With every new year there comes a crop of new shows premiering but with so much content out there its hard to keep track of what , where and when these new shows come on. There have been a few shows I have seen in the past year that were very well done and enjoyable but I couldn’t tell what some of them were right now , maybe because they weren’t that memorable ( I’m looking right at you Night Manager). But the Young Pope separates itself from the pack entirely, at first I thought what a silly name the Young Pope is and surely the show would reflect that but then I saw this promo shot
If you having girl problems I feel bad for you my son, I got ninety nine problems and the Pope is young
After seeing this I KNEW this show would be epically bad but entertaning at least. With the myriad of highly unlikely scenarios a young pope would find himself in, then hitting his wardrobe and putting on one of his many ill units like this one.
I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m the Pope, only younger
When the trailer dropped a few weeks after the above pics my expectations grew ten fold and I eagerly anticipated for when I could watch it. So when my good friends over at Home Box Office (HBO for you nubs) sent me over some screeners I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to see the engaging Jude Law. The show centers around Law who goes by Lenny in the show. He’s an orphan that was given up at a young age and raised in the Catholic Church by Sister Mary who is being played by the pleasant, wicked jump shot having Diane Keaton, who has a number of memorable moments akin to this one
Nun humor, gotta love it. The nuns in the show get a lot of the jokes and a majority of them really like sports surprisingly and there is an exquisitely shot scene where the nuns are playing a game of footy with some deft moves and cracking finishes set to some operatic music and it was pretty funny to see those nuns go all FIFA on each other.
Jude Law has been great in many supporting roles from The Talented Mr. Ripley to Sherlock Holmes and one of my personal favorites Gattaca but he has rarely been the lead with such a juicy part. Thats why this will be a career defining performance for him where he can show off as the newly elected Pius XIII: chain-smoking,right-wing, deeply cynical and ultra-political. Machiavelli living in the 21st century.
The Young Pope might disguise as a high-budget soap, but it tells us some uneasy truths about the hypocrisy at the top of the Catholic Church. This show feels a lot like The Sopranos without the Bada-Bing and the chicken parms but replaced with the rich, beautiful set pieces of the Vatican and some lavish pools to boot.
This show is opulent, sleek, charming and ultimately visually sumptuous. If you go into the show expecting a spectacle rather than something literal you will have infinitely better time. It will be on my end of year list for the most fun shows undoubtedly. Just sit back and accept the body of Christ as long as it looks like Jude Law.
ps.
Shout out to my Serie A lovers , Napoli gets some major love throughout it.
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