HBO
In 2017, HBO put out one of the weirdest and most alluring television shows of that year in Paolo Sorrentino's The Young Pope. With a magnificent Jude Law as the titular Catholic figurehead, the series was gorgeously shot, immaculately designed, and boasted a surprising amount of heart in its boundary-pushing narrative. Also, it was really sexy, an adjective that has rarely ever been used to describe anything related to the Papacy.While some thought the series took prestige TV to a ridiculous extreme, it's nonetheless returning for a second season, but this time it's called The New Pope. Writer-director Sorrentino returns as showrunner and John Malkovich joins the cast as Pope John Paul III, the successor to Law's Pope Pius XIII. In a new interview with Variety, Sorrentino points out that The Young Pope ended with Law's character going into a coma so the church has chosen a replacement pontiff. He says of the forthcoming season's plot points, "Law’s coma may not be so irreversible. It may have some unexpected novelties, so that two popes can co-exist in the episodes that follow."HBO has unveiled the first teaser for the new season and it's totally bonkers. It showcases a hilarious and highly stylized juxtaposition of Malkovich walking through the Vatican with his papal clerics, while a speedo-clad Law leisurely gallops through a beach amidst several bikini wearing women. Like the best episodes of The Young Pope, it feels like a blasphemous fever dream. Watch it below.
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