Einstein’s mind, loves explored in new series

Physics geeks rejoice. Albert Einstein has his own drama series.

Everyone else? Pay attention, because you might learn something.

Einstein gets the biopic treatment in “Genius,” National Geographic Channel’s first scripted drama. The series, which began last Tuesday, goes beyond what you probably already know — the scientific brilliance, the hair, those inspirational refrigerator-magnet quotations — for a personal look at one of the 20th century’s greatest minds.

“Genius” tracks Einstein (played in his later years by Geoffrey Rush) from his teenage years in 1890s Germany to the scientific breakthroughs that made him a global superstar to the final phase of his life teaching in the United States at Princeton University in New Jersey.

In this telling, there are two constants in Einstein’s life: He’s always at odds with authority (professors, science luminaries, the Nazi Party, J. Edgar Hoover), and he’s always cheating on the women in his life.

The series begins in Einstein’s teen years (played as a young man by newcomer Johnny Flynn).

He quits school in Germany, infuriating his father, and makes his way to Switzerland, where he’s accepted into Zurich Polytechnic, but only on the second try.

There he meets Mileva Maric (Samantha Colley). He is entranced with her because she’s the only woman he’s ever met who can debate relativity theories one minute and make love the next.

When she becomes pregnant, Einstein is forced to join the bourgeoisie he so despises, marrying Maric and earning a living as a commonplace patent clerk.

Einstein has three children with Maric before divorcing her and marrying his first cousin Elsa (Emily Watson), with whom he was having an affair. The multi-tasking Einstein will continually cheat on her, too, all while coming up with the theory of relativity.