The Young Pope on HBO.

Cafe Society
61

I’ve been watching. I can’t decide how I feel about this show, but I keep tuning in – so it’s got something that obviously intrigues me. I just can’t entirely figure out what.

It’s audacious and irreverent, and I like those qualities. E.g., the Pope Francis bit was almost too on the nose, but it cracked me up.

I’m glad Lenny will finally show up again in the next episode. I expect things are about to get a lot more interesting. Will there be a Battle of the Popes, like Godzilla v. Mothra? I hope so!

62

So we’re just running with this thread?

“The Young Pope” was one of the weirdest shows I’ve ever watched, and The New Pope is weirder still. It’s consistently genuinely weird.

But I’ll tell you what; the showrunner has an idea of what he wants to do and he goes for it, and you’ve got to admire that. He doesn’t go for the cliche, he has something to say and he said it, and it was fascination.

The highlight of the season by far was Voiello, and the eulogy he gives in Episode 8 was acting of the most remarkable kind. Utterly devastating. The entire scene was both heartbreaking and magnificent.

63

I thought this was a way better, more nuanced pope show.

64

I watched the whole season. I was often skeptical or puzzled and even rolled my eyes a bit, but it was a helluva ride.

Too bad Jude Law was offstage as much as he was in S2. Leave it to Hollywood to have him, a Brit, play an American, while an American (Malkovich) played a Brit.

Hard for me to believe Pius XIII wasn’t formally removed from office after he fell into the coma and was thought to have zero chance of emerging from it. There were two other popes elected after him, Francis II and John Paul III, and yet when he wakes up there are still questions as to his official role. And then he veered between megalomania and obedience to JPIII. Weird. (And would JPIII really agree to allow him to come before the College of Cardinals after his awakening, being carried on a sedan chair?: Sedia gestatoria - Wikipedia).

I thought for sure that the Cult of Pius XIII all committed suicide when they waded into the ocean together. Later, I just didn’t buy it that they’d take hostages and actually kill a priest. Here’s more on the island, BTW: Ventotene - Wikipedia

The American general who met with Bauer and Voiello wasn’t in an actual U.S. military uniform. Odd for a show like this, with such great costumes, not to get that right.

What was up with that weird, cadaverous priest who had a cockroach come down his sleeve?

Nice at the end to see the feisty nun get to visit her dying mother, and for the pregnant nun to be able to leave the convent and join her immigrant boyfriend.

I loved the Sofi Tukker song, “Good Time Girl,” used as the opening music in the early part of the season with all the sexy dancing nuns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpsbPGCxScc

Who was the guy with Voiello before the funeral of the cardinal’s young retarded friend Giralamo, whom Voiello said knew nothing of him?

And Pius just dies after a nice speech and crowdsurfing in St. Peter’s Square? Riiiiight.

Good to see Voiello outmaneuvering everyone - and ending up as Pope at the end (and, wonderfully, getting no respect from the little kid on his trike). For a minute there, though, I thought the kid would come across two creepy nuns standing side by side in a Vatican corridor, inviting him to play with them foreverrrrrr…

No official word yet on a third season, but here’s an interview with the show’s creator: 'The New Pope' Creator on Jude Law's Return, 'Crazy' Season 3 Plans

The best part was how subtle and understated the acting was.

65

I just finished watching this series. Started yesterday;finished today. I thought it was excellent. Even better than the original series.

I saw a setup at the end for a third series. Anything in the pipeline?

66

Not at the moment. See the last link in my post just before yours.

67

A fun 2017 interview with Jude Law about the show: Vatican Experts Designed Jude Law's Garments In 'The Young Pope' - YouTube

68

A little late but just watched this. I’m a big fan of the entire series and I concur with every observation you made.

Plus a few more observations/questions:

Are we to understand that the miracle that Lenny showed the doctor and his wife was the ascension of their crippled son to heaven, allowing them to have their second child? So he couldn’t make the sick kid into a man but he could will him to die and ascend?

It seems unlikely that Sofia, so brilliant and bereft of empathy, would marry such a corrupt and obviously deeply flawed man, let alone allow him to be put in charge of the church’s financial affairs. But given how she ends up with Sir John, perhaps it makes sense in that her one flaw is her terrible taste in me.

The scene where John Malcovich makes fun of his own acting career was painfully bad. As were the scenes where as the Pope, he receives Marilyn Manson and Sharon Stone.

I did immensely enjoy all the scenes and dialogue that involved the character Bauer and his henchman, the one eyed priest.

The show improved tremendously, when Lenny finally had an active role.

It makes no sense that Pope Pius XIII dies. Voiello is such a much more interesting character as the longest serving Secretary of State.

69

I really enjoyed those scenes just because they’re exactly the sort of meetings the Pope has to suffer through in real life. In a series with miracles, magic, weird coincidences, semi-insane characters and any number of contrivances, the meetings with Marilyn Manson and Sharon Stone were the weirdest scenes in the show and yet also the most realistic.

70

Wasn’t he musing about meeting them before becoming Pope? It seemed to me that he wanted to meet them rather than them asking for an audience. That the situations were so awkward was more about the warning of meeting your heroes, even if you’re the Pope.

71

Bill Clinton said one of the best things about being President was being able to invite his favorite authors to lunch at the White House, and talk all about their books with them.