The Captivating Confusion of The Young Pope

Youthful gravitas. Vigorous unorthodoxy. Assertive egomaniacal tendencies. Hundreds, if not thousands, of crushed, empty cans of Cherry Coke Zero. These are the cornerstones upon which the fictional Pope Pius XIII has constructed his papal throne upon in the HBO drama series The Young Pope, which premiered in America earlier this month.

As perplexing as it is compelling, Jude Law’s portrayal of Lenny Belardo, the titular character, takes a deep dive into profoundly uncharted waters for both television and culture as a whole. Here we have a chainsmoking, unapologetically domineering Yankee who uproots the Vatican establishment to become the youngest Holy Father in the history of modern Roman Catholicism at the spry age of just 47. In the process, Belardo rebukes classic dogma, emasculates senior members of the clergy, and stops at nothing to affirm his own independence and authority, perhaps to mask the fact that he is still very much in the process of his own self-discovery.

Stylistically and visually, The Young Pope, a brainchild of famed Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, is a stunning display. Its overall spatial conception is quite clever in that every room, every garden, every painting comes across as large and grandiose, perhaps as a metaphor for the awesome responsiblities of the papacy, especially for somebody as naive and untried as Belardo. The contrast in lighting is also brilliantly unsettling as it goes from the vibrant images of St. Peter’s Square and the Sistine Chapel by the day to sinister visions of the dark political underbelly and ulterior motives of the Catholic Church (albeit, in fictionalized form) by night. But that’s not what makes it such a fascinating production. Nor is it even all the dank meme content that it blessed our TLs with in recent weeks.

Rather, what makes this show so riveting is that it is somehow both perversion and reflection of the times. On the one hand, Belardo is the complete antithesis of our current pontiff Pope Francis, a humble, forward-thinking leader who seeks to tend to our least advantaged brethren rather than to exploit them, to show mercy rather than to show vanity, to serve rather than to be served. It’s also downright absurd to suggest that a figure like Belardo could rise to the top of an institution where the 1978 election of a soft-spoken 58-year-old Pole named Karol Wojtyła (better known these days as Saint John Paul II) was unprecedented enough.

But at the same time, The Young Pope might not be all that far off from our current reality. We’re living in an era where brash demagogues with a dangerous lack of experience can ascend to the highest duties in the land. Where big egos forcibly attempt to command our respect and attention at every turn imaginable. Where up is down, down is up, and not sorry is the new sorry. Where sometimes the bad guys win and win and win and win.

One particular scene from the pilot episode of the show comes to mind. In it, the newly-elected Belardo sits in his office consulting with Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Voiello, an old school conservative who finds himself butting heads with Belardo on many occassions. As Voiello goes on exalting the policies and the practices of his predecessors, Belardo interjects with an ominous declaration:

“The past is an enormous place with all sorts of things inside… Not so with the present. The present is merely a narrow opening with room for only one pair of eyes… Mine.”

Well, this right here is our present. And in this present, there is room for only one single question: does art imitiate life or does life imitate art? Together with Lenny Belardo, we’re about to find out.

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