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3 May 2018

Directors: please stop trying to depict “genius”

In an age of #MeToo, Antonia Banderas’ Picasso strolls manfully in the opposite direction, portraying the artist’s priapism a good thing in and of itself.

By Rachel Cooke

National Geographic, the American digital network that is majority-owned by 21st Century Fox, serves up quite the mix of weird macho stuff. Tune in expecting picturesque footage of waterfalls, or convoluted journeys to newly discovered Amazon tribes, and you’ll likely be disappointed; a typical night involves shows about air crash investigations and documentaries with titles such as Nazi Megastructures.

It also has a historical drama series, Genius (8pm, 23 April), now in its second season. The first time around, Geoffrey Rush, with hair like an ice cream cone, starred as Einstein. This time, we’ve got Antonio Banderas pretending to be Picasso. The marketing people are – honestly – plugging this with the tagline: “He was a piece of work.” In their ad, Banderas appears with brightly coloured stripes emblazoned across his cheekbones, as if the face painter at a children’s party had been unable to restrain herself when she saw him strolling by.

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