MALKOVICH JOINS HBO’S ‘POPE’

Proof that something can be “outrageous” and boring at the same time, “The New Pope” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA) returns for a second season. For the uninitiated, the first season, called “The Young Pope,” starred Jude Law as an American pontiff, first seen as a breath of fresh air who became, pretty quickly, a nasty piece of work. The series bears the stamp of director Paolo Sorrentino, whose 2013 epic “The Great Beauty” won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and which stands, in my opinion, as the most overrated movie of the century. As the second season begins, Law’s pope is in a coma and the Vatican stands at a crossroads. The internal politics of the curia might make for entertaining drama, but actual scenes of conversation and action are continually punctuated by big set pieces showing off the fabulous scenery and dressing up nuns and other clerics as participants in Busby Berkeley numbers that never really break into song or dance. “Pope” has all of the downsides of a big musical, with none of the songs. It’s a pretentious music video that never ends. For those who can endure the vast, time-wasting deserts of inactivity and bombast, there’s John Malkovich as the new “New Pope.” He has legions of fans who will watch him in anything. Even this. — “Frontline” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings) devotes two nights and four hours to “America’s Great Divide,” a survey of the decline from the “Hope” that surrounded Barack Obama’s 2004 speech, his 2008 campaign and following inauguration and the bitter political divides that followed. Faithful “Frontline” followers will find a lot of familiar material here. No American series does a better job of assembling news footage, interviews and talking-head overviews to make sense of recent events. But sometimes the focus on news as history and history as news is a problem in itself. In defining the “Divide” as something that has emerged only since 2008, “Frontline” falls into the TV tabloid news fallacy that “things are bad, and they’ve never been worse.” Didn’t anybody here watch last week’s “American Experience” on the McCarthy era? Is the divisiveness of the post-Obama era really worse than that of the Vietnam era? Has everyone forgotten Pat Buchanan’s several campaigns? In addition to dismissing such history, “Divide” keeps its focus on politics, media and the media that covers politics. Perhaps there are reasons behind this divide that transcend red and blue, Fox and MSNBC. The very large controversy over a recent editorial in the relatively small magazine Christianity Today suggests that it struck a nerve. And that contemporary anxieties and divisions stem from religious divisions that many in the American media, seem reluctant to study, examine or discuss. — Speaking of media and history, “Battle of Little Big Horn” (8 p.m., Smithsonian) revisits the 1876 catastrophe, not as a military history, but as the birth of newspaper tabloid wars, describing newspapers competing to outdo each other, often with lurid stories, entirely fabricated hundreds of miles from the scene. TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS — A meteor shower leaves casualties behind on “9-1-1” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14). — Three birdwatchers (Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson) compete to see who can spot the most species in the gentle 2011 comedy “The Big Year” (8 p.m., Cinemax). — Lola disciplines a lazy lawyer on “All Rise” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG). — Malcolm’s search proves dangerous on “Prodigal Son” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14). — A fellow passenger has a cosmic link to a violent crime on “Manifest” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG). — Matters with Lea and Carly rattle Shaun on “The Good Doctor” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14). CULT CHOICE — A G.I. (Montgomery Clift) sifts the rubble of postwar Berlin to reunite a missing boy with his mother in the 1948 drama “The Search” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-PG). SERIES NOTES A question of the bill on “The Neighborhood” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … Black Lightning to the rescue on “The Flash” (8 p.m., CW, r, TV-PG) … Ten compete on “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … Runway antics on “The Bachelor” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … A rival suitor on “Bob Hearts Abishola” (8:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … Looming paternity on “Bull” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14). LATE NIGHT Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and the Broadway cast of “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” are booked on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Selena Gomez, Charlie Hunnam and Stormzy on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Bobby Cannavale, Amber Tamblyn and Christian Siriano visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC).

Proof that something can be “outrageous” and boring at the same time, “The New Pope” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA) returns for a second season. For the uninitiated, the first season, called “The Young Pope,” starred Jude Law as an American pontiff, first seen as a breath of fresh air who became, pretty quickly, a nasty piece of work.

The series bears the stamp of director Paolo Sorrentino, whose 2013 epic “The Great Beauty” won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and which stands, in my opinion, as the most overrated movie of the century.

As the second season begins, Law’s pope is in a coma and the Vatican stands at a crossroads. The internal politics of the curia might make for entertaining drama, but actual scenes of conversation and action are continually punctuated by big set pieces. showing off the fabulous scenery and dressing up nuns and other clerics as participants in Busby Berkeley numbers that never really break into song or dance. “Pope” has all of the downsides of a big musical, with none of the songs. It’s a pretentious music video that never ends.

For those who can endure the vast, time-wasting deserts of inactivity and bombast, there’s John Malkovich as the new “New Pope.” He has legions of fans who will watch him in anything. Even this.

— “Frontline” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings) devotes two nights and four hours to “America’s Great Divide,” a survey of the decline from the “Hope” that surrounded Barack Obama’s 2004 speech, his 2008 campaign and following inauguration and the bitter political divides that followed.

Faithful “Frontline” followers will find a lot of familiar material here. No American series does a better job of assembling news footage, interviews and talking-head overviews to make sense of recent events. But sometimes the focus on news as history and history as news is a problem in itself. In defining the “Divide” as something that has emerged only since 2008, “Frontline” falls into the TV tabloid news fallacy that “things are bad, and they’ve never been worse.”

Didn’t anybody here watch last week’s “American Experience” on the McCarthy era? Is the divisiveness of the post-Obama era really worse than that of the Vietnam era? Has everyone forgotten Pat Buchanan’s several campaigns?

In addition to dismissing such history, “Divide” keeps its focus on politics, media and the media that covers politics.

Perhaps there are reasons behind this divide that transcend red and blue, Fox and MSNBC. The very large controversy over a recent editorial in the relatively small magazine Christianity Today suggests that it struck a nerve. And that contemporary anxieties and divisions stem from religious divisions that many in the American media, seem reluctant to study, examine or discuss.

— Speaking of media and history, “Battle of Little Big Horn” (8 p.m., Smithsonian) revisits the 1876 catastrophe, not as a military history, but as the birth of newspaper tabloid wars, describing newspapers competing to outdo each other, often with lurid stories, entirely fabricated hundreds of miles from the scene.

TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

— A meteor shower leaves casualties behind on “9-1-1” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14).

— Three birdwatchers (Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson) compete to see who can spot the most species in the gentle 2011 comedy “The Big Year” (8 p.m., Cinemax).

— Lola disciplines a lazy lawyer on “All Rise” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG).

— Malcolm’s search proves dangerous on “Prodigal Son” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14).

— A fellow passenger has a cosmic link to a violent crime on “Manifest” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).

— Matters with Lea and Carly rattle Shaun on “The Good Doctor” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).

CULT CHOICE

— A G.I. (Montgomery Clift) sifts the rubble of postwar Berlin to reunite a missing boy with his mother in the 1948 drama “The Search” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-PG).

SERIES NOTES

A question of the bill on “The Neighborhood” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … Black Lightning to the rescue on “The Flash” (8 p.m., CW, r, TV-PG) … Ten compete on “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … Runway antics on “The Bachelor” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … A rival suitor on “Bob Hearts Abishola” (8:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … Looming paternity on “Bull” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).

LATE NIGHT

Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and the Broadway cast of “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” are booked on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Selena Gomez, Charlie Hunnam and Stormzy on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Bobby Cannavale, Amber Tamblyn and Christian Siriano visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC).