Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Season 3 on Max, Where Old Wounds And Bickering Sibs As Bosses Might Lead Their Church Astray

In Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones (now streaming on Max), the darkly told tale of a super-rich megachurch family and the crimes of their past and present, creator, principal writer and star Danny McBride and directors McBride, David Gordon Green, and Jody Hill are confronting regime change head on. Eli Gemstone is finally stepping back from his televangelist empire, leaving his children in charge. Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin finally got what they wanted. So why is everything just as hard? Gemstones has always had great guest stars, and Season 3 is no exception, with Steve Zahn, Kristen Johnston, Stephen Dorff, Casey Wilson, Iliza Schlesinger, Shea Whigham, and Sturgill Simpson joining the cast.    

THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES — SEASON 3: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: In an elegiac moment of diesel majesty and sanctified obnoxiousness, a monster truck dubbed “The Redeemer” hits a sweet jump to the sound of an angelic choir. It’s 2000, and a teenage version of Jesse Gemstone (J. Gaven Wilde) is firing up the raucous crowd on hand. They will be the monster truck of God’s teachings, young Jesse shouts, and together they’ll “Smush the things that the devil puts in our way.”

The Gist: Watching this garish display, Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) understands that it’s partly about his son’s folly. But hey, if a monster truck fueled by the Lord Jesus Christ puts butts in the seats, then so be it. Eli’s wife Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (Jennifer Nettles) is less enthused. “What in the hell is this horseshit I’m looking at? Money ain’t everything, baby.” And Aimee-Leigh sneaks off for a smoke, only to be confronted by an angry and jilted May-May Montgomery (Johnston), who threatens her with bodily harm before being hit by a car. For as rich and powerful as the Gemstones are in the present, their collective past is always riddled with blood and secrets. 

At a formal meeting of poobah evangelicals known as the Cape & Pistol Society, Eli’s razzed by his pals about the onset of retirement and his kids’ ability to keep running the show. He has faith in them, but lord do they bicker, and succession isn’t an easy process. On the beach at the fam’s now thriving Zion’s Landing Christian resort, Jesse Gemstone (McBride) makes a show of firing his dad’s chauffeur for leaking family secrets. Judy Gemstone (Edi Patterson), just back to the ministry’s South Carolina home base after a lengthy singing tour, big times her husband BJ (Tim Baltz). And Kelvin Gemstone (Adam DeVine) has supplanted his musclebound God Squad with the Teen Team and its crew of “Smut Busters,” who Kelvin and his right hand man Keefe (Tony Cavalero) lead on Carrie Nation-like sex shop raids to hoard novelty dildos and vibrators in a bid for temperance before God. Clearly, the Gemstone sibs each have their own idea about what power looks like.

They also have new worries, and new rivals. The church’s attendance and financials are flagging since Eli announced his semi-retirement, former major donors like legendary stock car driver Dusty Daniels (Shea Whigham), “The Slick Bandit,” have gotten cold feet, and the Simpkins siblings (played by Stephen Dorff, Ilizah Shelsinger, and Gogo Lomo-David) have stepped into the breech to challenge the Gemstone empire. And when May-May Montgomery resurfaces in Eli’s life, she’s got news: her husband Peter (Zahn) is out of prison and stirring up his own brand of trouble. 

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Arrested Development was another series that featured cutting and at times esoteric family squabbling against a backdrop of vast wealth. And speaking of Steve Zahn, how about if Danny McBride, Edi Patterson, and Adam DeVine are cast in the next iteration of The White Lotus as Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin Gemstone?  

Our Take: “WhooWhee Sucker!” Veteran Winston Cup driver Dusty Daniels’ famous catchphrase is an apt summation of what’s in store for Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin as The Righteous Gemstones returns for its third installment. Succession woes are hitting them fast, and if the sibs aren’t careful, they just might skid the megachurch empire their father Eli built right into the wall at turn two. Some of the best moments of the new season’s first episode examine the dynamic between the Gemstone offspring as they squabble their way into a new reality as co-church leaders, dropping insults on each others’ heads (Jesse, with his dyed sideburns, looks to Judy and Kelvin like a “deformed Dracula”) and jockeying for “main decider” power over the megachurch and its coffers, which are already threatening to run dry. Ultimately, Jesse and Kelvin come to a wary agreement in that they’re both freaking scared. “What if we don’t have what it takes?” But in typical Gemstones fashion, none of this assuages the deep schisms between them as sister and brothers, and they continue to operate their fiefdoms separately, with Jesse fixating on Stephen Dorff’s smarmy lead Simpkins sib as the target of his ire. In The Righteous Gemstones, crimes (whether petty or serious) are always as key as Christ and the cross to this family’s status, and the early going of season three has already piled a brand new batch of bad trouble onto already strained family ties.   

There’s also horror here lurking, and eeriness in the margins. The direction of Gemstones, together with its whip-smart editing and consistently top tier music cues, helps push the series toward darkness as much as the unscrupulous behavior by its characters. It also has its garish heart revealed in riotous costuming, bizarre framing – get a load of the gleaming white spires and towers of the gilded Zion’s Landing – and craven decision making, which only makes the world it’s built for itself come even more weirdly to life.   

Sex and Skin: Nothing blatant, but Kelvin and Keefe are frequently sex toy-adjacent, and Judy’s Christian band guitar player side piece does engage in what looks like the fellatio of human digits with her fingers.

Parting Shot: In a rundown country chapel called The Church of the Wilderness, Eli has seemingly softened his stance on May-May Montgomery’s current state. Sure, she once bonked Aimee-Leigh on the skull with a crescent wrench. But they’re family, right? As Eli drives away in his SUV, the look on May-May’s face suggests lingering ulterior motives.

Sleeper Star: Tony Cavalero has been stealing scenes as Keefe Chambers since his very first appearance in The Righteous Gemstones, and his hot streak continues here in season three. Just look at how Keefe slinks off from the sex toy burn pit, high on green smoke from burning butt plugs and clutching at a latex vagina like a man confused and spurned. 

Most Pilot-y Line: The Gemstone siblings are manifesting their worry over suddenly, finally being in charge in different ways, but they’re also realizing how difficult it is to replace a legend. And in a fumbling, frustrated moment of raw honesty, Jesse admits as much to Amber. “Baby, that’s because we are desperate. We’re picking up where Eli Gemstone left off, a man who’s done this job for like, fuckin’ hundreds of thousands of years, and is America’s Jesus daddy.” 

Our Call: STREAM IT. In its third season, The Righteous Gemstones is in power struggle mode on the inside and outside of the family’s megachurch empire. Jealousy and fear are in play, plus old secrets that won’t go away quiet. WhooWhee, Sucker. It’s going down again.  

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges