covering the great themes in Einstein’s life, from discovering the theory of relativity to World War II’s horrors and his resulting passion for peace, Genius doesn’t neglect the scientist’s very active love life and the importance of his two very different wives to his work and well-being.

As Rush told TV Guide Magazine, “Einstein is a great part. He’s a protagonist in a very epoch-making scenario. He’s a great classical antihero to play, above and beyond the soap opera of his life.”

Check out the trailer for Genius, a series that could help you learn something while having a great time doing it.

Genius, Series Premiere, Tuesday, April 25, 9/8c, National Geographic