The New Pope debuts on HBO Monday, January 13th. There's an argument to be made that Catholicism is to Paolo Sorrentino's The Young/New Pope television series as Media is to Succession, as Oil was to Dallas and Dynasty, as Wine was to Falcon Crest, as McMansions are to the Real Housewives.

Which is to say: merely the setting, the ostensible backdrop before which the real drama plays out: endless, internecine struggles, betrayals, maneuvers, schemes and retribution. It's not an argument writer/director Sorrentino is likely to agree with, given how often he has characters intone whispered observations and invective about the nature of God, and Man, and Faith and — mostly — the role of the Church in the world.