Plot: Season two finds our blessed Gemstone family threatened by outsiders from both the past and present who wish to destroy their empire.
Review: After Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals, Danny McBride’s HBO comedy The Righteous Gemstones felt like a perfect companion series. Whereas those first two comedies put McBride center stage, this religion-themed series served as an ensemble project with substantial roles for John Goodman, Edi Patterson, and Adam DeVine. Serving as a funny version of Succession and Yellowstone, The Righteous Gemstones follows the path of those two acclaimed dramas and showcases a powerful family fracturing under their own success as well as squabbling and in-fighting that can take down a dynasty. As much as I enjoyed the first season of this show, season two improves on the concept in every way with a better story and development for every member of the Gemstone clan.
Picking up months after the end of the first season, this season finds the Gemstone clan seemingly back to normal or as normal as this family can be. Jesse (Danny McBride) and Amber (Cassidy Freeman) are reunited with their son Gideon (Skyler Gisondo), Judy (Edi Patterson) and BJ (Tim Baltz) are happily married, and Kelvin (Adam DeVine) and Keefe (Tony Cavalero) have started a new mission comprised of alpha male bodybuilders. Within a short amount of time, Jesse’s aspirations to take his father’s place as head pastor becomes evident, especially when a friendship and business opportunity arises with Texas power preacher Lyle Lisson (Eric Andre). There are also new challenges with the arrival of Junior (Eric Roberts), an old friend of Eli’s (John Goodman) who has a complicated past. A reporter played by Jason Schwartzman also joins the fray and threatens to expose elements of the Gemstone’s tainted legacy. And, of course, there is the requisite wrinkle provided by Walton Goggins as the conniving Baby Billy.
In the first season, the primary antagonists were from within the Gemstone family, but now we have outside forces threatening the stability of this already off-kilter clan. Eric Roberts and Eric Andre are welcome additions to the cast and manage to change the mindsets of Eli and Jesse in a way we did not see previously. Eli has always been the strong patriarch of the Gemstones and we now get to see inside how he became the man he is. It allows John Goodman the chance to break out a bit more and show his range as an actor. The inclusion of Jason Schwartzman’s character also fosters a divide amongst the siblings which forces a wedge between the three adult Gemstone children and their father. Each member of the family has a substantial individual narrative this season. Of these subplots, I found Kelvin’s to be the weakest despite still providing some welcome laughs.
There are also bigger parts for the spouses and side characters including Amber and BJ, both of whom have a lot more to do this time around. The best parts of this show continue to be the wacky, seemingly improvised comedic moments from the talented actors here, but the show also manages some solid dramatic moments. Walton Goggins continues to be great as the silver-haired Baby Billy. His character is far less of a villain this time around and he gets to shine in the mid-season interlude/flashback episode as well as with a surprise actor I did not expect to see on this show. Needless to say, there is a lot going on this season but The Righteous Gemstones never fails to deliver on hilarious zingers and quotable moments. You will walk away from this season with “toilet baby” as your new go-to phrase.
Danny McBride had a hand in scripting every episode this season with direction on multiple episodes coming from his Halloween Kills creative partner David Gordon Green. The series continues to feature a lot of gospel and religious music which is catchier than it should be. There is so much that is sacrilegious about this series and yet so damnably funny that I hate to say that everything this season works…until it doesn’t. The nine-episode season plows along with great momentum and kept me engaged with solving the mystery posed at the end of the second episode. By the mid-way point of the season, I had already figured out whodunit and hoped for a better payoff than we got. Season one ended with the right amount of resolution leading into season two, but this season feels like it may be one episode short of a satisfying run.
The Righteous Gemstones kept me laughing for the entire season, all the way to the abrupt finale. I love watching this cast play the dumbest and most vainglorious characters on television. This season, the Gemstones give the Roys and Duttons a run for their money as even the characters that orbit this clan have to tell them they are acting like pompous assholes. When everything starts to break and spiral, this series continues to deliver the funny and even manages to sneak in some COVID jokes for good measure. I wish the overall story came together a bit more in the end, but there is so much good work this season that I will absolve McBride and the cast of this one little sin. The Righteous Gemstones is worth high praise and a spot on your DVR this season.
The second season of The Righteous Gemstones premieres on January 9th on HBO.
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