Best tv shows like Genius
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Anthology series about famous geniuses with the first season charting how Albert Einstein unlocked the mysteries of the atom and the universe, and the second exploring the passionate nature and relentless creative drive of Pablo Picasso.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: anthology, historical drama, inspirational, enigmatic, captivating, psychological, educational, saga, costume drama, intellectual
Best tv shows and movies like Genius (2017):
Similar in 88%
Wolf Hall (2015)
Plot Summary:
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the King dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impass steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer, and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 360 min
Plot tags: historical drama, serious, captivating, period piece, costume drama, stylized, suspense, factual, political, educational
Similar in 87%
White House Plumbers (2023)
Plot Summary:
The true story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds accidentally toppled the Presidency they were zealously trying to protect.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: political, serious, captivating, realistic, satirical, political drama
Similar in 87%
The First Lady (2022)
Plot Summary:
A revelatory reframing of American leadership through the lens of the First Ladies. Exploring everything from their journeys to Washington, family life, and world-changing political contributions, the impact of the White House's women is no longer hidden from view.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: political, thought provoking, captivating, anthology, costume drama, queer cinema, period drama, political drama
Similar in 82%
At Eternity's Gate (2018)
Plot Summary:
Famed but tormented artist Vincent van Gogh spends his final years in Arles, France, painting masterworks of the natural world that surrounds him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 39000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Ireland, Switzerland, UK, France, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: independent film, melancholic, psychological, rough, touching, art film, captivating, suspenseful, philosophical, atmospheric
Similar in 83%
Z: The Beginning of Everything (2015)
Plot Summary:
A biography series based on the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, the brilliant, beautiful and talented Southern Belle who becomes the original flapper and icon of the wild, flamboyant Jazz Age in the 20s. Z starts before Zelda Fitzgerald meets the unpublished writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and moves through their passionate, turbulent love affair and their marriage-made in heaven, lived out in hell as the celebrity couple of their time.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 27 min
Plot tags: historical drama, tense, captivating, period piece, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 90%
Jang Yeong Sil (2016)
Plot Summary:
Drama series follows the life Jang Yeong-Sil: a scientist, technician and inventor during the Joseon period. Jang Yeong-Sil was born in the lower class nobi. King Sejong notices his abilities and brings him to the palace. King Sejong grants him a chance to display his abilities. He invents tools like astronomical instruments, iron printing press and a water clock.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 133
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: South Korea
Duration:
Plot tags: sageuk, inspirational, philosophical, uplifting, intellectual, historical drama, costume drama
Similar in 86%
Mr. Turner (2014)
Plot Summary:
Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, France, Germany, USA, Belgium
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, surreal, meditative, sincere, captivating, costume drama, visual, atmospheric, clever, stylized
Similar in 83%
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
Plot Summary:
Charlton Heston stars as Renaissance artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), who begrudgingly paints the Sistine Chapel for imperious Pope Julius II in this epic adaptation of Irvine Stone's novel directed by Carol Reed. While the novel covers Michelangelo's life from birth to death, the film focuses on the battle of wills between the perfectionist artist and the impatient Pope who commissions (and eventually commands) him to paint the famed chapel.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: epic, inspirational, uplifting, serious, biblical, christian film, psychedelic, art film, technicolor, sincere
Similar in 80%
A Small Light (2023)
Plot Summary:
Twentysomething Miep Gies didn't hesitate when her boss Otto Frank came to her and asked her to hide his family from the Nazis during World War II. For the next two years, Miep, her husband Jan, and the other helpers watched over the eight souls in hiding in the Secret Annex. And it was Miep who found Anne’s Diary and kept it safe so Otto, the only one of the eight who survived, could later share it with the world as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: historical drama
Similar in 85%
Leonardo (2021)
Plot Summary:
A fresh look at the life and legacy of the iconic artist Leonardo da Vinci, positing that he was a gay outsider who used his work as a way of hiding his true self. Each episode will examine one of da Vinci’s artworks for hidden clues about a tortured artist struggling for perfection.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Italy, USA, UK, France, Spain
Duration: 409 min
Plot tags: costume drama, sexy, historical drama, period drama
Similar in 85%
Strange Angel (2018)
Plot Summary:
The story of the mysterious and brilliant Jack Parsons in 1940s Los Angeles as by day he helps birth the discipline of American rocketry and by night is a performer of sex magick rituals and a disciple to occultist Aleister Crowley.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, enigmatic, captivating, realistic, erotic, spiritual, anthology, period drama
Similar in 81%
John Adams (2008)
Plot Summary:
The life of one of the USA's Founding Fathers, its second President, and his role in the nation's first 50 years.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, political, period piece, sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, costume drama, epic, historical drama
Similar in 77%
The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci (1971)
Plot Summary:
La Vita di Leonardo Da Vinci — in English, The Life of Leonardo da Vinci — is a 1971 Italian television miniseries dramatizing the life of the Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci. The Golden Globe-winning miniseries was directed by Renato Castellani, and produced by RAI and distributed in the United States by CBS, which aired it from August 13, 1972 to September 10, 1972. Castellani wrote the screenplay. It was filmed entirely on location in Italy and France. The total runtime of the five episodes is nearly five hours.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 429
Genere: Biography, History
Country: Italy, France, Spain
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: educational, inspirational, uplifting, intellectual, enigmatic, mind bending
Similar in 81%
Finding Altamira (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of nine-year old Maria and her father Marcelino who, in 1879, found the first pre-historic cave paintings at the now world famous Altamira cave.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, Spain
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, suspenseful, exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, period piece
Similar in 78%
Da Vinci's Demons (2013)
Plot Summary:
The series follows the "untold" story of Leonardo Da Vinci: the genius during his early years in Renaissance Florence. As a 25-year old artist, inventor, swordsman, lover, dreamer and idealist, he struggles to live within the confines of his own reality and time as he begins to not only see the future, but invent it.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, Fantasy, History, Mystery, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: exciting, intellectual, captivating, witty, serious, erotic, sexy, costume drama, christian film, thought provoking
Similar in 78%
Manhattan (2014)
Plot Summary:
Set against the backdrop of the greatest clandestine race against time in the history of science with the mission to build the world's first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Flawed scientists and their families attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, captivating, realistic, melancholic, historical drama, independent film, period drama
Similar in 84%
Hawking (2004)
Plot Summary:
The story of Professor Stephen Hawking's early years is told for the first time in a major drama for BBC Two.It is 1963, and our young cosmologist celebrates his 21st birthday. At the party is a new friend, Jane Wilde - there is a strong attraction between the two. Jane is intrigued by Stephen's talk of stars and the Universe. But she realises that there is something very wrong when Stephen suddenly finds that he is unable to stand up.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: inspirational, sentimental, emotional, motivational, sexy, touching, intellectual, unusual plot structure, bad ending, entertaining
Similar in 81%
Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (2020)
Plot Summary:
This limited series chronicles the incredible true story of Madam C.J. Walker, who was the first African American self-made millionaire.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 191 min
Plot tags: inspirational, thought provoking, feel good, captivating, period piece, emotional, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
American Crime Story (2016)
Plot Summary:
An anthology series centered around some of history's most famous criminals.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 98000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: anthology, realistic, serious, psychological, feel good, political, suspense, entertaining, detective, mind blowing
Similar in 81%
The Current War (2017)
Plot Summary:
Electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse compete to create a sustainable system and market it to the American people.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, Russia, UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: inspirational, intellectual, clever, realistic, serious, suspense, stylized, intense, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Experimenter (2015)
Plot Summary:
Yale University, 1961. Stanley Milgram designs a psychology experiment that still resonates to this day, in which people think they’re delivering painful electric shocks to an affable stranger strapped into a chair in another room. Despite his pleads for mercy, the majority of subjects don’t stop the experiment, administering what they think is a near-fatal electric shock, simply because they’ve been told to do so. With Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram strikes a nerve in popular culture and the scientific community with his exploration into people’s tendency to comply with authority. Celebrated in some circles, he is also accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster, but his wife Sasha stands by him through it all.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, philosophical, enigmatic, political, disturbing, factual, emotional, suspense, melancholic, talky
Similar in 89%
The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)
Plot Summary:
Growing up poor in Madras, India, Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar earns admittance to Cambridge University during WWI, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G.H. Hardy.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, India
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: philosophical, intellectual, inspirational, motivational, clever, touching, educational, unusual plot structure, thought provoking, sexy
Similar in 80%
The Queen's Gambit (2020)
Plot Summary:
In a Kentucky orphanage in the 1950s, a young girl discovers an astonishing talent for chess while struggling with addiction.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 525000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 397 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, period piece, historical drama, suspense, tense, unusual plot structure, visually appealing, inspirational, thought provoking
Similar in 77%
The Dig (2021)
Plot Summary:
As WWII looms, a wealthy widow hires an amateur archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain's past resonate in the face of its uncertain future.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 81000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: costume drama, period piece, thought provoking, captivating, inspirational, philosophical, atmospheric, depressing, art film, powerful
Similar in 83%
Oppenheimer (1980)
Plot Summary:
Biography of the American physicist who led the U.S. effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II, only to find himself suspected as a security risk in the 1950s because of his increasing ambivalence about the effect of his life's work.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 653
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 420 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 84%
Infinity (1996)
Plot Summary:
Story of the early life of genius and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, intellectual, period piece, emotional, independent film, romantic
Similar in 87%
Einstein and Eddington (2008)
Plot Summary:
A look at the evolution of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, and Einstein's relationship with British scientist Sir Arthur Eddington, the first physicist to understand his ideas.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, realistic, christian film, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, disturbing, inspirational
Similar in 84%
Hidden Figures (2016)
Plot Summary:
The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history – the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 249000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: inspirational, sincere, motivational, touching, factual, exciting, feel good, educational, sad, historical drama
Similar in 79%
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Plot Summary:
At Princeton University, John Nash struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he turns to teaching, becoming romantically involved with his student Alicia. Meanwhile the government asks his help with breaking Soviet codes, which soon gets him involved in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash grows more and more paranoid until a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Now it is only with Alicia's help that he will be able to recover his mental strength and regain his status as the great mathematician we know him as today.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 972000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, cerebral, emotional, motivational, dramatic, intellectual, thought provoking, captivating, factual
Similar in 83%
Oppenheimer (2023)
Plot Summary:
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 548000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: epic, period piece, historical drama, surprise ending, suspense, non-linear, tension, inspirational, period drama, interesting