One pope lies in a coma, and the Church cannot wait for him. The New Pope, a 2020 drama series and the sequel to The Young Pope, opens on that vacancy and on the Englishman chosen to fill it. Jude Law and John Malkovich head the cast, and K-Time offers the series with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles.
What is The New Pope about?
Pius XIII is neither dead nor present. He hangs between the two in a hospital bed, and the Vatican is left with a throne that is occupied in name only. The cardinals turn to Sir John Brannox, an English aristocrat known for his charm, his polish and his moderate views. He accepts and takes the name John Paul III. From there the series watches a very different kind of pontiff settle into the role, a cultivated man of compromise following a predecessor who has not actually gone. The uncertainty over the man in the coma hangs over every decision the new pope makes, and over the people around him who must work out where their loyalty now belongs.
About the cast
Jude Law and John Malkovich are the first two names in the cast. They are joined by Silvio Orlando, Cécile de France, Javier Cámara, Ludivine Sagnier, Maurizio Lombardi and Henry Goodman. It is a large ensemble drawn from several countries, which fits a story set among the clergy and officials of an institution with a worldwide reach. Viewers who know The Young Pope will recognise the world the series returns to.
Context & significance
The New Pope is a continuation, so it helps to come to it after The Young Pope, where the story of Pius XIII begins. The sequel changes the centre of gravity by adding a second pontiff with an opposite temperament: where the earlier series was built around one man, this one sets a moderate aristocrat beside the memory of the pope he replaces. Episodes run about 55 minutes each, long enough for the measured pace of a drama concerned with ceremony, power and private doubt inside the Vatican. The Church here is a setting for a story about leadership and succession, and the series treats it as a place of politics as much as of faith. It has been strongly reviewed and ranks among the better-regarded dramas in the K-Time catalogue.
Watching The New Pope on Ktime
The New Pope is available on K-Time, the Persian-focused streaming service for the Iranian diaspora. This page is free to read, while watching episodes requires logging in to a K-Time account. Each episode can be played with the Persian dub or in the original audio with Persian subtitles, inside an interface that works fully in Farsi.