The Young Pope

Anyone else heard about this? A new Sky/HBO thing, starting on Thursday. Here’s the pitch: Lenny Belardo (Jude Law), the youngest and first American Pope in the history of the Church, must establish his new papacy and navigate the power struggles of the closed, secretive Vatican.

Here’s the ad:

It looks fucking BONKERS.


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Looks dreadful and deliberately controversial in a way that would be offensive if Catholicism wasn’t so evil.

Hahaha that looks amazing.

Had I not seen that trailer I would not believe that it exists, Unbelievably shit name as well.

I’m in!

I wouldn’t be able to take it seriously because of Jude Law. I’ve heard him twice talking about it in interviews and each time he’s only really talked about the lack of pockets in that gown and how you have to hold your hands as a result.

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Pope Lenny

Did anyone ever buy a t-shirt from the back of viz?
This one
Don’t walk on the grass, smoke it
If I told ya that I loved ya would ya suck my plums

No, just the Diana memorial plates

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Looks pretty bad (I love Diane Keaton for her work in the 70s but she’s been in nothing but dog turd for ages now), which is a shame as Paolo Sorrentino has done some good stuff

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I’ve never been more convinced by a casting.

Watched the first episode last night

It was enjoyable.

Saw posters for this at the weekend but keep getting it mixed up with Laserpope.

Yeah it does seem like its trying hard to be controversial, but I’m kind of interested in it? I don’t know, seems like it could go either way for me!

I’ll elaborate a bit more

Big, big fan of Paulo Sorrentino. Think he’s one of the best film makers around today, so seeing him being given this big canvas to use is pretty exciting.

Youth was a bit of a misstep but this seems to be a bit of a return to form. The first episode is good not great. Like a lot of first episodes it spends a lot of time setting things up.

The whole mix of American and Italian is a bit jarring but just about works. Jude Law is pretty good in the lead, very watchable and has some good lines (never really got the dislike for him, think he’s a good actor- Talented My Ripley, Road to perdition, Gattaca, AI all strong performances).

Visually it must be one of the best things out there, up there with True Detective for bringing the cinematic onto the small screen. There isn’t AS much of Sorrentino’s custom surrealism yet, which is disappointing, but hopefully this will be ramped up throughout the series.

Also, you might want to check if your stream has subtitles, because I realised halfway through that there is some dialogue in Italian, which I missed out on.

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Ok no need to have Pope at it!

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No need to Pope fun at it

Interesting thoughts. I’ve not seen any Sorrentino, but have meaning to for years now. I’ve heard similiar grumblings that visually, it has a True Detective sense of scope when it comes to the visuals. I agree about Jude Law, can’t say he’s ever irritated enough to put me off a film, he’s no Shia Labeouf! Seems like enough so far for me to give it a try.

haven’t read this thread. here’s my prediction: it will look alright with some really elaborate shots but the set-ups/weird bits will get a bit tedious as it goes on (paolo sorrentino) and you’ll just want something to actually happen. diane keaton won’t be in it much at all and at one point jude law will maybe do some drugs or something??? lot of old men, who are kind of eccentric, tutting.

reckon i’m gonna watch it tomorrow or thursday