Reception
Genius received mixed reviews when it was first broadcast. Sam Wollaston for The Guardian wrote that, "it just about gets away with it - I'm going to give it another go, anyway. And that's because some of these guys' (they are all blokes, and probably always will be) ideas are actually pretty funny."
Anna Lowman from TV Scoop also commented on the show saying: "This isn't groundbreaking TV - if anything it felt slightly '90s in its Room 101-ness - and the unnecessarily huge studio gave a strange atmosphere to proceedings at times. But it is a big-hearted, fun celebration of oddness which is no bad thing. And I've a feeling that the bit where they read 'rejected' ideas might become a highlight of each episode."
Aidan Smith from Scotland on Sunday was more critical. He wrote that: "The show may have had charm on radio but now it's transferred to the box with Dave Gorman hosting, you can obviously see the would-be genii and they just look mad. Madder still, though, is the set designer who went to the trouble of creating the revolving stage complete with dry ice - and in the first edition, a model of a 100m running track to illustrate how lazy people would line up in running shoes 98.2 metres high and forward-flop over the finish line. Give me Sunday night telly over Friday post-pub bilge like this."
Caitlin Moran from The Times was one of the most damning. She described the show as: "like a light entertainment Wounded Knee, but with a studio audience", and she also compared it negatively to another comedy that had begun earlier in the week, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, saying: "The BBC amazes me. It takes four years for Stewart Lee - a comedian with 17 years' experience - to get a six-part series; yet in Genius wholly inexperienced members of the public are expected to deliver five minutes of broadcast-quality improvised material at the drop of a hat. What, literally, is that all about?"
When the first episode was broadcast, it was watched by 1.67 million viewers, or 8.9% of the total viewing audience.
Read more about this topic: Genius (TV Series)
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