The Young Pope
HBO Drama Series Review: “The Young Pope”.
Critics gave it an 79% users a 86%.
Rated: TV-MA with ten ~1hr episodes and an IMDb of 8.4/10
Cast: Jude Law, Diane Keaton, Silvio Orlando, Javier Cámara, Scott Shepherd, Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier, Toni Bertorelli and James Cromwell
Young and charming, newly elected Pius XIII, aka Lenny Belardo, is the first American Pope in history. His ascension appears to be the result of a simple, effective media strategy implemented by the College of Cardinals. In the Vatican, however, the prevailing wisdom is the church's leaders have chosen a mysterious figure as their guiding force. And Pius XIII proves to be the most mysterious and contradictory of them all. As Belardo begins his reign, he is stubbornly resistant to the Vatican stewards, instead relying on Sister Mary to serve as his chief adviser. While she urges him to focus on leading his billion followers, the young pope shows little interest in making himself known, either to the College of Cardinals or to the masses. The 10-episode drama series stars Jude Law in the title role and Diane Keaton as Sister Mary, a nun from the U.S. now living in Vatican City.
The Young Pope is a drama television series created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino for Sky Atlantic, HBO, and Canal+. The series stars Jude Law as the disruptive Pope Pius XIII and Diane Keaton as his confidante Sister Mary, in a Vatican full of intrigues. It is co-produced by European production companies: Wildside, Haut et Court TV, and Mediapro.
The world premiere of The Young Pope was on 3 September 2016 at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, where the first two episodes were screened out of the competition, the first time in the history of the festival that a TV series has been a part of the program. The series premiered on television on 21 October 2016 on Sky Atlantic in Italy.
Originally designed as a limited series, The Young Pope was marketed as such especially in the United States. However, Wildside producer Lorenzo Mieli announced on 20 October 2016 that a second season of the series was in development. Later, the project was revealed to be a follow-up miniseries called The New Pope, with Law returning and joined by John Malkovich, whose production began in Italy in late 2018.
On 14 July 2017, The Young Pope received two nominations for the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, becoming the first Italian TV series to be nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards.
Everyone reading this needs to understand that this series is eccentric, extravagant, strange and utterly original…….it’s truly NOT for everyone. Now that got that out, it requires one to keep a VERY OPEN MIND when watching. Depending on your faith and upbringing you may find this shocking, blasphemous and even disrespectful. I assure you, you’ll have to get past that to continue watching this series.
However if you can get by shocking part (regardless of how you were raised or believe in) and focus on the series you will see some of the most amazing scenes (none of which distract) and cinematography with huge mesmerizing music score to bring to life one of the most unusual projects ever.
Lots of swish vocabulary being delivered and not overdone. After 30 minutes one would think that this is Boardwalk Empire in the Vatican" and more. That's not to say that this is like anything done before, because this hasn't been done before. Jude Law plays the Pope like your father plays the villain when you have a friend over. His vindictive nature is apparent and has you rubbing your hands for the next time the Pope wants to single somebody out.
Watch it…..it’s fantastic!
p.s. Part 2 of this series is currently available on HBO. I can say with total confidence part 2 is leaps and bounds over part 1, HOWEVER you need to watch 1 to understand 2!