The Righteous Gemstones Review: The Righteous Gemstones (Season 1 Episode 1)

The need for more starts to lose its appeal for the elder Gemstone on The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 Episode 1, “The Righteous Gemstones.”

John Goodman’s Eli is stuck in the past. He’s watching old videos of his time with his late wife, he’s visiting her monument on the family property, and he’s watching the future generation with disdain. He even finds no pleasure in taking over territory of four other pastors, as though the game is old to him.

It’s an interesting way to take Eli Gemstone, that an empire and greed have their limits, and the need for more is simply going through the motions rather than a compulsion. When compared with his children, whose entitlement and need for more extends across making sure they have more than their other siblings, it’s a stark contrast.

Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin Gemstone, as protagonists, are driven solely by pleasing their father and to battle each other. There’s rarely a scene where they aren’t fighting in some way, even when banded together at the end of the episode.

The blackmail comes as the main source for story. It’s able to show Jesse’s not as together as he initially portrays, and shows how diminished the family’s support system is in helping him only at the last minute, after he’s gone and done something ridiculous. But with the thumb drive likely not the only place for the video to exist, and the men (likely) dead, this is going to get worse for the Gemstones.

The cast is one of the show’s strongest assets. John Goodman is equal parts commanding and somber, able to turn a scene into something deeply comedic or something deeply dramatic. Danny McBride as Jesse Gemstone is like every other character he’s inhabited, and that’s certainly not a complaint, as it’s always this level of confidence that is paper thin and full of insecurities.

But the two standouts of the episode come through Adam DeVine’s Kelvin and Edi Patterson’s Judy. Kelvin, as the baby of the family, is in constant competition and takes every word as a slight against his position. Judy is completely passed over solely because of her being a woman, and Patterson plays her with a level of snark that is greatly appreciated (continuing her great work from HBO’s Vice Principals).

Taken together, the family comments on a level of excess and at what point does an evangelical empire become too powerful. Each member has their own mansion on the Gemstone property, there’s cars and golf carts scattered everywhere, and there’s even a giant theme park in the distance. And yet each one of them have deep insecurities that the others are able to exploit in some way.

It’s where the best comedy comes from. It’s mean-spirited, but done in spirit to their character. The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 Episode 1, “The Righteous Gemstones,” manages to show the depths of excess can’t buy everything, as each character suffers in some way.

Jesse’s blackmail and excommunication of his son Gideon plagues him. Kelvin is alone and in need of proving himself. Judy is stuck in a world where gender will always hold her back in some way, resorting to squirreling away cash as her form of contribution (mostly to herself).

But at the end of the episode, driving away from running over not one, but two blackmailers, the three siblings are there for each other, and it’s what matters most. It likely won’t last long, and will lead to more squabbling, but it’s single moments like that that make The Righteous Gemstones elevated into something special.

 

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The Righteous Gemstones airs Sundays at 10/9c on HBO.

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