Every Sunday since Jan. 9, my Twitter timeline has been littered with remarks, complaints, fan theories and sparse praise for Sam Levinson’s “Euphoria.” In fact, it’s the most tweeted-about show of all time, and, although I’ve been a fan since the pilot aired on HBO in summer 2019, the discourse over the show has been exhausting. You’d think everyone hated the show with the ungodly number of tweets and memes made about it. However, there is another show for which I have also been a day one fan that has remained a constant of bright light for HBO and Twitter alike.
Created by and starring Danny McBride, “The Righteous Gemstones” revolves around the eponymous, highly-dysfunctional televangelist family that runs a famous and highly-successful megachurch. The series runs in the same vein as “Succession,” another HBO landmark series about a rich, bickering family that uses rudely specific insults in place of love, but the show feels entirely disparate from it as “Righteous Gemstones” is first and foremost a comedy, not a drama. It’s edgy, satirical and surprisingly wholesome at times.
Season one of the series, which premiered in August 2019 and tackled themes of parental misunderstanding and greed, was a terrific time. Like “Euphoria,” I watched the two-episode series premiere the very same night it aired, so you already know I was pressing play on season two right after the season two premiere of “Euphoria.”
This sophomore season finds McBride’s characater Jesse Gemstone and eldest child wanting to invest in a Christian-owned timeshare resort with Lyle Lisson, played by Eric Andre, which is much to the chagrin of his father Eli, played by the ever-great John Goodman. Requiring a hefty seven-figure investment, Jesse doesn’t have the funds, so he approaches his daddy for the money, to which he says no, angering Jesse and putting the father and son at odds. Dealing with his own resurfacing past and motorcycle assassins, Eli believes that Jesse needs to find his own path to success and not through a handout. Meanwhile, siblings Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam DeVine) juggle trying to keep their personal lives together while learning to cope with the newfound secrets of the Gemstone family.
I’m still unsure if I prefer this season over its first, but all I can say is that I was overly satisfied from week to week. The great thing about “The Righteous Gemstones” is that, despite its faults, it never failed to make me laugh. Sure, it’s messy just like its characters and may not be the tightest story in HBO’s caliber, but, from Kelvin’s G.O.D.D. Squad to BJ’s baptism episode, I found more enjoyment, cinematic bliss and less to complain about in this show than many of HBO’s other productions.
What I appreciated about this season is how it managed to retrospectively look back into the legacy of the Gemstone family while also clearing a path for its posterity in particular. Lies were told, secrets (and bodies) were buried, and money was made all in the name of Christ and the American Dream.
It makes the viewer think about where the line is drawn when violence paves the way to success, even if the achievements are made into praiseworthy causes. This then brings up the question of who, if anyone, in the family is honorable enough to wear the crown? Jesse and Lyle are also mirrored characters who struggle with their own ambitions in lieu of a more successful father, making for an interesting dichotomy. However, the series proves that the Gemstones are still a family despite their brokenness.
In short, “The Righteous Gemstones” season two is an early highlight in the television sphere of 2022. Composed of nine bite-sized episodes and a plethora of laughs, the second coming of the show proved to be a hilariously praiseworthy time that played out far better than the underwhelming second season of “Euphoria.”