The word "genius" applies to all facets of people who used their extraordinary talents toward most prodigious human achievements. In the first season, the series explored the most immediate embodiment of a genius, Albert Einstein.
The second season switches gear to art. And Pablo Picasso is certainly among the very top of the list. Even as a mere casual observer of art, Picasso always fascinated me. His artistic output is extremely varied in style, but they are not an evolution of its predecessor. His art is always captivating and triggers such strong response. But what triggers Picasso to make such drastic and dissonant shift?
The second season attempts to unmask some of the mysteries. It largely settles on women. Repeating the templates of the first season, the second season does many time shifts, mainly Picasso in his youth (amazing performance by Alex Rich whom I have not seen before) and in his later years (electrifying Antonio Banderas).
The series surmises that while Picasso is a pure genius at heart, he depends on a muse to start his passion, although from time to time, friends and competitors provide the same desired effect.
In the first season, Einstein in his twilight year was trying to solve the "unified field theory", or theory of everything. In this season, the creators suggest that Picasso is after "perfect painting." While I don't think Picasso was ever looking for perfection in art (the very suggestion seems contrary to me), it provides a good foundation for who Pablo Picasso wanted to be.
He willingly sacrificed, often cruelly so, his relationship with people who truly loved him -- whether it be family or lovers. The series often focuses too much on his relationships instead of providing counterpoints by exploring the process of creating art (something Martin Scorsese did to perfection with his chapter in New York Stories). This mistake is compounded as the series nears the end of the season.
It thankfully wraps things up with a touching scene with people he gave up, although I was too frustrated by one dimensional "money grabbing" portrayal of his final lover Jacqueline Roque.
All in all, I wasn't as enamored with this season as much as I did with the first. But amazing performances and beautiful cinematography ultimately won me over. I also want to give a special nod to the creators and National Geographic for challenging and inspiring viewers to learn and explore these amazing individuals.
I look forward to the next season when the series explores Mary Shelley.
I can't believe that after two seasons this stupid "Whisperer War" is still going on. It's boring, played out just as slowly as the "Savior War" if not slower, and it's taken the show nowhere fast. Beyond the whole "Why would these people follow two crazed idiots who constantly kill their own people?" question, you also need to realize timeline wise how long this is all supposed to be. The war with Negan lasted just over three weeks in the story, this new war has gone over well past a year, how long is it going to drag on? Why have the "Good guys" not just put on whisperer masks and killed them off already? Why after Beta keeps killing people do they not shoot him instead of an undead Gamma? Ugh. Enough already. Then instead of ending the season they blame the corona virus for not doing post-production until the days before it airs? Enough's enough, let this show die it's slow death before it turns into a walker too.
Now that this season is finally over a year and a half after it started, I can say with confidence this was the worst season the show ever produced. They tried to blame covid first for a long delay to post produce their original finale, then put out absolutely horrifyingly bad episodes that they called "Extra episodes" which fanboys of the show defend being so bad because they were shot during covid, which is a problem no other shows or movies have had. The problem here isn't covid, it's that the show didn't end when it should have and now the writer's are out of ideas and the characters that you once cared about are empty vessels dragging the show along.
I can't believe this show I once loved is such a drag now.
