Seemingly from the moment Pope John Paul II took his final breath, the race to encapsulate his life in that most banal of storytelling media—the fact-based TV movie—has been on. This week, we get to see that it's ended up in a photo finish, with ABC ahead by a nose. The problem with such a race is that it inevitably sacrifices quality for expediency, and in the case of such a revered figure, drama for hagiography. The only substantive thing you might learn from the dueling John Paul biopics this week is that the former pontiff had passions for acting and skiing.
Up first is Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II (ABC, December 1, 8 p.m.), which casts German actor Thomas Kretschmann as the one-time Karol Wojtyla, a Pole born in 1920 whose formative years were spent under Nazi rule. As the shorter of the two films (two hours vs. CBS' version of four hours split into two parts), Have No Fear sometimes feels rushed, especially when it gets to later events in the pope's life. Its biggest strength is Kretschmann, who is credible as Wojtyla from his college days all the way through the end of his life, with the aid of aging makeup that is pretty convincing for a TV movie.
In contrast, the blandly titled Pope John Paul II (CBS, December 4, 9-11 p.m. and December 7, 8-10 p.m.) casts two actors as Wojtyla, with Cary Elwes playing him as a younger man, and Jon Voight taking over once he becomes pope. As much as it often stretches credibility to have one actor play the same man at both 20 and 80, it's even more jarring to watch Elwes turn into Voight in the course of a single scene. On top of that, the two actors have such vastly different voices and mannerisms that it's nearly impossible to believe they are the same person.
Although CBS' version was produced with the cooperation of the Catholic Church, neither film exactly parses the nuances of Wojtyla's life nor depicts him as anything other than courageous, faithful and compassionate. Have No Fear takes a brief detour to explore the murder of a Salvadoran archbishop for which the pope feels partly responsible, but even that serves as a valuable learning experience on his path to becoming a better man. As tributes, both films are restrained and respectful. As drama, they're both nearly worthless.
Dealing with religion in a very different way is the provocative new Showtime drama Sleeper Cell, premiering December 4 at 10 p.m. and unspooling its 10 episodes at various times over the next two weeks, culminating in a finale on December 18 at 8 p.m. The unconventional scheduling is sadly the show's most original aspect, although its premise—following a group of Islamic terrorists in LA as they plan an attack on American soil—appears groundbreaking at first.
It turns out to be nothing more than a slightly more realistic version of 24, with its focus on an undercover FBI agent (Michael Ealy) infiltrating the cell. Since this is TV, we get a veritable rainbow coalition of terrorists, and the only actual Arab is the most villainous and one-dimensional character of them all. Despite its pretensions to relevance, Sleeper Cell is essentially a topical B-movie, complete with suspense-filled fakeouts, stilted dialogue and gratuitous sex scenes (three episodes out of the first four alone feature prominent exposed breasts). Taken as such, it's not half-bad, but it's nowhere near the serious, insightful drama the producers would like you to think it is.