'The New Pope' rings in new Vatican intrigue as the cardinals look for the 'middle way' in a time of crisis
Shadow of 'The Young Pope' is long on 'The New Pope'. The first two episodes aired for the show's premiere constantly returns to the marble statue-like comatose body of Pope Pius XIII aka Lenny (Jude Law) ever so often as the Vatican scrambles to return order and status quo to 'the kingdom'. His breathing is broadcast on one radio channel for Lenny believers to listen to while hoodie-clad fanatics pray in formation, waiting for him to wake up.
In one scene, during a heart transplant (one of the three that fail), Pope Pius XIII steps out of his body, dressed in his signature tightie-whities and warmly looks at the nuns and priests waiting for the results of the surgery. After that, in Episode 2, he hovers as a paternal and protective spectral presence when the cardinals, who have gone to convince Sir John Brannox to accept Pope-hood, spend the night at Brannox's grand estate.
But most of the first two episodes is spent on dealing with the power vacuum left in his absence-presence. With him in a coma, Cardinal Voiello (Silvio Orlando) first tries to install himself as Pope, before hedging his bets against his rival Cardinal Hernandez (who looks like him minus the mole). He succeeds in getting his faction to vote in Cardinal Tomassino, who he thinks will be an easy-to-manipulate puppet Pope.
Cardinal Tomassino, who calls himself Pope Francis II, is the person who has heard multiple confessions from the ones who are trying to control him (including Voiello) and wields this power along with being the Pope.
In his short-lived papacy, ended with a conveniently engineered heart-attack by Voiello, Pope Francis II reverts to the Franciscan model of Christian charity and the vow of poverty. He is in a way as disruptive as the Old Testament-loving Lenny. But his methods are a complete contrast to Lenny's 'suffer for God' model. He leans to the other extreme, wanting the Church to reach out to help and provide succor, opening the city's gates to receive homeless migrants who crowd the dining halls and the picturesque gardens.
He is also determined to liquidate the Church's wealth and give it to the poor, getting his Franciscan friars to enact midnight raids to take control of the Vatican's bank accounts and vault. The friars themselves seem little more than hoodlums who also take the time to ogle at Sofia (Cécile de France), the Vatican's head of marketing, who baits them by lifting her skirt and then showing them the middle finger.
It is no doubt enjoyable seeing the priests divest themselves of their ornate gold crosses, rings, and jewelry, reluctantly and with barely restrained anger. But Pope Francis II power grab feels like a low-rent goon trying to play Robin Hood. The disruption he causes is too great and too extreme, getting Voiello to act ruthlessly to nip this new "popular with the media and the left" pope. With all the cardinals murmuring the words "middle way", they settle for the compromise candidate — Sir John Brannox (John Malkovich).
The most notable thing about Brannox is that he is deeply uninterested in the power of the position, and seems indifferent to its pleasures. Instead, he is drawn to being the doctor who will examine "The Church's body" to find what is wrong physiologically (that can be cured) and what is pathological (what cannot be cured). It is this moderate approach to reform and the future that make the cardinals, Voiello and Sofia believe they have the right man, despite his laconic, depressed air. "The man is like velvet," says Sofia, breathily after the first meeting.
The second episode also lays the groundwork for the interior, emotional life of Brannox, who is as "fragile as porcelain". The death of his twin brother, which he could not prevent, has made him an outcast in his own palatial home and estate. His aged, near-dead parents avoid him entirely, banishing him to a separate wing, and instead spend their days in front of their dead son's tomb, holding hands to reconfirm each others' misery.
What kind of pope Brannox will make and how power, that inevitably corrupts, will affect him and mold him, remains to be seen.
