The New Pope · Season 1 · HBO / Sky Atlantic
The New Pope Season 1
The New Pope Season 1 is a WORTH-IT, BollyMeter 7.5/10. 9 episodes on HBO / Sky Atlantic from 10 January 2020.
Updated
What BollyAI Thinks
The New Pope arrived on HBO and Sky Atlantic in January 2020 as the follow-up to Paolo Sorrentino's acclaimed The Young Pope, with John Malkovich joining Jude Law as the series' new theological centre. The 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from 49 reviews reflects genuine enthusiasm for Sorrentino's visual language - his Vatican is a theatre of power, beauty, and institutional rot rendered in images that operate at the intersection of religious iconography and contemporary satire. The Metacritic score of 63 from 12 critics indicates a slightly more divided reception. Malkovich's John Paul III is a more enigmatic construction than Law's Pius XIII, and the ambiguity was productive for some and elusive for others. The nine episodes function as a self-contained theological argument about faith, media, and the Church's survival in secular modernity.
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Standout Episodes
The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.
- E1First Episode8.1
A sharp opener turns papal succession into strategy, with Francis II’s charity landing as the hour’s most dangerous weapon.
The moment: The opening sequence that signals the series' visual ambition - a Sorrentino set-piece that operates as both exposition and provocation.
Full review of E1 →