Pierce Brosnan plays Lenny Belardo as a young man who becomes pope, and he does it with a performance that turns the role into something closer to a rock star than a spiritual leader. That’s the whole idea behind The Young Pope, a surreal, stylish TV series that premiered in 2016 and ran for one season of eight episodes. It’s a show about a man who doesn’t want power but can’t stop taking it.
The series was created by Paolo Sorrentino, the Italian director behind La Grande Bellezza and Youth. He brings his signature visual style to the Vatican, filling each frame with bright colors, wide shots, and a sense of excess that feels both modern and ancient. The result is a show that treats the Catholic Church like a fashion magazine and a political thriller at the same time.
Trailer, via Sky TV.
Lenny Belardo Takes the Throne
Brosnan plays Lenny as a man who has spent his life as a small-time criminal and a gambler. He’s a heavy smoker, a drinker, and a liar. When he’s elected pope, he doesn’t know what to do with the job. He refuses to wear the traditional papal robes. He walks around in a leather jacket and sunglasses. He takes phone calls from the Sistine Chapel.
His behavior scandalizes the Curia, the group of cardinals who run the Vatican. They try to control him, and he tries to control them. The show spends most of its runtime showing these two forces colliding. Brosnan’s performance is the engine that drives this collision. He plays Lenny as a man who is both sincere and manipulative, humble and arrogant, all at once.
The supporting cast is strong. Jim Carter plays Father Mcgee, a loyal aide who tries to understand Lenny’s methods. James Norton plays a cardinal who becomes Lenny’s main rival. Diane Keaton plays a character who represents American power. Each actor gets a chance to shine, but the show always comes back to Brosnan.
Style Over Substance
Sorretino’s direction is the show’s biggest strength. He uses long takes, slow motion, and a color palette that shifts from deep reds to bright yellows. The camera lingers on statues, paintings, and empty corridors. These shots aren’t just decoration. They’re meant to make the audience feel the weight of history and the absurdity of the institution.
The show also has a soundtrack that mixes classical music with pop songs. One episode ends with a scene set to a Beatles song. Another features a montage of Lenny walking through the Vatican while a rock track plays. This mixing of genres is part of the point. The show is saying that religion is a performance, and the pope is the performer.
There are moments when the show’s ambition overwhelms its plot. Some episodes spend too much time on Lenny’s personal life — his childhood, his family, his dreams — without giving the political conflict enough room to breathe. The final episodes rush to tie everything together, and some threads get left hanging.
What Works and What Doesn’t
- The performance by Pierce Brosnan, which anchors the entire series
- The visual style, which makes the Vatican look like a museum and a stage at the same time
- The soundtrack, which mixes classical and pop with confidence
- The dialogue, which is often witty and sharp
- The pacing, which slows down too much in the middle episodes
| Episode | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | “Pope Zero” |
| 2 | “Apostle Paul” |
| 3 | “Cyrus” |
| 4 | “St. Peter” |
| 5 | “The Virgin Mary” |
| 6 | “St. John the Baptist” |
| 7 | “The Holy Spirit” |
| 8 | “The Kingdom of Heaven” |
The table above shows the full season. The titles are biblical names, which fits the show’s religious setting. They also suggest a narrative arc about the saints and the holy figures that Lenny is supposed to represent.
The show is not subtle. It’s a loud, colorful, and theatrical piece of entertainment. It doesn’t try to be a documentary about the Catholic Church. It tries to be a fable about power, faith, and the human need to believe in something larger than ourselves.
A Final Word on the Show
Sorretino’s direction is the show’s biggest strength. That’s a repeated line, but it’s worth repeating. The visual style is the reason the show works, even when the plot drags. The performances are uniformly excellent, especially Brosnan’s central turn.
The show is flawed. It’s uneven, and it sometimes loses focus. But it’s also bold, funny, and strangely moving. It’s a show that takes a sacred institution and turns it into a spectacle, and it mostly succeeds at that task.
If you’re looking for a serious meditation on faith, this isn’t it. If you want to see a pope who swears, smokes, and dances, then this is exactly what you should watch. The show knows what it is, and it commits to it fully.
8 of 10.
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