I was raised catholic but later in life became a true atheist. But i do respect the belief and views of people who are catholic or any other major religion. . . everyone has to decide for himself . . . obviously. Having this stated, now about the show: in 2 words APPALLING and CRAP! Why. . . well how many lines do i have? They gave the show an artistic and different look and i admit that the opening segment was intriguing; but pull back the artsy curtain and you see just another grotesque Hollywood piece of crap, mainly intended to make a mockery or even insult/undermine the catholic church. Now as an atheist i am not a fan of the catholic church; but this is all way way way over the top to say the least; for instance the pope clearly states at one time that "he doesn't believe in god" (upon seeing the reaction of the priest who heard it he says "it was a joke" . . but it's clear as hell to the viewer that it was not !) The young pope - the main character - looks more like a true mental patient who has some very serious issues to deal with such as megalomania, social disturbed, cruelness and somewhat sociopathic behaviour (all the weird flashbacks, dreams and illogical behaviour should illustrate that). Now tell me how someone like this could ever even be considered to be elected pope is truly beyond me. The talent of Jude Law and Diane Keaton is completely wasted and i hope they realize this. Now furthermore i find this show totally overrated, utterly pretentious and a total emphasizes of style over substance. In brief: don't waste your time with this truly presumptuous show because it is appalling, senseless, absurd (and at times even grotesque), horrible and in fact a complete waste of time.

One of the oddest movies I have ever seen. Granted that the Catholic Church and especially the Vatican could only have been invented by Italians! The Vatican is a sort of Mafia/Italian Opera operation, with mafiosi cardinals and various unsavory characters, much like the opera Rigoletto. But one needs to remember that the Church is one of the most evil institutions in Western Civilization, having thriven on deceit, intolerance, barbaric practices, and certainly very un-Christian things. It has persecuted well meaning people unable to accept its lies: Jews, Muslims, Protestants, free thinkers. It has been the source of Fascist politics in all European Catholic states: Italy, France, Croatia, Slovakia, Poland, and Lithuania. It is very much responsible, along with all Christian churches, for the unopposed extermination of the Jews by the Germans.Still, there are some sympathetic things here. Not all the mafiosi cardinals end up as bad as they seem early on. In fact, the general attitude at the end of a very, overly long film series, is that the Vatican is not so bad after all. The young Pope turns out to be a saint despite his lack of belief in God. He quite philosophically says at one point that those who believe in God believe in nothing, which means belief in God excuses one from real compassion, sympathy, and love of mankind. Yet only true believers in Vatican nonsense would find this movie positive. It is actually a good condemnation of the Vatican. The young pope, played by Jude Law, one of my favorite actors, is very shrewd in seeing all that is wrong with the church and although he is nominally portrayed as a conservative or reactionary his real views are quite radical.I doubt many will see this flick or will be influenced by it. The more's the pity.For those wondering, thriven is the correct participle of the verb thrive.

This one of the best series I have ever seen.It's a pure search into finding God. Showing people as they are; sinners, driven by power, driven by fear, driven by egocentric motives. It drives away from the thought that god wants us to be good girls and good boys. What's the essence of finding god? What does god really wants from us?Are we able to say what we really think is true in our heart and takes the consequences and accept the fear that might accompany it?That's the story of this young pope, honestly trying to find and speaking out his ideas of a true relationship with god. Throwing away all clichés of what a god loving person is. All superficiality's. Yes this pope smokes, but does that make him a sinner?I think when we are all nicely dressed in church on Sunday, aren't we just wallowing in pride. Showing of how good we look. Are we truly searching god? Really accepting the body and blood of Christ? Does church help us find god? Where is the mystery? The divine aspect? Why look at the pope while god is always in and with us. Christ taught us that to be truthful. And this pope is truthful. How can we be truthful?This series is beautiful attempt in addressing the very essential questions on God in our lives in a new way.Paolo Sorrentino is an absolute master. Thank you for making this. And for anyone willing a true relationship with god this is a great way in finding new and challenging old perspectives.

I really think you have to be religious for this show. I started watching expecting some kind of Vatican thriller with political games, maybe with an odd assassination or something. It seemed to go in that direction but that aspect quickly faded in the first two episodes. Then I thought it was an intimate story of the young pope battling himself and his own faith. But that's not really true as the pope is remarkably self-confident and even in the tensest moments, he does exactly as he pleases without the slightest doubt. After that I thought the pope is actually the devil and he is doing really unpopular things, to ruin the church as an institution, so maybe that's why he is blinking at the camera in the beginning of each episode. Yet that turned out to be false. So I thought, maybe there is something coming that will turn the whole thing upside down. But it didn't. Very confusingly, I thought its a superhero show, because the pope does some Marvel type things, but only in the last few episodes.The acting was also not extremely good. While the actors themselves are more than capable of brilliant play, the scenario seemed like it totally limited them. The relationships between characters are supposed to be very emotionally complex, but rarely you get the right feeling of that from the acting. Especially from the main character, its too often that you don't know if he is being sarcastic or genuine (that could be only for me, as I cannot grasp that anyone could consider that religious stuff as serious). After watching the first season, I have no idea what I just watched. I was bored since the beginning but kept watching because everybody said how great it was (I was lucky to be on sick leave so there wasn't much to do anyway). Thats why I think you need to be religious to enjoy this show. You have to be in some way emotionally involved. The pope needs to be an important figure in your mind. Thats how this show fits into some previous ideas that you should already have.