Genius (TV Series) Einstein: Chapter Five (2017) User Reviews

***1/2

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 24 May 2017]

The episode showed that Einstein was not cut out to be just a lecturer in college. He is bored with himself as he takes his students outside to listen to their questions while he answers them in his discourse.

His wife is becoming more frustrated and bombastic. She was suited for a life of studying physics and not merely being a house frau.

We see the Czech government's approach to Jews, unlike that of Prussia, where anti-Semitic feeling continued to grow at the dawn of the 20th century.

Einstein alienates himself from family responsibility. It becomes more apparent that his marriage was a mistake.

Marie Curie, the discover of radium, appears in the episode and the gossip surrounding her relationship with a married man does not unnerve her. If we question science, we can also question the social mores of society.

All in the Family: Einstein Falls in Love With His Cousin!

[lavatch · 10/10 · 28 May 2017]

While the scientific part of Chapter 5 has to do with Einstein's reflections on "accelerated motion," the personal side of Einstein in the 1910s propels him in an accelerated fashion towards his cousin Elsa.

On the home front, Maleva has been showing signs of "hysteria," as depression was often termed a century ago. The program focuses on Meleva's behavior in its impact on the Einstein family, especially the little boy Eduard.

The episode fast forwards to the year 1932 when the adult Eduard has been institutionalized after he made an attempt on his life. He is treated briefly by the famed psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, who was a friend of Albert Einstein and knew little Eduard in his youth. One of the traumatic moments of the boy's childhood was his experience of a fire in his home that he believed was set through the carelessness of his father, whose thought experiments distracted him from his lit pipe. But it turns out the Maleva was the careless one, who allowed little Eduard to play with matches that was the cause of the fire. Meleva lied to her little boy in order retaliate against her husband's thoughtless treatment of her.

Marie Curie also appears in this episode to provide an essential clue to the genius of Einstein when she identifies the creativity involved in his scientific thinking. She tells him succinctly, "You have the imagination of a poet, not a scientist!"

The teleplay for this episode is superb, as the script doubles back from Eduard's therapy session with Dr. Jung, who at one point mentions that the number four has magical properties, including the elusive fourth dimension. Concurrently, Einstein's research into gravity and acceleration leads him to conclude that they are identical phenomena. He first gains insight in a thought experiment while moving on an elevator: gravity bends light. While observing a spider rotate around a record as it is playing, Einstein has the inspiration of the fourth dimension, as experienced from the spider's perspective in motion. Thus, the number four becomes a unifying motif in the episode.

The program also develops incisive profiles of the novelist Franz Kafka, whom Einstein meets at a party. And the ever-perceptive Marie Curie offers Einstein advice on love! Curie confesses that she had an affair and counsels Einstein the he may find true love with someone other than Maleva.

By the close of the program, Einstein fatefully accepts an appointment in Berlin, where he will not be required to lecture. The film suggests that Einstein is a stultifyingly dull lecturer, as apparent in a scene in Zurich where only a handful of students can tolerate him. Relieved of onerous teaching duties, Einstein may focus his attention on his research, as well as on his cousin Elsa!