The New Pope (Season 1)

The New Pope (2020) is Paolo Sorrentino's sequel to The Young Pope and you can watch it online on iFILM. Lenny Belardo — Pope Pius XIII — is in a coma. The Vatican cannot wait. The cardinals elevate Sir John Brannox, an English aristocrat, who takes the name John Paul III.

John Malkovich plays Brannox — and the contrast with Jude Law's Belardo is the engine of the show. Where Belardo burned, Brannox is measured, elegant, and carries private damage that the institution around him hasn't discovered yet. Eight episodes place these two popes in the same frame: one passionate and prophetic, the other rational and haunted, both convinced they understand what the Church must be. Sorrentino shoots it like an opera — wide and unhurried, with Ennio Morricone's legacy in the score and images that hold longer than comfort requires.

The series aired on HBO and Sky and took home the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series — Foreign Language. If you're watching for story alone, it's absorbing enough; if you're watching for cinema on a television schedule, it's nearly unrivaled. Stream The New Pope (2020) online on iFILM.