The Righteous Gemstones Have Their Come to Jesus Moment In Season 3: Review
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The post The Righteous Gemstones Have Their Come to Jesus Moment In Season 3: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: Three seasons in, the Gemstone family are on top of God’s Kingdom — Eli (John Goodman) is happily retired, and has passed the torch to his three children, Jesse (Danny McBride), Kelvin (Adam Devine), and Judy (Edi Patterson), who are drinking in the fame and fortune they’ve always dreamed of.
But as always, there’s trouble in paradise, as the family’s decades of hypocrisy and greed continue to rot it from the inside and out. Not only that, the shaky transition in leadership is leading to an exodus of worshippers, most notably racecar legend Dusty Daniels (Shea Whigham, pancaked with old-age makeup). And who’s this disheveled woman (Kristen Johnson) accosting Eli at a book signing, and how is she linked to the bitter, distant Gemstone cousin (Steve Zahn), who’s started a gun-toting militia just outside of town?
Whoo-whee, Sucker!: “Our origin story sucks,” laments Jesse early in the third (and hopefully not final) season of McBride’s dark comedy about the craven hypocrisy of the prosperity-gospel megachurch. Ever the most volatile, yet emotionally vulnerable of the family, he wonders aloud whether they’ll shake off the shaky early days of their reign, like Leno when he took over late night. “What if we’re not Leno?” he muses. “What if we’re just Conan?”
Gemstones, like McBride’s two other shows before it, Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals, delights in playing lines and moments this absurd with deadpan sincerity. That’s part of its charm, really; think Succession, if Logan used honey instead of vinegar to keep his three failkids under his thumb, and there were more scenes about shit getting absolutely wrecked by a monster truck. (The season opener introduces us to The Redeemer, a fire-breathing behemoth of a car whose appearances will set off as much of a primal thrill in the viewer as it does the Gemstones.)
We, the Three, And You: But much like the most recent season of that other show, Gemstones spends much of its time in Season 3 finding out what happens when the kids actually take the crown. Jesse bristles against his role as the eldest son, dying his muttonchops jet black (shades of Rudy Guiliani) and complaining about wife Amber’s (Cassidy Freeman) focus on her $500-a-pop Christian counseling system.
Meanwhile, Kelvin and his mulleted bestie Keefe (Tony Cavalero, one of the series’ MVPs) are busy sublimating their bone-deep lust for each other into Smut Busters, a church initiative in which they roll past freeway sex shops in their giant purple van and buy out their inventory to keep it out of the hands of sinners. (That they’re doing little but skyrocketing these establishments’ revenue is, of course, part of the grim joke.) And Judy’s navigating the complications of an affair she started with the “Sugar-Ray-looking” bandmate (Stephen Schneider) while on tour, with hapless husband B.J. (Tim Baltz) none the wiser.
The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)
Crucially, McBride (along with creative partners Jody Hill and David Gordon Green, among others) takes all of his characters’ concerns seriously, and the open question of whether the kids can maintain Eli’s legacy (and, most importantly, whether or not they should) remains front and center amid all the full-frontal nudity and dildo jokes. McBride’s performance remains a welcome nucleus around which the others orbit, his smirking braggadocio egging on Kelvin’s meek smarm and Judy’s absolutely unhinged outbursts, all of them cracking under more pressure than their pampered lives had gifted them till now.
There Will Come a Payday: McBride and crew always delight in sketching out the ostentatious details of a show’s worlds, and Gemstones is no different this season. Teased in Season 2, Season 3 finally shows us Zion, the Gemstones’ Jesus-themed island resort, where perpetual hanger-on Baby Billy (Walton Goggins) is sequestered to croon to visitors in an aquamarine suit with a giant clamshell backing. (The costumes in this show, like Goggins’ reptilian performance, remain exquisite.)
Like the kids, Baby Billy’s desperate to make his mark — “I’m an internationally known talent!” he snaps at anyone who’ll hear. But there’s an endearing sadness to the fact that the only idea he’s got is hosting a Family Feud-esque Bible trivia show called Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers — one that proves a literal test of faith, given the Gemstone kids’ actual know-how re: the Word of God.
Then there’s the militia itself and its varying squabbles, shades of the Proud Boys if they worshipped Jesus instead of video games and not jerking off. They’re the latest vehicles for the Gemstones’ inevitable reckoning, and plenty of hay is made of their haphazard compound and diverging priorities (some just want to protest statues, much to Cousin Peter’s dismay). Even so, their segments don’t thrill or delight nearly as much as the internal conflicts brewing between Jesse, Kelvin, and Judy, and their haphazard attempts to grow spines and souls.
The Verdict: In some ways, The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 prefers to play it relatively safe — it’s another season pairing internal squabbling with a dangerous group of outsiders whom the family must inevitably band together to stop. But this time, the training wheels are finally off: Eli’s not around to bail them out at their most desperate moments. They’re sharing the driver’s seat now, and the season’s most satisfying moments come from their attempts to wrestle for control of the wheel. The sermon might be getting a little repetitive, but The Righteous Gemstones knows how to keep butts in the pews.
Where’s It Playing? The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 bursts like a monster truck onto HBO and Max starting June 18th.
Trailer:
The Righteous Gemstones Have Their Come to Jesus Moment In Season 3: Review
Clint Worthington
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