The season finale of Genius airs June 27, 9pm on National Geographic.
Genius is an anthology show, meaning each season will focus on another great scientist. With the Albert Einstein-centric episodes coming to an end, and Pablo Picasso announced for Season 2, we decided to take a look at which names might be the focus of coming installments:
Nikola Tesla (ft. Thomas Edison)
Tesla’s story would be great on screen, and his quarrel with Edison would make for riveting television. (Think an intelligent spin on FX’s Feud.) Since Tesla’s achievements aren’t as mainstream as Einstein’s, so the public would benefit from a season based around “the man who invented the twentieth century.”
Isaac Newton
He’s one of the most well known scientists of all time, so from a marketing standpoint it makes sense to choose Newton for season 2. This season showcased Einstein’s revision of Newtonian physics, and it would be cool to see where it all began.
Galileo Galilei
A detailed look at the Italian astronomer and his support of Copernican heliocentricity would be intriguing. Galilei would be an epic season, as he went head to head with the church. The writers could get into a variety of topics, from astronomy to religion. It really is a story just waiting to be told.
Marie Curie
No way around it, Curie was a trailblazer. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person (and only woman) to win twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. It would be fascinating and important to see the sexism she persisted through. The problem is, we’ve already seen the show’s portrayal of Curie throughout this season. Are the producers willing to expand on that?
Charles Darwin
Darwin’s theory of evolution is a defining idea in modern science. It’s still debated to this day. It’d be cool to intercut scenes of Darwin’s life with flash forwards to events that sprung from his work, like the Scopes Trial.
Louis Pasteur
How about a genius who isn’t a household name? Besides for his process of pasteurization, Pasteur proved that disease was spread by microorganisms and showed how sterilization stops their growth and spread. He also invented the first vaccines, which gives his story a sense of timeliness.
Those are just some of the countless options for future seasons of Genius. I’d also root for Richard Feynman, Niels Bohr, or Johannes Kepler. And if the network doesn’t stick to the field of science, that opens up worlds of other visionaries to choose from.
Who would you like to see headline a season of Genius?
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