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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
29
Mixed:
24
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews
The Daily BeastJan 25, 2024
Season 4 Review:
While Genius is a handsome lecture (going beyond generous casting choices that rival Dominic West as Prince Charles in The Crown), it’s a lecture nonetheless. To that end, it will be most illuminating to those wanting to learn all about two of the most significant Black figures of the 20th century.
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Mar 19, 2021
Season 3 Review:
It’s an informative, at times illuminating — if also sketchy and in some respects superficial — jog through the life of the woman crowned the Queen of Soul by a Chicago disc jockey in 1967, a crown she never took off, however much public tastes and the music business changed around her: American royalty.
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Apr 17, 2018
Season 2 Review:
The problem is one of focus. The show isn’t “Genius: Picasso and Pals”; it’s about one man, one genius. As the show’s attention spreads, Genius increasingly feels like an ensemble series. Unfortunately, with so few episodes, and two different timelines to progress through, side stories feel like distractions from the core idea of the season. When Picasso is at the forefront, though, Genius is impressive.
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ColliderApr 25, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Having only seen these two hours, it’s hard to know how the series will proceed, though it is much more promising after the second installment. The series is at its best, rather ironically, when it’s not dealing with time (or jumping through it) and focuses on smaller, human moments rather than broad strokes from history.
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Apr 21, 2017
Season 1 Review:
[Ron Howard's] segment is an ungraceful arrangement of exposition and too-convenient characterizations. This becomes even more obvious when we reach episode 2, directed by British TV vet Minkie Spiro, which spends most of its time on the young Einstein and his first wife and co-genius Mileva Maric (Samantha Colley), turning her into an enthralling heroine and their relationship into something moving and fierce.
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TV Guide MagazineApr 13, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Genius may not entirely avoid the hokey pitfalls of the biopic genre, but it makes you feel smart for watching. [17-30 Apr 2017, p.19]
Mar 19, 2021
Season 3 Review:
When it’s firing on all cylinders, it’s a program worthy of its subject matter. However, a messy first half can make for difficult viewing. If you’re a casual Franklin fan, there are better biopic option. But if you’re a diehard, “Genius: Aretha” is still worth a look.
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Mar 19, 2021
Season 3 Review:
“Genius: Aretha,” an eight-part miniseries about legendary performer Aretha Franklin, gets many important things right: a powerhouse central performance, mesmerizing musical numbers and impressive re-creations of the 1960s. But an overburdened story line and inconsistent character development prevent the National Geographic project from being the showstopper that it sets out to be.
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Mar 12, 2021
Season 3 Review:
Pretty much all of these [song performances] — along with Clarence’s thunderous sermons — are energetic show-stoppers, which ensure that, at least within each episode, Aretha never flags. ... Erivo and Vance make for a powerhouse duo, mostly compensating for Barrett’s confusingly goofy demeanor and Cross’ inability to disappear into his role. But even they can’t make up for the fact that the repetitive dialogue and over-emphatic direction seem designed for viewers who are only half-watching.
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Apr 23, 2018
Season 2 Review:
If you don’t mind its superficialities, Genius can be enjoyed for its surface attributes, including Mr. Banderas’s impressive makeup and expectedly seductive performance. (If he suffers in comparison to Mr. Rush, it’s because the show’s conception of Einstein, focused less on seduction, was more interesting.)
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Apr 19, 2018
Season 2 Review:
An extravaganza of exhausting time shifts and mind-numbing dialogue that can use all the sympathy it gets. When the drama comes vividly alive, as it does often enough, the subject is seldom art. It’s almost always Picasso (a seductive if also largely unknowable character in Antonio Banderas’s subtle portrayal) and the women who loved him: women he loved and needed in turn and in time betrayed and abandoned.
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Apr 24, 2017IndieWireApr 23, 2018
Season 2 Review:
In the end, Genius: Picasso remains a minor effort all around. It moves so quickly and summarizes so much, it’s hard to trust anything but the most basic aspects of the story. Even the art is relegated to the background, as the series highlights only one painting in the first four hours.
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