I’ve decided that I enjoy this show in exactly the same way I enjoy a Rothko or a Pollack. I might be able to derive a lot of literal, linear meaning but the impressions wash over me and make me experience it.
The Greenland Prime Minister scene was terrific. I think he enjoys confounding expectations.
I’m watching it but have mixed feelings. Jude Law is, as always, commanding in his role. There are a lot of subtleties in this series, and I am not well-equipped to grasp them.
At first, I was a little disturbed by the depiction of the followers of Catholicism, even as an atheist. I have no difficulty at all with the theme of corruption within the church, however. It will be interesting to see where the series takes us.
This is probably blindingly obvious to everyone, but I do chuckle at the theme song that accompanies the opening credits. If I’ve got it right, it’s Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, sans lead guitar riffs or vocals. I understand one interpretation of this song to be a reference by Dylan to Isaiah 21:5-9, about how life without religion has no real meaning.
Like I said… subtle. Or full of shit. I haven’t quite decided which, yet.
The fifth episode seemed to throw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall to see WHAT would stick . . .
Have ep six in the DVR for tonite, I’m not optimistic.
Oh my god, the baby!
I nearly fell out of my chair when he dropped that newborn (fortunately, into the bassinet or onto the hospital bed). And he was really uncomfortable with picking up the baby. But surely he’s served as a parish priest before becoming archbishop? So he must have baptized many infants.
And in one episode, he and his brother went for a late-night walk (in tracksuits, not priestly garb), went into a hotel, asked the desk clerk for cigarettes and then sat at the bar where they talked to a prostitute for a few minutes. This all occurred without him being recognized. So the show is still pretending that the man who was previously Archbishop of New York and was recently elected pope is somehow still not known by sight. I find that hard to believe.
I fell behind a few episodes and finally caught up last night.
I’m still fascinated by this show.
Dewey Finn - I think the reason he’s not recognized by most people is because he’s never shown his face in public, nor has he allowed any images of him to be offered to the public by the Vatican PR dept. I agree that it’s a bit of a stretch that the media wouldn’t have taken pictures of him as he freely roams the Vatican grounds or that even someone working at the Vatican wouldn’t have taken a photo and shared it with the world. But hey, you’re supposed to suspend disbelief. So much of the story line relies on not hanging on too strongly to how things would work in the real world. This is a character drama, and its character development has been excellent so far.
The threesome, was that with the hotel hooker?
Looking forward to Contessa’s party.
I’ll have to watch the scene again, but I don’t think the threesome was with the hotel hooker. For one thing, I think the guy in the threesome was sitting in a pew during Andrew’s farewell address in Honduras, so I assumed the sex scene was also in Honduras.
And even if Lenny never showed his face as pope, surely he couldn’t have been so secretive as a parish priest and as archbishop in New York, the media capital of America.
Yeah, I think the sex scene was in Honduras, at Andrew’s old bishopric.
It was – in one shot one of the male participants was sitting in a side pew and crying while Andrew gives his farewell speech (and the female participant was also teary, sitting with her husband, wearer of a pretty dy-no-mite polyester leisure suit).
I must have been tired because I missed all those connections.
Perhaps I should watch the episode again.
Okay… why kill the kangaroo?
Also, that truck stop scene was a shit piece of directing.
I was finding the show interesting, but Episodes 7 and 8 just bored me. Though I imagine his constant public prayer will counter the charges that Pius doesn’t believe in God - though whether or not he thinks God is greater than him, that’s another question entirely.
Um… I saw this last night, wasn’t it the Pope and Andrew in the three some? That’s what I took out of it anyway. Or were there multiple different times?
No, it wasn’t the Pope. The threesome was going on in Honduras while Pope was addressing the Cardinals, as I took it.
I took it as more of a flashback then what was going on right then. The first time it didn’t look like the Pope, the last time it did look a lot like him, though it’s hard to tell sometimes. Wasn’t Andrew at the Vatican the majority of the time? I took it as him saying goodbye to his congregation when Lenny was elected and only going back after he couldn’t take it any more.
I made the same error at first. Had to watch it again (horrors!). The threesome was Andrew, a young Honduran parishioner and the narco’s wife.
See I thought he went back to say goodbye after accepting the role as overseer for new priests. He went back to say good bye then, and had his last fling. I imagine he hadn’t anticipated staying permanently in Rome when he came for the conclave.
This recap seems good:
I’m fascinated by Jude Law’s performance and the character of the pope. He is inscrutable in a maddening, riveting way.
In for the full ride. I hear there’s going to be more than one season too.