Lenny Belardo, the youngest and first American Pope in the history of the Church, who just so happens to smoke! He must try and come to terms with the running of the church and if he really can make a difference while also deciding to remain out of the public eye with no one actually knowing who he is. Bringing in people he has always been close to helping him in the struggle, does he even believe in God?
The series is a very big and bold effort from Sky as it certainly has plenty of things to make it controversial. But isn’t that what people want to really watch and see, something that is very different and dares to cross the line. Questioning different things about the church and how they will be dealt with.
The daring nature of the series does not leave anything unturned. Sexual scenes are very high in proportion through and this includes nuns and members of the clergy. We get nudity, sex, an attempted sex scandal, rape and mentions of paedophilia and the issues the church have had to deal with. We get Lenny’s opinions on how he would stop this and links it to homosexuality. The vows of chastity are touched upon a lot as well.
Along with those we get a very impressive supporting cast from James Cromwell, Silvio Orlando, Ludivine Sagnier, Javier Camara and Scott Shepherd.
The music sets the tone and reminds us that it is set in the current day. A particular scene that has still stuck with me has to be with LMAO’s “Sexy and I know It” which you could not help smile at with the placement in the scene. Very impressive work to show how different things could be to how they are perceived. Even the opening credits with the walk and music set the tone that this is not going to be the series that you are expecting to watch. The Pope who does not want anyone to actually see him? I think that is such a brilliant idea in all honesty as it really does work so well with the tone of it all.
The Young Pope is released on Blu Ray (RRP £34.99) and DVD (RRP £29.99) on 26th December 2016 in the UK, with a running time of approximately 544 minutes over 4 discs.