He's sexy and he knows it.
Jude Law plays the pope in HBO's new drama (it debuted overseas this past fall) but get this - he's not just a regular pope. He's a YOUNG pope. Thank goodness HBO made that clear with a very self-explanatory title, The Young Pope. He's a pope, but he's young. Get it?
Okay, so he's not that young. The 44-year-old actor is actually older than many popes throughout history (the youngest was just 18 when he served), but in the past several centuries the pontiff has been well into his 50s and beyond when he first began his papacy. Law plays Pope Pius XIII, f.k.a. Lenny Belardo, a bad boy Catholic who smokes, apparently tans (he's rocking a sun-baked Cheeto-esque skin tone), drinks Cherry Coke Zero for breakfast, is American (gasp!) and will stop at nothing to gain as much power as possible in his position atop the Catholic church.
While the first episode shows Lenny's visions of shaking Catholocism to its core his first papal address by advocating for birth control and recreational sex, it turns out that Pius XIII is incredibly conservative. This young pope is not a picture of progress, he's actually hoping to lead a resurgence of conservative Catholicism and will stop at nothing to further his agenda.
Aiding in his ascent is Diane Keaton as Sister Mary, the nun who raised little orphan Lenny and becomes his personal papal secretary. But plotting against him are the Cardinal Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Voiello (Silvio Orlando), and Lenny's own former mentor, Cardinal Michael Spencer (James Cromwell).
Visually, The Young Pope is beautiful. That's not only due to fact that the gilded papal residence is filled with marble and tapestries and centuries-old art and other opulence, but because creator Paolo Sorrentino, who directed all ten episodes, isn't afraid to linger on the beauty (including extended shots of Jude Law gazing into the distance). Seeing Law in papal vestments is an obvious target for mockery when presented out of context on a platform like Twitter, sure, but it's also gorgeous to look at.
You'll be pleased to know that at its most dramatic moments, The Young Pope is as enjoyably, absurdly silly as the Internet memes that have blown up on Twitter. There's a montage of Pius XIII putting on his vestments set to LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It," so, yeah. Things get really crazy really quickly as the pope attempts to advance his agenda and his opponents try to prevent him from completely pushing the Catholic Church back in time and isolating the Vatican from the rest of the world.
But between all the insane scenes, there's also a lot of plotting and plodding and, honestly, kind of boring moments.
In many ways, The Young Pope (and the titular character) is reminiscent of House of Cards (and Kevin Spacey's power-hungry Frank Underwood). Both series are pretty, slow-paced examinations of a man's quest for ultimate power. And both of those men happen to be unapologetic jerks.
House of Cards, however, doesn't have nearly as many kangaroos. (Yes, you will see a kangaroo in the Vatican. It is not a hallucination.) If you're able to wait out the quiet moments, the ridiculous ones will bring you as much joy as the Young Pope-Smash Mouth mashups you've seen online.
The Verdict
The title The Young Pope is an easy target for meme-ification, but the actual show is one third tense political drama, one third over-the-top soap opera, and one third boring-as-hell prestige piece. When it's good it's fascinating, but those moments are not consistent enough to keep the series afloat.
The Young Pope premieres Sunday, January 15th on HBO.
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