mckavelly The director shows his irreverence towards religion despite the seemingly religious nature of the topic. This makes for some hilarious moments. Loved it.The acting is top, top. Every character perfectly cast. Only a few of the actors are conventionally good looking, but their acting is so good that I could not take my eyes off them. The locations are beautiful. The sets are seamless. At every moment, the illusion of being inside Vatican City is perfect. Amazing. Bravo.

betabong Fantastic performances and absolutely stunning pictures! Jude Law had a few great roles in the past, but this is definitely his best performance in the recent time. The directing is a masterpiece. One of the best series I've had the pleasure to watch. It's a real shame they have cancelled it.

kalebros-75554 If I could give it a 0 I could have. The main character is an obnoxious idiot. He has no redeeming characteristic and he is a pain to watch. The series has a lot of stupid things. The "new pope" has never had his picture taken? How so? No photographers there in St. Whatever's Cathedral where he attended? And the stupidity goes on and on. And he passes on stupidity as wisdom? Maybe... I have no idea what they expected. The other characters reaction or lack thereof is unrealistic to the extreme. Where is the one guy with integrity enough to slap him in the face and walk out? As it is since I cannot slap him in the face, I will turn to more entertaining activities such as mopping the kitchen floor. It is really beyond horrid and no, I am not Catholic.

mukava991 When he isn't dispensing cynical and often profane comments or cruelly taunting and teasing underlings, he alternates cigarette smoking with workouts on high-tech gym equipment. He is cold, remote, manipulative and downright repellent. In fact he has no redeeming qualities. Even his sketchy back story as an unwanted boy left in a Catholic orphanage by hippie parents fails to elicit enough sympathy to sustain interest in his trajectory through ten episodes. Such is the title character, played by Jude Law, of this undramatic and unsatisfying series, straining for irony at every turn, about the inexplicable election to Pope of a 40-ish American upstart with a murky past.The stilted dialogue comes off as carefully memorized line recitations. This is particularly evident with Silvio Orlando, the Italian actor who plays Cardinal Voiello, Law's chief rival in the Vatican viper's nest, who also sports a hideous black wart on his left cheek as if to symbolize something morbid and ugly in his nature. If the Vatican hierarchy is as rotten, cynical and hypocritical as depicted here, then upheaval is surely called for. Many supporting characters whose place in the tapestry is unclear enough as it is, also speak with thick accents, requiring yet more effort from the already fatigued listener. In fact there are four languages dominating: English, Italian, Spanish and Latin – the latter used in extended ceremonial sequences. Law's dry, generic American accent is technically correct but lacks individualistic character. Diane Keaton seems bewilderingly miscast as the nun who has been in charge of Law since his abandonment, but her character as written is virtually unplayable. The ultra-formal staging of scenes and artsy camera angles further distance the proceedings. Fellini-esque touches involving a kangaroo imported by the Pope that pops up now and then around the Vatican garden and interludes with a disabled youth apparently under the care of Cardinal Voiello draw attention to themselves but serve no worthwhile purpose.Jude Law has a few memorable, original and beautiful moments in this uninvolving oddity but they are so extrinsic to the whole that their power is diminished.