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| Image Credit: HBO |
We're too cheap to buy a subscription to HBO, but we have generous relatives and friends who aren't too cheap and have been willing to share their password.
My husband has gotten hooked on The Young Pope, now in it's second season. I watch it with him occasionally, but it drives me freaking nuts.
Let me list the ways...
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| Image Credit: Giphy Yes, I know I'm a genius. Thank you. Thank you. |
1.) It's the most pretentious show I've ever flipping seen. It's like the directors and writers go out of their way to prove to the world, "we're SERIOUS and ARTSY".
The cinematography is admittedly gorgeous, but it's unrelentingly gorgeous. Artsy shot follows artsy symbolic shot with artistically written, fraught, loaded conversation following fraught, loaded conversation, all given by people who are obviously quite talented and ACTING (!!!).
All backed with a deeply stirring soundtrack comprised mostly of edgy artsy indie songs and violins.
All backed with a deeply stirring soundtrack comprised mostly of edgy artsy indie songs and violins.
Watching an episode of this show is like trying to live on nothing but dark chocolate for a week. It's enjoyable for the first few bites, but after that it just gets to be too much. There's no scene that allows for a breath or moment of levity, or allows you to see a more human, normal side of the characters; it's just completely unrelenting drama.
There WERE a few moments of levity in the first season that helped provide some balance, but that's all gone out the window with the current season. Now it's just pure, unrelenting, heavy hitting artsy-ness.
Good shows need dramatic moments, but they also need to show the little, human sides of people. Even Martin Scorsese's Silence, a highly dramatic and artistically loaded film, took a couple moments to show a casual, lightly treated conversation between the two priests-- which made the drama following that exchange that much more powerful. You need some contrast for a drama to work.
2.) It's on HBO, therefore they are contractually obligated to show boobs at least every other episode and have a graphic sex scene at least two or three times a season.
I don't actually mind some nudity in a show or film when it actually advances the story, but when it's used every other flipping episode, it starts to lose its effectiveness as a story telling device. It's quite frankly a crutch after a certain point.
We use the skip button quite a lot
As an aside, does this mean HBO is the new Playboy?
"I watch it for the story lines."
3.) Enough of it looks 'really' Catholic that the stuff they misinterpret or misrepresent really, REALLY gets under my skin.
I want to be clear, I'm NOT talking about the depiction of princes of the Church having sexual affairs, being quite actively gay, or struggling with being an alcoholic. You'd have to be living under a rock at this point not to know that stuff happens in real life, and happens fairly frequently.
What bothers me is when they 'discuss' church teaching.
Paraphrased, a lot of it sounds like this,
"The reason we haven't accepted gay marriage is we don't have a pope that's brave enough to do so...we just have to inch our way there for awhile first."
"A good pope pays lip service to the teachings of the Church, but he actually doesn't reinforce them in practice."
"There's a middle way where we can keep the teachings of the church on paper, but also allow people to love as they wish."
"The only reason nuns can't confect the sacraments is that the church isn't advanced enough to let them"
Enough of those artistically written dialogues sound a lot like what actual Pope's have said that when stuff like this comes down the pipeline, written in a similar style, it sounds legit.
It just drives me crazy that the writers, who are obviously well versed in Catholic culture and at least passingly familiar with Church teaching, chose not to research the reasons behind actual church teaching and instead are using the trappings of Catholic art and culture to advance an agenda.
And, though the depiction of corrupt princes of the Church doesn't bother me as such, do ALL of them, almost without exception, have to be boozing, sexually active, detached jerks completely and totally attached to power and their own comfort? All of them? Seriously? Even the parish priests? (Seriously, I can think of three priest characters treated in depth who aren't sexual perverts or sexually active in the whole show (at least hinted). And ONE who isn't interested in power and influence...but is sexually active at least once).
There's even a former seminarian character who dropped out of seminary, got married, lost his wife tragically...then becomes a Romeo pimp sex trafficker.
I mean GEEZE dude...I would hope no group of humans is that bad. You make us look more depraved than Game of Thrones. It's just utterly unrelenting.
I know things in reality are bad, but I hope they're at least not THAT bad.
4.) The intro sequences are really weird.
The first season sequence starts off ok. It's Jude Law dressed as the pope walking in front of a bunch of paintings as a shooting star streams through them with some rock music in the background.
Kinda subversive, artistically clever.
Then it ends with the shooting star becoming a meteor falling out of the sky and crushing a statue of John Paul II.
The second season has two intros.
One is a convent dormitory becoming a dance club with nuns in flimsy nightgowns letting their hair down and dancing provocatively. The whole thing is lit with a huge neon cross changing colors.
The second one involves Jude Law in a blinding white Speedo walking through a bunch of women in tiny bikinis playing with beach balls. He comes up to a woman in a blue sundress with a light cloth over her hair, her hands held out from her sides, obviously supposed to look like the Virgin Mary, and she passes out as he walks by.
Then they do a close up of her face and head as she faints while they show the director title card.
"Hey everybody, we're EDGY and ARTSY. Tremble at our talent, you unsophisticated plebs."
Blech.
There WERE a few moments of levity in the first season that helped provide some balance, but that's all gone out the window with the current season. Now it's just pure, unrelenting, heavy hitting artsy-ness.
Good shows need dramatic moments, but they also need to show the little, human sides of people. Even Martin Scorsese's Silence, a highly dramatic and artistically loaded film, took a couple moments to show a casual, lightly treated conversation between the two priests-- which made the drama following that exchange that much more powerful. You need some contrast for a drama to work.
 |
| Image Credit: Giphy Heh heh heh. Bewbs. |
2.) It's on HBO, therefore they are contractually obligated to show boobs at least every other episode and have a graphic sex scene at least two or three times a season.
I don't actually mind some nudity in a show or film when it actually advances the story, but when it's used every other flipping episode, it starts to lose its effectiveness as a story telling device. It's quite frankly a crutch after a certain point.
We use the skip button quite a lot
As an aside, does this mean HBO is the new Playboy?
"I watch it for the story lines."
 |
| Image Credit: Gfycat |
3.) Enough of it looks 'really' Catholic that the stuff they misinterpret or misrepresent really, REALLY gets under my skin.
I want to be clear, I'm NOT talking about the depiction of princes of the Church having sexual affairs, being quite actively gay, or struggling with being an alcoholic. You'd have to be living under a rock at this point not to know that stuff happens in real life, and happens fairly frequently.
What bothers me is when they 'discuss' church teaching.
Paraphrased, a lot of it sounds like this,
"The reason we haven't accepted gay marriage is we don't have a pope that's brave enough to do so...we just have to inch our way there for awhile first."
"A good pope pays lip service to the teachings of the Church, but he actually doesn't reinforce them in practice."
"There's a middle way where we can keep the teachings of the church on paper, but also allow people to love as they wish."
"The only reason nuns can't confect the sacraments is that the church isn't advanced enough to let them"
Enough of those artistically written dialogues sound a lot like what actual Pope's have said that when stuff like this comes down the pipeline, written in a similar style, it sounds legit.
It just drives me crazy that the writers, who are obviously well versed in Catholic culture and at least passingly familiar with Church teaching, chose not to research the reasons behind actual church teaching and instead are using the trappings of Catholic art and culture to advance an agenda.
And, though the depiction of corrupt princes of the Church doesn't bother me as such, do ALL of them, almost without exception, have to be boozing, sexually active, detached jerks completely and totally attached to power and their own comfort? All of them? Seriously? Even the parish priests? (Seriously, I can think of three priest characters treated in depth who aren't sexual perverts or sexually active in the whole show (at least hinted). And ONE who isn't interested in power and influence...but is sexually active at least once).
There's even a former seminarian character who dropped out of seminary, got married, lost his wife tragically...then becomes a Romeo pimp sex trafficker.
I mean GEEZE dude...I would hope no group of humans is that bad. You make us look more depraved than Game of Thrones. It's just utterly unrelenting.
I know things in reality are bad, but I hope they're at least not THAT bad.
 |
| Image Credit: Giphy I'm FABULOUS. |
4.) The intro sequences are really weird.
The first season sequence starts off ok. It's Jude Law dressed as the pope walking in front of a bunch of paintings as a shooting star streams through them with some rock music in the background.
Kinda subversive, artistically clever.
Then it ends with the shooting star becoming a meteor falling out of the sky and crushing a statue of John Paul II.
 |
| Image Credit: Giphy |
The second season has two intros.
One is a convent dormitory becoming a dance club with nuns in flimsy nightgowns letting their hair down and dancing provocatively. The whole thing is lit with a huge neon cross changing colors.
The second one involves Jude Law in a blinding white Speedo walking through a bunch of women in tiny bikinis playing with beach balls. He comes up to a woman in a blue sundress with a light cloth over her hair, her hands held out from her sides, obviously supposed to look like the Virgin Mary, and she passes out as he walks by.
Then they do a close up of her face and head as she faints while they show the director title card.
 |
| Image Credit: Giphy |
"Hey everybody, we're EDGY and ARTSY. Tremble at our talent, you unsophisticated plebs."
Blech.
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