The New Pope

As thunderingly gorgeous as its predecessor, this new series mines plenty of intrigue from the church's pageantry and power and Malkovich is a suitably gravitas-wielding sub for Law. The Young Pope already acquainted most viewers with a candy-colored pop version of the papal system and a vision of the Pope as a brand just as much as a holy man. With Pius XIII out of the way and a new Pope on the throne, director Sorrentino seems to be doubling down on his points about the emptiness of both the office and its officers, a world in which powerful men scheme for even more power, are double-crossed, and then find a sneaky way to steal that power right back again, like a ponderous version of The Sopranos with a lot more headgear.

The New Pope is also as slow-moving as The Young Pope, with entire scenes consisting of church officials in vestments advancing slowly through elaborate chambers, or fantasy sequences of hot young nuns in white nightgowns writhing around a neon cross. It's hard to know what Sorrentino is trying to say about the church with such imagery, and hard to understand why we need a painfully long scene in the first episode in which we watch cardinals trying to elect a new Pope, which requires a two-thirds majority. Over and over again they submit their votes, over and over again, the tallies are announced -- listen, the audience could understand what looks like a tortured process without being tortured in the process. The New Pope sure is nice to look at, even without Jude Law's polished presence, but it should hurry up and get where it's going faster.