It's Always Sunny in Vatican City: An Alternate Guide to Viewing The Young Pope

Whether we realize it or not, the very first thing a movie or television show does is teach us how to watch it. It lets the viewer know what lens that film or show should be viewed through. We rely partly on our previous viewing experiences and understandings of genre and tropes, whether actively or subconsciously. We seek to understand how to digest it in order to gain access. In other words, to answer the golden question, "What am I watching?" as quickly as possible.

From the surreal opening images of The Young Pope, we are at a loss to answer that question. It begins with the Pope crawling out from under a massive stack of babies before delivering his first homily in St. Peter’s square. It’s a Lynchian dream sequence within a dream sequence.

Throughout the pilot and subsequent episodes, The Young Pope goes through tonal shifts more often that Vader went through admirals in The Empire Strikes Back. It is, at times: a character study; a comedy; a serious drama about a Pope with abandonment issues (involving both his hippie parents and God); a study in extremism; a political drama; a surrealist, arthouse film; and an odd family drama to name a few.

But that shouldn’t be a real concern. Most great shows manage to be many things at once. The issue with The Young Pope, however, is it seems to only ever be one of these things at a time. It feels choppy. Uneven. It jumps from dark comedy to surrealist fantasy from one scene to another.

And this makes the show inaccessible to many who just want to answer that ‘What am I watching’ question. 

Well, for those of you struggling to find an entry point into The Young Pope, I'm here to offer an entirely unique way to watch the show that I can sum it up with one title card:

That’s right. If you want to watch The Young Pope, but struggle with how to "watch" it, I suggest you try watching the show as if the whole thing is simply a thought exercise that started with the question: “What if Dennis Reynolds became Pope?”

Can you not see Pius XIII’s rants coming out of Dennis’ mouth? Dressed in full papal costume, shouting from the balcony at St. Peter's square. Soaking up the adulation. Sure you can.

Can you identify which of the following quotes belongs to which character?

“I know. I’m incredibly handsome, but please, let’s try to forget about that.”

“The thunder of my vengeance will echo through these corridors like the gust of a thousand winds!”

"I'm a handsome man."

"I prayed so hard I nearly shit my pants."

“I want to talk about faith. It's not about whether something is true, or based in fact or reality or the laws of physics or nature or even basic common sense. It's about whether or not we're dumb enough to believe in it that matters. Who the hell am I to say that there is no God? Who am I? Or to say that anybody's belief in the church doesn't make their life better? Maybe it does.”

"I know everything a powerful man needs to know about the people he works with."

Here are some visual clues:

I'm sexy and I know it. Now kiss the shoes:

Prayergasm:

Make it work:

And for those of you familiar with the D.E.N.N.I.S. system used by Dennis to seduce women. Pius XIII uses a similar system to re-engage and seduce the Catholic followers... the L.E.N.N.Y. system:

I give you Dennis Reynolds, The Young Pope:

Review: The Wonderfully Frantic Legion Premiere

Creating movies and television based on existing intellectual property is considered safe. This is why we’ve been flooded with IP content relentlessly for the better part of the past decade. But the further the IP exists apart from the core of the brand, the more freedom that’s given to play in the sandbox.

In the case of FX’s new show Legion, the core brand is The X-Men. And the one who gets to play in this sandbox of peripheral IP is Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley.

Snowy landscapes are a big part of the distinct visual and tonal mood Fargo. So, when Fargo ended its second season in December of 2015, there was not enough time for Hawley to write and shoot the third season before the end of that winter. Production on the third season would have to wait until the winter of 2016. (In fact, it started shooting in Alberta last month.) As a result, Hawley found himself with some time on his hands. 

In the interim, he chose to tackle Legion. Created in the mid-80s by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, Legion is a lesser-known member of the considerable X-Men catalogue. How much this show is connected to the big screen X-Men incarnations is unknown. For that matter, how much the show will draw from the comics is also a mystery.

The pilot of Legion introduces us to David Haller (Dan Stevens) through a montage -- a normal, serene childhood that quickly gives way to emotionally disjointed and troubled teen years; all to the soundtrack of “Happy Jack” by The Who.

David is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and committed to a mental hospital. He’s haunted by his past (memories that we get in flashes, fragments) as well as the present (“the devil with the yellow eyes”).

But, David is not alone. Both his friend Lenny (Aubrey Plaza), and girlfriend (of sorts), Syd (Rachel Keller) spend time with David in the hospital. Syd is the first one to suggest to David that maybe he isn’t crazy. A bond is formed between them. Both Stevens and Keller are excellent and they share a few sweet moments like “holding hands” using a scarf (due to her aversion to being touched) and laying next to each other separated by a pillow.

Much of the first episode ping-pongs between past and present. Between mutable memories and whatever happens to be David’s current version of reality. But, despite the show’s schizophrenic nature, it feels unified. Grounded. And, oddly enough, it’s David who grounds the story.

We are unable to pin down anything about this world. The timeframe is not specified and faintly recognizable as somewhere in the 70s or 80s possibly. That makes David all the more foundational to the story. Perhaps because we can only see reality through his lens. Perhaps because David is the only thing in the story we know is real. Either way, he anchors us to the story.

To further that, Hawley plants us firmly in David’s POV. The immersion into David’s world is jarring, yet so vivid that we can’t help but imagine what it is like inside his head. What it’s like to live that life. We are David. And like David, we are left to sort out what is real and what is imagined.

David is the ultimate unreliable narrator: one that doesn’t even trust his own sense of reality.

But he does trust Syd. And when she tells him, “This is real.” David believes her. And that's good enough for me.

For now.

12 Best Television Shows of 2016

Full discloser: This list is anything but comprehensive. How could it be? With new shows flooding the airwaves and streaming services, it’s impossible to keep up. Netflix alone seems to release an original series every week. No doubt there are absences from this list. No doubt I will discover great shows from 2016 in the New Year. So in a weird way this list as fluid as it is written in stone.

2016 was another great year for television. With shows like The Leftovers, Fargo, and Master of None taking the year off, I found room for a few new shows on this year’s list.

12 - Daredevil (Netflix)

Season 2 of Daredevil built on the grittiness of its first season with the addition of Elodie Yong as Elektra and Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher. Watching this show felt like reading the best Punisher/Daredevil comics of the ‘90s. Best of all, it doesn’t suffer from the overpopulation of characters like Marvel’s recent films.

11 - This Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

John Oliver and the This Week Tonight staff continued to shed light on underreported or otherwise unreported stories as well as attempting to make sense of the nuttiest election year in recent memory. They did it with equal measure humor and profundity. And in the end, he left us with one overwhelming conclusion that we all basically agree with: Fuck you, 2016!

10 - Mr. Robot (USA)

Now with more Alf! Perhaps no show was a bigger surprise last year than Mr. Robot. This quirky drama with an enigmatic name and odd premise hit the overcrowded television landscape with little fanfare. And if the oversaturation of content and overflowing DVRs wasn’t enough to have Mr. Robot become just another show that failed to find an audience, it was on USA of all networks. I mean, really? USA? But it started gaining overwhelmingly positive word of mouth and landed on many critics’ top 10 lists for 2015. The new season had a lot to live up to, and most of us who were big fans of season one, were more than happy to overlook the bumps in the road (sometimes big ones). I’ll be the first to admit that my enthusiasm for this season had a lot to do with the show as a whole -- that includes season one and any season that has yet to come -- and less to do with any specific episode in this uneven season two.

09 - Bob’s Burgers (FOX)

This show gets better every season. One of the few laugh out loud shows in my rotation. It’s certainly not the most realistic family show on television, but it may be the most relatable. Butts!

08 - Game of Thrones (HBO)

No longer are Benioff and Weiss beholden to the source material. That was most apparent from the extreme change in pace the show displayed this season. Actions that would have previously taken an entire season took mere episodes and the show was the better for it -- mostly. At times Martin’s books did act as an anchor, causing the show to be mired in its own muck. But that anchor also served to hold the story in place. Without it, the show did a little drifting this season. But that was before an endgame was in place. Now that B & W know exactly how many episodes remain they can steer the ship smoothly to port. (Like with the touching and tragic Hodor reveal.) And Dany can set sail for Westeros. Finally!

07 - Westworld (HBO)

Westworld took a while for me to warm up to, and to be honest I never fully got there. In a way, it’s the perfect show for today’s social media landscape. It’s a show that is a puzzle, but one with a solution that begs to be crowdsourced. At times the whole thing left me cold. Westworld is the San Antonio Spurs of television shows. I enjoy watching it in that it’s intellectually stimulating, but in no way is it emotionally engaging.

06 - Stranger Things (Netflix)

Similar to how Mr. Robot came out of nowhere to capture the attention of critics in 2015, Stranger Things captured the imagination of seemly everyone in 2016. Because of the Netflix model (of which we are all aware of by now), one day Stranger Things just appeared. All eight chapters. And for most of us, it was finished as fast as it appeared. This Duffer Brothers’ offering proves that when film or television is heavily influenced, the word “derivative” is only used when the finished product is bad. But when it’s good, it’s one of those viewing experiences that welcomes us to share in the affection of the original material and reminds of our own childhood.

05 - Halt and Catch Fire (AMC)

Thank you, AMC. This show has been one of the very best shows on television almost since the day it aired. Despite this, the show’s ratings are terrible. Yet, AMC has stuck by it. They renewed it for a third season and when the ratings remained bad… they chose to renew it for a fourth and final season (coming in 2017). After season one -- when the show was basically Mad Men set in the ‘80s world of personal computers with Lee Pace’s Joe MacMillan as your generic Don Draper figure, the show pivoted. Hard. Season two saw the focus shift to the female characters and the show was much better for it. This past season saw a time jump but remained on the same track as we bore witness to the birth of the internet while the characters continued to struggle with their own connectivity issues.

04 - Veep (HBO)

Veep’s creator Armando Iannucci departed, making way for a new showrunner (David Mandel) in 2016. The result was the show’s best season to date -- or at the very least, its funniest. Jon H. Ryan for congress!

03 - Better Call Saul (AMC)

Continuing to hold the belt for best cold opens on television, Better Call Saul, suffered from a very unique problem: the title character was the least compelling part of the show. Fortunately, the show spends ample time with Mike (that’s when the show really excels). And when we are with Jimmy, most of his time is spent bouncing off Kim and Chuck. Both Jonathon Banks and Rhea Seehorn excelled and earned every bit of story time they were given.

02 - The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)

Every bit of the ten episodes was needed to tell this story. From the moment the stage was set in the wake of the Rodney King beating, through to the final verdict, the show managed to navigate the disparate personalities and circumstances of a case that really was better suited to be a work of drama than real life. Both Courtney B. Vance and Sarah Paulson shine in roles that finally showcase their talents.

01 - The Americans (FX)

There is a quiet scene in episode ten of this season’s The Americans between Keri Russell and Frank Langella. They sit at a kitchen table. Gabriel (Langella’s character) simply inquires, “Do you want me to ask?” What follows is twelve seconds of silence as Elizabeth (Russell) considers. In that long pause is some of the best acting put on any screen this year. It’s tense, powerful, and heartbreaking. Not just because of the amazing performance Russell gives, but also because the moment built off the previous 48 episodes of the series. There were so many moments like that this season. So much of what makes this show great is how internal it is. It’s a show about personal struggles and personal stakes set against global ones.