The New Pope is a miniseries and the sequel (or second season?) to The Young Pope, created and directed like the latter by Paolo Sorrentino, and produced by HBO, Sky Atlantic, and Canal+. It premiered on January 13, 2020.
Lenny Belardo / Pius XIII (Jude Law) has fallen into a coma, and a new pope, John Paul III (born John Brannox, played by John Malkovich), is elected. Things get complicated when Lenny awakens from his coma and wants his seat back.
The New Pope provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: John Paul III asks Sharon Stone not to uncross or recross her legs in his view. This is a reference to Stone's famous leg-uncrossing scene in Basic Instinct.
- Artistic License – Religion: Voiello reassigns rival cardinals to Kabul as punishment. The Mission Sui Iuris of Afghanistan is not overseen by a cardinal, but by the Holy See itself.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When listing some of his favorite people, John Brannox ends with, "Marilyn... Manson."
- Big Fancy House: Brannox's ancestral home is a castle. Its grounds are larger than the Vatican.
- Book Ends: One of the first scenes of the series is Voiello meeting with cardinals among a bamboo garden stumping to get himself elected Pope. He does the exact same thing in one of the last scenes.
- The Cameo: Marilyn Manson and Sharon Stone appear as themselves.
- Celebrity Paradox: Sofia tells John Brannox that he reminds her of her favorite actor, John Malkovich.Brannox: He does nothing for me.
- The Chessmaster:
- As before, Voiello is the chessmaster at the Vatican. This time, he's helped by a mysterious and menacing figure who is himself dedicated to steering the course of world politics from behind the scenes.
- Bauer, an ambassador to the Holy See, is himself a ruthless power player who joins forces with Voiello because it is expedient to do so.
- Crowd Surfing: In the end, Lenny tells the crowd that he wants to personally embrace every single person in the crowd. As he does so, the crowd lifts him up and crowd-surfs him.
- Decoy Protagonist: Voiello is really the protagonist of the series, with the two popes moreso the biggest fracas among many he has to handle to keep the Vatican under control.By the end, his managing of the Church is finally rewarded as he becomes the new pope.
- Distracted by the Sexy:
- Defied by John Paul III when he asks Sharon Stone not to uncross and recross her legs in his vision. When she pleads that her leg is falling asleep, he and the rest of the priests in attendance turn their heads away in unison with John Paul's hand movement before she changes her sitting position.
- Amber delights in flaunting her body to people meeting with Bauer. During one scene, she cavorts sexily in view of General Parker, deliberately distracting him from the extremely important meeting he's been brought in for.
- The Fixer: After a season of only vague notions of who Bauer is, the finale reveals him as some flavor of US diplomat/spy assigned to be this for Voiello to keep the Vatican in order. A role with the startling amount of freedom to plan to kill a pope, interrogate a foreign prisoner in neither his nor their country, and expose a major Italian political scandal.
- Former Teen Rebel: John Paul III was The Quincy Punk in his twenties before joining the church, probably while still processing his brother's death. Photos of the pope in his old get-up endear him to the outcasts among the Catholic Church.
- Foreshadowing: The shrine to Adam Brannox prominently features his skis, and John flashes back to a scene in which he pretends to ski. We see him and several other people skiing over the course of the series. We ultimately learn that Adam died in a skiing accident.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The newly elected Pope Francis II quickly becomes this for the Vatican as he is a true Believer in St. Francis of Assisi and his teachings opening the Vatican to be a sanctuary to migrants and giving away the Church's finances.
- He's Back!: Lenny awakens from a coma in the trailer, after a new Pope has been elected.
- It's All About Me: Brannox has a real inferiority complex from a lifetime as The Unfavorite. When he becomes pope, he's adamant about getting his deserved respect, from his parents and the world. "Doesn't matter, I am the Pope. ME! ME! I AM THE POPE!"
- Karma Houdini: The three nuns who sexually abused a member of their order receive no punishment. The object of their abuse is simply taken out of their power. Of course, a running theme in the series is God's infinite capacity for forgiveness.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Just like in the The Young Pope, Lenny may be responsible for a few apparent miracles:
- When the cardinals pray to be saved from the revolutionary policy of Francis II, comatose Lenny's finger twitches exactly when his successor dies. It's even lampshaded by Bauer, who tells Voiello, they didn't kill the pope, because Lenny was first. However hypertension is fairly common cause of death and it was clearly shown that he had high blood pressure.
- Comatose Lenny is apparently not only able to manifest well over 1,000 km from his body, but also to eavesdrop, hold a conversation, and even physically interact with people and objects. It may be intended to be only figurative, but then he explicitly tells Brannox what he said when he was alone.
- Lenny waking up was said to be impossible, thus when he finally wakes up many people think that he actually rose from the dead. Of course, as minuscule as it may be, there is always a chance that the doctors were wrong.
- Mr. Fanservice: The later episodes have a title sequence including a shirtless Lenny coming out of the sea and walking on a beach boardwalk past a procession of bikini-clad women in a mirror of the last series' title sequence.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Bauer's escort-girlfriend Amber is usually shown in some form of undress, sometimes flaunting it in front of other people to tease them.
- Sofia is a rare middle-aged example. Many people comment on how attractive she is, she wears fashionable and often revealing clothing, and she serves as a temptation to John Paul III.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Pope Francis II is basically an extreme version of the current pope, Francis I: he's a zealous follower of Saint Francis of Assisi and is devoted to humility and the poor.
- No Name Given: The leader of the Pius XIII cult is never named and credited simply as The Woman in Red.
- Nun Too Holy: The order of nuns at the Vatican is filled with sin. We see them engaged in all manner of earthly pleasures, and the title sequence of early episodes has then dancing provocatively to club music.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: In a beautiful speech, Francis II reveals his supposed "naivety" which Voiello thought would make him easy to manipulate? "I lost my naivety years ago." He adds that he was the confessor not just to Lenny but to every Cardinal and knows all the dark secrets of the Vatican with Voiello realizing too late he was the one being played all this time.
- Oh, Crap!: The reaction of the cardinals when Francis II breaks from his prepared speech to open up the Vatican to any refugees.
- Voiello openly mutters "oh, God no," as Francis starts talking with one character summing up that it's what Voiello had feared: "He's realized the power he has."
- Old Money: Sir John Brannox was raised in a palatial estate. His title and wealth imply that his family is nobility in some form.
- Pietà Plagiarism: Done very literally and explicitly. Michaelangelo's Pieta is prominently featured throughout the series, and the pose is echoed several times. In one notable scene, a mother cradles the body of her severely handicapped child, nude in a bath. In the end, Pius XIII's body is lain in front of the Pieta, mimicking the pose of Jesus.
- Product Placement: As with the previous series, Lenny's fondness for Cherry Coke Zero is given a lot of weight. Here, the cardinals proudly present him with a refrigerator filled entirely with cans, reminding him that it's his Trademark Favorite Food.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Turns out Voiello is even more ruthless with these than even Lenny was, transferring his nemeses to Kabul, Afghanistan. Not only is the country very dangerous, but there is no Christian population in the country. Their domain would extend no further than a single chapel at the Italian embassy.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: Bauer is frequently shown feasting on oysters while his menacing machinations are going on.
- Sequel Series: This miniseries picks up where The Young Pope left off, but given the title, it is not quite treated as a "second season" to The Young Pope.
- Shout-Out: The finale has a child riding on a big wheel through the Vatican while the camera tracks him from behind in a single, steady shot.
- Tag Line: "Everyone can be a saint."
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: It turns out that all of the terrorism going about has been the cult of Pius XIII devotees who are trying to strike back at the Church for seemingly having murdered the previous Pope.
