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

This closing episode was a fitting end to a great scientist's legacy...his repentance

[Ed-Shullivan · 8/10 · 15 May 2018]

No doubt it is next to impossible to summarize a genius like Albert Einstein's life in a 10 episode mini series without missing some of this man's many accomplishments, his affairs with the ladies in his life, his humorous side, his resistance to a nuclear war, and his estrangement with his two sons and his wife.

What episode 10 does provide is a lighter side of this complicated man in which he opens some doors that had remained closed in his life for many years such as his estrangement from his one living son Hans Albert. Hans Albert agrees to come to New York with his children and his wife in an effort to reconcile the father and son differences and lengthy estrangement. Einstein realizing that his life is limited acknowledges his past mistakes and seeks his son's forgiveness.

There is however a touching closing scene in which a very young girl who is quite inquisitive herself asks Albert why he became so famous and his answer just may shock you. No spoiler here. You will need to watch this episode to discover Albert Einstein's secret to his brilliance. Episode 10 was by far the best of this mini series.

Conclusion: Albert Einstein--A Man of Destiny

[lavatch · 10/10 · 22 June 2017]

At the start of the closing program, a scientist is staring at the pickled brain of Albert Einstein, who died in Princeton, New Jersey on April 18, 1955. Einstein's son Hans Albert vehemently protests the attempts to slice and dice his father's brain, asserting, "That is not the man."

For one of the truly influential individuals of the twentieth century, it may be that the genius is tied more completely to his spirit than to anything within "the very normal weight of 1,230 grams" of his brain. "You have compassion," observes Einstein's faithful secretary. The compassion and sensitivity of the man, coupled with an insatiable curiosity may hold the keys to unlocking Einstein's genius.

The tenth episode chronicles the twilight years of Einstein at Princeton, where he came under close scrutiny of J. Edgar Hoover. It was during these years that Hoover was hunting communists with inquisitorial zeal. Scientists such as David Bohm, Nils Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Einstein were all targeted by Hoover. Special Agent McKee is shocked to witness Hoover violating the law in wiretapping Einstein's phone, mail tampering, and intimidating a federal judge in the attempt to besmirch Einstein's character. "Find what I need to put this s.o.b. in jail," the bulldog Hoover barks at McKee. Throughout the harassment, Einstein stoically stands his ground, lecturing to an all-black group of students at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and taking to the radio to decry the "hysterical proportions" with which HUAC and Hoover are harassing American citizens.

The final program also ties together the loose ends of Einstein's erratic family life. In a flashback sequence, Einstein had tried to talk his son Hans Albert out of entering the field of engineering. But like his father, the son had a will of his own and went on to become a distinguished engineer. When informed of the death of Maleva by Hans Albert, Einstein is once again callous in his response when he says: "I am sorry for your loss." This is apparently the last straw for the son. After falling out with his father, Hans Albert later receives a phone call requesting a reconciliation through a family reunion. By this point late in his life, Einstein finally admits his shortcomings as a father and confesses that Maleva was "the love of my life."

In the final scene of the series, there is a touching moment when Einstein has been tutoring a young student named Alice. He offers her advice that may shed light on the true nature of his own genius: "Look deep into nature. Then you will understanding everything." Through the ten episodes of this series, one of the clues to the genius of Albert Einstein was his fiercely independent spirit. As presented in the film, that spirit led to incandescent thinking about universe while simultaneously resulting in life-damaging effects on those closest to him in his family.

****

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 22 June 2017]

I shall certainly miss this series.

As what was true with the entire series, the last chapters were just as great.

With Elsa's death, Einstein soon takes up with a Russian woman. How come the FBI didn't make a big stink over this since J. Edgar Hoover was out to get the professor from the get go? With the war over, she is called back to Moscow and just fades away from the scene.

His alienation and ultimate resuming of a somewhat relationship with his son was poignant to say the least.

His work with trying to avoid the use of the atomic bomb was interesting and how he would write to FDR to argue against its use was well told. Evidently, President Truman wasn't as sympathetic as history records.