The New Pope - Episode 7 - Podcast Discussion

Cecily

Podcast here:
http://baldmove.com/the-new-pope/s02e07/

Video here:

DoubleA_Ron

Guess who's back, back again

Lenny’s back, tell a friend

DoubleA_Ron

Just a tremendous hour of television.  I fucking love Jude Law.

Michelle

Helloooooooooo new opening credits!  Jude Law strutting down a wooden sidewalk in a white speedo on a beach is everything I've ever needed in my life (for right now anyway).   I'll eventually get to the rest of the episode but for now.....*presses rewind again*   

calebthrower

This is one of those shows that I have so much to say about it but I don't know how to. I just love everything about it

ArtHistoryGeek

While some people noticed the allusion to Michelangelo’s Pieta and the figures in the bath, they may have missed a number of similar images. For example, when Lenny repeatedly demands “Make him a Man,” and the boy’s hand lifts in a frame that forces the viewer to pay attention, by showing only the hand, the reference is to Adam's limp outstretched hand in Michelangelo’s Creation of Man. In this fresco, located on a panel of the famed Sistine Chapel ceiling, God creates Adam (man). Thus, Lenny’s prayer is answered at that moment, because it is the moment Adam is “made man.” Moreover, regarding the Pieta, in Saint Peter’s the sculpture is behind thick bullet proof plexi-glass, because in 1972 a man named Lazlo Toth attacked it with a sledge hammer. 

calebthrower

ArtHistoryGeek said:

While some people noticed the allusion to Michelangelo’s Pieta and the figures in the bath, they may have missed a number of similar images. For example, when Lenny repeatedly demands “Make him a Man,” and the boy’s hand lifts in a frame that forces the viewer to pay attention, by showing only the hand, the reference is to Adam's limp outstretched hand in Michelangelo’s Creation of Man. In this fresco, located on a panel of the famed Sistine Chapel ceiling, God creates Adam (man). Thus, Lenny’s prayer is answered at that moment, because it is the moment Adam is “made man.” Moreover, regarding the Pieta, in Saint Peter’s the sculpture is behind thick bullet proof plexi-glass, because in 1972 a man named Lazlo Toth attacked it with a sledge hammer. 

As they say on Reddit, username checks out. Thanks for the insight!

majjam0770

This show is so unique - I don't know how it does it but it gets religion, especially Catholicism.   The Young Pope (or first season) was tv-poetry.  I can't think of a better way to express what it is like being Catholic -  The spirituality and the worldliness,  the earnestness of purpose blending with corruption and hypocrisy.  The impression to me was of something beautiful but sad, yet it left me with a hopeful feeling.  The first few episodes of The New Pope seemed to me like it was all that but with more realism for the ugliness of the church in real life.  The denying of refugees, the oppression of women, the sex scandals, and the greed of the higher-ups getting more emphasis.  And a weaker-seeming pope as well.   But I don't know how it is going to end.  I just know it will be entertaining.  

I grew up in a Catholic home but I am not practicing now.  Some predictions -   I think the Bauer guy likely poisoned Lenny too but we will see.  He doesn't seem to want a fanatic or reformer in the role of Pope.   I am a little worried that his involvement in the plot is going to end up being less than satisfying.  Let's hope Voiello's better instincts prevail and he turns out to be a hero of sorts in sorting things out.  Or he will be bad and corrupt and that could be entertaining too, though I would prefer a happier ending to the season.