The Young Pope

The Young Pope is a satirical 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. The series was co-produced by the 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 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.

The Young Pope was originally designed as a limited series, and was marketed as such especially in the United States. However, it was later followed by The New Pope, with Law returning and joined by John Malkovich. 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 a Primetime Emmy Award.

Plot
A young cardinal from New York, Lenny Belardo, becomes pope of the Catholic Church when the leading contenders of the Papal conclave fail to win election. Installed as a compromise candidate, Belardo takes the name of Pius XIII and immediately proceeds to challenge the established traditions and practices of the Vatican. In one of his first acts, he decrees that common people are not worthy to gaze upon the Pope's face and appears to a crowd in St. Peter's Square shrouded in darkness. Next, during a meeting with the Cardinal Secretary of State, the Pope states he will now become directly involved in the political affairs of the Vatican, effectively assuming control of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See.

Alarmed by his radical changes to the church, several senior cardinals begin a plan to try to control the Pope and assuage him from even more dangerous ideas to the church. In response, the Pope installs Sister Mary, the nun who raised him in an orphanage, to serve as his chief adviser and publicly denounces several cardinals. He likewise threatens to confiscate all the property of various religious orders, in particular the Franciscans, if they do not accept his unquestioned leadership. Following this, the Pope directs that the Papal tiara be removed from a museum and returned to the Vatican as his personal crown.

In a last ditch effort to rein in the Pope, the cardinals arrange a meeting with the Prime Minister of Italy who is subsequently bullied by the Pope and threatened with an archaic papal procedure allowing the Church to direct Italians for who they should cast their votes in local elections. Fearing at this point that the Pope is trying to restore the Papal States, it is then discovered the Pope is suffering from massive depression and that all of his actions have been driven by his desire to confront his parents, who abandoned him as a boy.

Main

 * Jude Law as Pope Pius XIII (born Lenny Belardo), the newly elected Pope and former Archbishop of New York
 * Diane Keaton as Sister Mary, an American religious sister, who raised Belardo and Dussolier in an orphanage, has helped him throughout his career and is appointed personal secretary to the Pope
 * Silvio Orlando as Cardinal Angelo Voiello, Camerlengo and Cardinal Secretary of State
 * Javier Cámara as Monsignor (later Cardinal) Bernardo Gutierrez, Master of Ceremonies of the Holy See
 * Scott Shepherd as Cardinal Andrew Dussolier, a missionary, Belardo's longtime friend and a fellow orphan
 * Cécile de France as Sofia Dubois, in charge of marketing for the Holy See
 * Ludivine Sagnier as Esther, the wife of a member of the Pontifical Swiss Guard
 * Toni Bertorelli as Cardinal Caltanissetta, an elderly and powerful master of Vatican politics with inscrutable motives
 * James Cromwell as Cardinal Michael Spencer, former archbishop of New York and Belardo's mentor
 * Stefano Accorsi as the Prime Minister of Italy

Recurring

 * Gianluca Guidi (actor) as Father Federico Amatucci, Cardinal Voiello's confidant
 * Ignazio Oliva (actor) as Father Valente, one of the Pope's assistants
 * Sebastian Roché as Cardinal Michel Marivaux, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints
 * Marcello Romolo as Don Tommaso Viglietti (later created a Cardinal), the Pope's and the cardinals' confessor
 * Vladimir Bibic as Cardinal Ozolins
 * Ramón García (actor) as Cardinal Aguirre
 * Nadee Kammellaweera as Sister Suree, a secretarial worker at the Vatican
 * Maurizio Lombardi as Cardinal Mario Assente
 * Daniel Vivian as Domen, the Pope's butler
 * Biagio Forestieri as Peter, a member of the Pontifical Swiss Guard and Esther's husband
 * Giancarlo Fares as Franco, Girolamo's caregiver
 * Unknown actor as Girolamo, Voiello's best friend who has a severe disability
 * Carolina Carlsson as the Prime Minister of Greenland
 * Camilla Diana as the Virgin Mary
 * Franco Pinelli as Tonino Pettola, a charlatan who claims that he can see the Virgin Mother among his sheep flock
 * Madalina Bellariu as Elena, an escort
 * Tony Plana as Carlos García, a Honduran drug dealer and Maribeth's husband
 * Monica Cetti as Contessa Meraviglia, a hedonistic Italian noblewoman
 * Rayna Tharani as Maribeth, Cardinal Dussolier's married girlfriend
 * Alessia Giulia Trujillo Alva as Blessed Juana
 * Andre Gregory as Elmore Coen, a writer
 * Guy Boyd as Archbishop Kurtwell, a suspected child molester
 * Kevin Jackson as Pete Washington, a potential witness of Kurtwell's crimes
 * Jan Hoag as Rose, the manager of a hotel in New York City
 * Alex Esola as Freddy Blakestone, an aspiring tennis player that was involved in the Kurtwell case

Flashbacks

 * Allison Case as young Sister Mary
 * Frank Gingerich as young Lenny Belardo
 * Olivia Macklin as Lenny Belardo's mother
 * Jack McQuaid as young Andrew Dussolier
 * Collin Smith as Lenny Belardo's father
 * Ann Darlington Carr as the Custodian's wife, miraculously cured by Balardo's prayer
 * Brian Keane as the Custodian

Guests

 * Massimiliano Gallo as Captain Becchi, a Carabinieri officer
 * Emilio Dino Conti as the Italian Prime Minister's advisor
 * Marcos Franz as Ángelo Sanchez, a young man whose application to become a priest has been rejected
 * Milvia Marigliano as Sister Antonia, a missionary nun serving in Africa
 * Nicolas Coster as an American journalist
 * Todd Grinnell as Archbishop Kurtwell's assistant
 * Troy Ruptash as David Tanistone, Archbishop Kurtwell's secret son

Production
The Young Pope, the first TV series by Paolo Sorrentino, was produced by Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani, together with the French company Haut et Court TV and the Spanish company Mediapro. The project was financed by Sky, Canal+ and HBO, which contributed 40 million euros, with part of the money coming from the European Regional Development Fund. Production took three years between 2014 and 2016.

The script was written by Sorrentino, Stefano Rulli, Tony Grisoni and Umberto Contarello. The cast, announced between July and August 2015, includes Jude Law as the young pope; Diane Keaton as Sister Mary; James Cromwell, Silvio Orlando, Scott Shepherd, Javier Cámara and Toni Bertorelli. It also includes Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier, Guy Boyd, Andre Gregory, Sebastian Roché, Marcello Romolo, Ignazio Oliva, Vladimir Bibic, Daniel Vivian and Nadie Kammalaweera. The main character is almost always seen only from the waist up, to give the impression that he might be soaring. Sorrentino said he inherited this technique from Spike Lee.

Principal photography, which took seven months, started in August 2015 and took place mainly in the Cinecittà studios, where the interior of the Vatican was recreated. Exterior shots and garden scenes were taken at a number of villas, primarily Villa Lante (Bagnaia), Villa Medici, and Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza", while some interior shots were also taken inside Palazzo Venezia. Parts of the last episode were shot in piazza San Marco in Venice.

Broadcast
The series premiered on 21 October 2016 on Sky Atlantic in Italy and Sky Atlantic in Germany and Austria, on 27 October 2016 on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom and Ireland, on 28 October 2016 on HBO Europe in various European countries, and on 15 January 2017 on HBO and HBO Canada in the United States and Canada. It premiered in Australia on SBS Television on 29 April 2017. In India it was telecast on ZeeCafe.

Reception
The Young Pope received positive reviews in the UK, Ireland, and Italy. Jude Law's performance has garnered praise by Jasper Rees of The Daily Telegraph, while the Italian weekly Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana objected to "caricature-like characters created to appeal to an American audience".

On US review aggregator Metacritic, it has a rating of 68, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The show also currently has a 80% positive rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes combining 89 reviews. Its "Critics Consensus": "The Young Pope's original premise and stylish blend of over-the-top melodrama with profane comedy helps overcome an occasionally muddled plot."

Some Catholic reviewers were put off by what they perceived as the series' anti-Catholic stance. Such critics took issue with a presentation of the Church they found to be caricatural and "cartoonish". Other reviewers complained about anti-Catholicism in the entertainment industry more broadly. However, some conservative reviewers praised the show for its portrayal of tradition and authentic religious devotion.

Audience viewership
In Italy, the two-hour premiere drew the highest rating ever for the pay TV network Sky. With 953,000 viewers overnight, it beat the initial release of Gomorrah and the Italian release of Game of Thrones.