‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Season 2 Was Worth the Wait

Fans of The Righteous Gemstones must have the patience of saints because it’s been over two years since the raucous comedy has been back on HBO. When the Danny McBride show premiered way back in August 2019, it became an immediate cult smash. The show followed a craven trio of adult siblings all angling to take over their father’s lucrative self-made empire. Succession comparisons aside, The Righteous Gemstones stood out because it gnawed at the obvious hypocrisy of celebrity preachers and megachurches built upon the flimsy gospel of pyramid schemes. Never self-serious, though, The Righteous Gemstones debased its subjects by depicting them as petty, stupid, shallow husks of true believers.

From its start, The Righteous Gemstones was an ideal satire, full of sage observations couched in jokes and featuring an unhinged Walton Goggins performance. Thank god The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 finally premieres tonight on HBO. We need its salvation.

The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 introduced viewers to the Gemstone clan, a family of televangelists who have commodified faith through showmanship, megachurches, and more. Patriarch Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) is certainly business-focused, but far less avaricious than his three children: Jesse (Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson), and Kelvin (Adam Devine). The three Gemstone children jockey for their father’s attention much like the Roy kids do out of a need for love and a hope that they will be named his primary successor. One of the main plots of the first season follows the Gemstone siblings as they battle a trio of blackmailers threatening to release a video of Jesse and his friends behaving in a most un-Christian manner at a party. Indeed, the hypocrisy of the Gemstones and their ilk — and the threat of exposure — is a constant theme throughout the series.

Throughout The Righteous Gemstones Season 1, the characters were also haunted by the memory of the family’s deceased matriarch, the lovely and earnest Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles), who had to balance her love of her increasingly selfish family with her duty to her wastrel of a brother, Walton Goggin’s Baby Billy. The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 opens tonight with a new specter to haunt the family: the ghost of Eli’s past. The new season opens with a flashback to Eli’s very unexpected youth, where he was a small town wrestler moonlighting as a loan shark’s heavy. The arrival of an old friend from that time, played by Eric Roberts, threatens to shake the foundations of the Gemstone clan’s empire. The new season of The Righteous Gemstones also introduces a new televangelical power couple, played by Eric Andre and Jessica Lowe, who look to buddy up with Jesse and his wife Amber (Cassidy Freeman).

Essentially, The Righteous Gemstones is looking to double down on its emotional drama, scathing satire, and absurd humor in its second season. The addition of manic comic force Eric Andre is enough to say this season was worth the wait. Knowing that Walton Goggins is returning as Baby Billy kicks it over the edge. (Also the fact that The Righteous Gemstones seems to be one of the few shows to figure out a realistic way to address the pandemic in its plot — with a Gemstone streaming service, sermons about pestilence, and Eli gun shy about any more change — is a welcome respite from a landscape of programming that either ignores how much the world changed or pats itself on the back about dramatizing the event.)

If you haven’t yet gotten into The Righteous Gemstones, now is the time to do it. And if you’re one of the legions of devoted followers who know “Misbehavin'” by heart, The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 is well worth the wait.

The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 premieres on HBO and HBO Max tonight, January 9, at 10:05 PM ET. 

Where to stream The Righteous Gemstones