This review contains spoilers for Season 3 of “The Righteous Gemstones.”
HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones” comes roaring back June 18 with its car chases, pompadours, botched assaults and neon lights. The third season of the third series in what creator and star Danny McBride calls his “misunderstood angry man trilogy” steers the foul-mouthed Gemstone family — still squabbling for control of their predatory megachurch now that patriarch Eli (John Goodman) has retired — toward a number of minor but moving epiphanies.
WpGet the full experience.Choose your planArrowRight
While the show has dedicated plenty of time to the oddball escapades of Gemstone brothers Jesse (McBride) and Kelvin (Adam Devine), the new season turns its spotlight on the lone Gemstone daughter, Judy (Edi Patterson), as she struggles with newfound stardom and its temptations. Patterson is a standout in this cast of comic heavyweights, so it’s a particular pleasure to watch Judy — a brilliantly unappealing gem of a character — wrestling with challenges other than failure and exclusion. Viewers are also treated to an epic poolside number by Walton Goggins’ Uncle “Baby” Billy, Eli’s seedy brother-in-law, who feels his career has hit a rut. There’s some snake-handling, more passionate rollerblading by Judy’s husband BJ (Tim Baltz), and a gratifying amount of youngest son Kelvin’s devoted disciple Keefe (Tony Cavalero). The new additions are mostly terrific; they include Kristen Johnston and Steve Zahn, as well as Stephen Dorff, Iliza Shlesinger, and Stephen Schneider.
Edi Patterson will make you pray for Judy Gemstone’s sweet, demented soul
“The Righteous Gemstones” runs on outlandish set pieces, absurd but gripping action sequences, awkward invective and (crucially) clumsy love. This season disappoints on none of those fronts. The series builds scene after scene on the blustery pleasures of its characters’ inarticulacy and delivers a virtual dissertation on unwarranted bravado. (I may never stop thinking about a scene in which Patterson makes glorious, nontraditional use of her index finger.)
That said, its main plot is easily the show’s weakest.
Maybe that’s inevitable. The challenging premise that made “Gemstones” so singular has congealed (or matured) into something more like a fun but goofy formula. Here’s how McBride explained the original idea to Vulture last year: “I think the inspiration for the series as it is now definitely came from exploring the villain in the traditional story. It just felt more rich to me, and the show kind of came alive. Imagine someone who is of faith who would try to take someone else out in order to have what they have.” That’s an ambitious premise; sort of an antihero show folded up against itself. A “Dixie Mafia crime story,” as McBride put it in an interview with GQ.
But three seasons in, the show doesn’t seem especially conflicted about its heroes. The execution is quite a bit simpler: In this universe there will always be pleasing pomp, foolish grudges and a colorful, slightly implausible villain working against the Gemstones.
The season opens with a flashback to an adolescent Jesse (played by the eerily charismatic J. Gaven Wilde) preaching up a storm in an arena at a county fair as a monster truck called the Redeemer crushes cars. “We can be the monster truck!” Jesse yells as the crowd goes wild. “We can smush the things the devil puts in our way!”
While Jesse’s father Eli gingerly approves — butts in seats, he says — his saintly wife, Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles), is horrified. Sporting a jumper with a fetching watermelon-themed collar, Aimee-Leigh suggests that some things matter more than money. She is subsequently attacked and nearly killed by an enraged victim of the latest Gemstone swindle, which consists (we will learn) of prepper kits the family marketed to the faithful in anticipation of Y2K, a.k.a the end times. “You’re nothing but a phony pretending on TV to be all kind and caring, but I know the truth. Damn you to hell, Aimee-Leigh!” the attacker says, before striking.
This is how the Montgomery family, the new season’s antagonists, are introduced, with Johnson playing Eli’s sister May-May and Zahn playing her estranged husband, Peter, who now runs a survivalist militia with sons Carl and Chuck (Robert Oberst and Lukas Haas).
The attack is a perfectly serviceable horror sequence. But given the season’s arc (critics received all nine episodes), it feels a tad cheap. The Montgomeries eventually acquire some depth by virtue of their connection to the Gemstones. And it seems unthinkable in hindsight that May-May would try to murder her sister-in-law. But that chase scene — and the fact that it targets the one “nice” person in the family — functionally turns the Gemstones (the swindlers, in this case) into the victims.
This is creaky stuff. You can practically feel the show straining to deprive the people the family cheated of any clear moral high ground; they portray them as crazy and unreasonable while the Gemstones behave (by comparison) rather decently. (Eli offers to return the money they lost, but they nastily reject the offer.)
It sometimes feels like the plotting gets mired in a peculiar arms race to the bottom, morally speaking; it has to muster increasingly zany, irrational or evil antagonists for the Gemstone family to square off against in a way that keeps you — despite the family’s many misdeeds — on their side.
It may be, in other words, that “Gemstones” is caught in a gentle trap of its own making. For all its shock-jock trappings, this has always basically been a feel-good show, committed to rescuing its protagonists from harsh judgments and supplying them with lightly redeeming arcs. Bigotry, hom*ophobia and sexism are kept mostly offstage (or refuted altogether, as when a confused but well-meaning Jesse lovingly “accepted” his straight son’s hom*osexuality). The comedy has a pattern: bluster, defensiveness and assault are usually followed by redemption, if not outright victory. The Gemstones’ enemies must either lose or reconcile with them. And though it would be a stretch to say the siblings grow, it’s true that they pretty much always win and that we, the viewers, want them to.
“These are not people of God!” Peter Montgomery yells at one point of the Gemstones. “They’re entertainers! Performers! Charlatans!” He’s right, of course, but he’s saying this as a cult leader. Jesse is right, too, when he dismisses the militia members as “super relig” rubes too attached to their guns. The joke in both cases is a basically kind one; it resides in the baseline similarities between these warring factions. (That they are not so similar; that Peter, in particular, spent years impoverished and imprisoned, while the Gemstones profited from the suffering of families like his, disappears in this sweet but shallow equivalence.)
Underneath the swearing and frontal nudity and violence, in other words, “Gemstones” shares far more with “Ted Lasso” and its ilk than it does with structurally similar dynastic satires like “Succession.” The show’s main commitment is to humor — quite rightly — but it’s also sentimental to a fault, so staunchly loyal to its principals that its parodies turn toothless and its plots sometimes buckle under the strain of insisting that the money-grubbing, peaco*cking televangelists do harm and that within every Gemstone there beats a heart of gold.
This won’t matter to “Gemstones” fans, and perhaps it shouldn’t (it’s not like the “cycle ninjas” last season made much sense, either; plot has never been the comedy’s strong point). Maybe McBride is more of a New Testament creator, so happy to let redemption creep in through the cracks that he’s content to forgive and forget his creatures’ misdeeds. “The Righteous Gemstones” was never the kind of satire that bites, and if the series loves its impulsive, dysfunctional millionaires too much to ever let the weight of their sins be felt, at least the burden — while light — is hilarious.
The Righteous Gemstones, Season 3, premieres Sunday, June 18, with two new episodes. New episodes drop weekly.
FAQs
1 I Will Tell of All Your Deeds (Season 2, Episode 9)
What is Macaulay Culkin in Righteous Gemstones? ›
"The Righteous Gemstones" The Prayer of a Righteous Man (TV Episode 2022) - Macaulay Culkin as Harmon Freeman - IMDb.
Is Righteous Gemstones over for good? ›
Thankfully, the half-hour adult comedy will not be leaving audiences anytime soon. During the show's second outing, "The Righteous Gemstones" was renewed for a third season.
Who plays May May in righteous gemstones? ›
The opening sequence at a Christian monster-truck rally in the year 2000 teases out a larger drama involving Eli and his long-lost sister May-May (Kristen Johnson), who tried to attack his wife with a giant wrench at the rally but now comes asking him for a favor in tracking down her sons and wayward ex-husband.
Is The Righteous Gemstones a satire? ›
But Gemstones only touches briefly on these subjects before focusing on the absurd childishness of its main characters. The show is more farce than satire, although it sometimes wants to be both.
Who are the bad guys in Righteous Gemstones? ›
Type of Villain
Scotty Steele is the main antagonist of the first season of The Righteous Gemstones. He is a former stuntman turned robber, courtesy of Gideon Gemstone, son of the main protagonist Jesse Gemstone. He was played by Scott Macarthur who also played Neil Kandy in El Camino.
What happened to Uncle Baby Billy's son? ›
Baby Billy would eventually abandon Harmon and Gloria, leaving Harmon to be raised by his mother by herself, not knowing what happened to his father or why Baby Billy abruptly left his family. Harmon would meet up with his father in adulthood, after Baby Billy tracked him down and met up for closure.
Who is Uncle Baby Billy's wife? ›
Tiffany Freeman (undisclosed maiden name) is Baby Billy Freeman's much younger wife. Tiffany and Baby Billy got together before the events of Season 1, eventually getting married.
Is Joe Jonas really in Righteous Gemstones? ›
Joe Jonas Made a Cameo on 'The Righteous Gemstones' Season 2 Premiere: 'Surprise!! ' The singer played a hilarious version of himself on the second episode of the new season of the HBO hit.
Where is Righteous Gemstones filmed? ›
1) Charleston, South Carolina
Filmed entirely in and around South Carolina, The Righteous Gemstones has its production base in the historic city of Charleston. The series utilizes iconic locations such as Citadel Mall, transformed into the Gemstone Prayer Center in Locust Grove, a shopping mall-based megachurch.
While The Righteous Gemstones is scripted, there's a ton of improvizing that happens on set. This seems natural given all the comedic talent in the cast. But showrunners typically want their actors to stick with what's been written.
Is The Righteous Gemstones based on a true story? ›
Overall, McBride has made clear that though he drew inspiration from real-life, The Righteous Gemstones is a satire through and through, and the story is not based on any real church or family.
Who is Lindy in The Righteous Gemstones? ›
The Righteous Gemstones (TV Series 2019– ) - Jessica Lowe as Lindy Lissons - IMDb.
Who was Chloe Bridges in Righteous Gemstones? ›
The Righteous Gemstones (TV Series 2019– ) - Chloe Bridges as Meagan - IMDb.
Who is the woman in righteous gemstones? ›
Watch: Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles Is '80s Televangelist in "The Righteous Gemstones" Sunday. Jennifer Nettles plays Dr. Eli Gemstone's (John Goodman) deceased wife in a second-generation family of wealthy, over-the-top televangelists.
What religion is The Righteous Gemstones? ›
The Gemstones are an undoubtedly satirical representation of hypocritical Christians, particularly the ones who hoard immense wealth.
Who is Eli gemstone based on? ›
Eli Gemstone (John Goodman). Adam explained that show creator Danny McBride found inspiration in real-life Texas evangelist John Jacobs, who founded the famous Christian group the Power Team in the late 1980s.
What church is righteous gemstones based off of? ›
Danny McBride, who co-created and co-stars in The Righteous Gemstones, told the New York Post that his upbringing within his own church inspired him to make the show. He also told the outlet that most of the storylines in the show came before Hillsong Church scandals in real life.
Who killed Scotty in The Righteous Gemstones? ›
While Billy and Tiffany have slight wounds, the driver, Scotty (Scott MacArthur), is knocked unconscious. Inspecting the van, they discover the stolen money and his gun, discovering that he robbed the Gemstone vault. Scotty wakes up and a panicked Tiffany shoots him in the head, killing him.
What year is The Righteous Gemstones set in? ›
In 1968, a young Eli Gemstone works as a professional wrestler. Eli's employer, Glendon Marsh, and his son, Junior, agree to pay Eli extra to assault a man who owes Glen money.
It is later revealed that Gideon was one of the blackmailers that had confronted his father Jesse in the red utility van. Gideon had been working with one of his stuntman buddies, Scotty, to try and blackmail his father in order to abscond to Thailand with the proceeds.
How old is Uncle Baby Billy? ›
Walton Goggins will do anything for Danny McBride — even play a creepy, milk-drinking, 70-year-old pastor named Baby Billy Freeman.
What is Baby Billy's last name? ›
“He's a national treasure, man,” says Goggins, who plays Baby Billy Freeman, the show's singing, grifting, white-haired preacher. Until they filmed together, he had no clue Culkin had been cast as his character's estranged child.
Who sings for Baby Billy on the Righteous Gemstones? ›
In reality, McBride and Edi Patterson (who plays Judy Gemstone) wrote the song together with composer Joseph Stephens. Country star Jennifer Nettles sings “Misbehavin'” in character as Aimee-Leigh, joined by Walton Goggins as Baby Billy for the song's “reunion” edition.
Who is Uncle Baby Billy? ›
As Uncle Baby Billy Freeman on The Righteous Gemstones, Walton Goggins is giving one of the most fully committed performances film or television has ever seen.
What religion are the Jonas Brothers? ›
Although the Jonas Brothers don't frequently discuss their relationship with God, we can pray that their Christian upbringing isn't forgotten, and for those who may have strayed, that they'd come back to a relationship with God.
What happens with BJ in The Righteous Gemstones? ›
In between seasons 1 and 2, it is revealed that Judy and BJ get married at Walt Disney World, much to their family's chagrin. With BJ now being an official member of the Gemstones, he constantly tries to do what's right by his adopted family.
Who is BJ's mom in righteous gemstones? ›
Harley Jane Kozak: BJ's Mom.
Was Righteous Gemstones filmed in Florida? ›
If you don't know, this comedy series follows a world-famous televangelist family and features stars like Danny McBride and Adam DeVine. The show gets extra points from us for being largely filmed in South Carolina, including several Lowcountry locations.
Where is Eli Gemstone's house? ›
Some of the scenery is located on Wadmalaw Island, while Eli Gemstone's main mansion with golden doors is the Fenwick Hall plantation house on Johns Island.
Freeman's Gap is a rural community in the Upstate of South Carolina, where Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (née Freeman) and Baby Billy Freeman originally call home. It is clearly located in the Appalachian Foothills in South Carolina, with mountain vistas close by to the Freeman property.
How close is The Righteous Gemstones to reality? ›
The Gemstones themselves aren't based on reality and are purely creations of the show. For all intents and purposes, the fictional dysfunctional family serves as satirical caricatures of the televangelist business. But the culture behind megachurch pastors certainly exists.
Is any of righteous gemstones improvised? ›
McBride told CNN that, of all his shows, The Righteous Gemstones has the least amount of improvisation going on. “I don't know if it's because there's just so much going on and there's so many spinning plates that there's an efficiency sometimes to the scenes, but everything is on the page,” he explained.
Is Julia Roberts brother in Righteous Gemstones? ›
Eric Roberts - Junior
A member of the Roberts acting family, brother of Julia and father of Emma, Eric Roberts joins the cast of The Righteous Gemstones as a mysterious character from Eli's past. Junior is introduced in Episode 1 via a flashback, with Roberts arriving to play the modern day version of Junior.
Is The Righteous Gemstones based on Jim Bakker? ›
While The Righteous Gemstones isn't based on a specific megachurch family or televangelist, Season 2 does take us into something particularly reminiscent of Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker territory with the introduction of Eric André's character Lyle Lissons who, along with his wife Lindy (Jessica Lowe), want Jesse Gemstone ...
Who killed Thaniel Block? ›
Lyle follows Thaniel through the cabin, and Thaniel eventually misfires and the ricochet hits him in the head, instantly killing him.
Who is Lissons's wife? ›
Lindy Lissons is the wife of megachurch pastor, Lyle Lissons. The pair hail from Texas, and run a megachurch that's similar to Gemstone Ministries.
Who is Keefe the baby righteous gemstones? ›
Played impeccably by Tony Cavalero, Keefe Chambers is an ex-Satanist, close friend, and devoted follower of the youngest Gemstones son, Kelvin (Adam Devine). He has a gorgeous shaggy mullet, the type most frequently seen at NASCAR races and on art school campuses.
Did Danny Mcbride create righteous gemstones? ›
The creator and star of “The Righteous Gemstones” has played a lot of hard-partying blowhards, but those guys aren't him. Well, maybe the partying part is.
Did Chloe Bridges and Nick Jonas date? ›
Nick Jonas and his Camp Rock 2 love interest Chloe Bridges aren't dating in real life. The 18-year-old Angelina Jolie look-a-like has set the record straight and says there has been no off-screen romance.
The pair had three sons: Gideon Gemstone, Pontius Gemstone, and Abraham Gemstone.
What happened to Eli Gemstone's wife? ›
At the beginning of Season 1, Aimee-Leigh had deceased within the last year, according to Eli. When Eli goes to give an offering to her memorial on the compound, the plaque states she was born in 1955 and died in 2018.
Is The Righteous Gemstones funny? ›
The Righteous Gemstones is flat out hilarious. It's another comedy created by the always funny Danny McBride. I'm not kidding when I say that every episode is hilarious. I've had to watch episodes twice because I was laughing so much that I missed parts.
Is Righteous Gemstones a comedy? ›
The Righteous Gemstones is an American black comedy crime television series created by Danny McBride that premiered on August 18, 2019, on HBO. The series follows a famous and dysfunctional family of televangelists.
How popular is The Righteous Gemstones? ›
The hour-long “Righteous Gemstones” premiere brought in 844,000 viewers across HBO's platforms yesterday, including streaming services HBO Go and HBO Now.
How many people watch The Righteous Gemstones? ›
TV Ratings: 'The Righteous Gemstones' Debuts to 850,000 Viewers on HBO - Variety.
Is The Righteous Gemstones inappropriate? ›
Sexual content is infrequent but mature: a woman's breasts and a man's genitals are visible in a video (while they dance and do drugs, not during sex), a man asks another man why doesn't he go "suck off" his roommate, a woman sarcastically tells a man to "eat" her "ass."
Is Righteous Gemstones a true story? ›
Overall, McBride has made clear that though he drew inspiration from real-life, The Righteous Gemstones is a satire through and through, and the story is not based on any real church or family.
What religion is righteous gemstones based on? ›
Danny McBride, who co-created and co-stars in The Righteous Gemstones, told the New York Post that his upbringing within his own church inspired him to make the show. He also told the outlet that most of the storylines in the show came before Hillsong Church scandals in real life.
What state is The Righteous Gemstones set in? ›
The second season of the show premiered on January 9, 2022. The Righteous Gemstones was shot in South Carolina, USA. Charleston, SC, USA.
Baby Billy would eventually abandon Harmon and Gloria, leaving Harmon to be raised by his mother by herself, not knowing what happened to his father or why Baby Billy abruptly left his family. Harmon would meet up with his father in adulthood, after Baby Billy tracked him down and met up for closure.
Who is BJ's mom in The Righteous Gemstones? ›
The Righteous Gemstones (TV Series 2019– ) - Harley Jane Kozak as BJ's Mom - IMDb.
Did HBO cancel The Righteous Gemstones? ›
Find out how The Righteous Gemstones stacks up against other HBO TV shows. The Righteous Gemstones has been renewed for a third season which will debut on June 18, 2023. Stay tuned for further updates.
Who is Pam in The Righteous Gemstones? ›
The Righteous Gemstones (TV Series 2019– ) - Jennifer Hazelip as Pam - IMDb.
