The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 Episodes 1 and 2 Review: For I Know the Plans I Have for You/ But Esau Ran to Meet Him
Praise be to HBO for bringing back our favorite group of dysfunctional siblings and their disapproving father for another season. The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 Episode 1, “For I Know the Plans I Have for You” and Episode 2, “But Esau Ran to Meet Him” prove why the comedy is one of the funniest on TV and still earns its spot on the channel’s coveted Sunday schedule.
Unlike his much grumpier peer on Succession, Eli Gemstone, AKA “America’s Jesus Daddy,” embraces retirement and leaves the family business to his group of dimwitted kids. They aren’t serious people by any stretch of the imagination but Eli has faith in his children.
Quickly we learn that faith, while sweet, is probably misplaced.
Season 2 spent its premiere introducing a convoluted plot of murder and cover-up, while Season 3 chooses to go a much simpler route. With the three siblings jockeying for power within the church, there’s enough going on with them to provide plenty of tension and humor.
Jesse can’t get the ministers to follow him, Kelvin spends his free time buying up sex toys with his “smut busters” group (the logo has to be seen to believe), and Judy is now a successful touring musician who is cheating on her hapless husband BJ.
The kids are a mess and the first two episodes feature them stepping on each other toes and lobbing childish insults. In other words, the Gemstones are back baby!
While each actor shines on their own, it’s when the three get together that The Righteous Gemstones is at its peak. No one can out-Gemstone a Gemstone, so their most worthy sparring partners are each other.
Admittedly, I could easily watch a show just about Judy and her over-the-top music career (unlike Eli, I’m not afraid to play favorites). Still, it’s the siblings together that keep the momentum going.
Lest you forget this is a comedy about religion, The Righteous Gemstones also uses its premiere to introduce some new religious groups. Similar to last season, the groups mirror back the Gemstones’ hypocrisy.
First the Simkins, a competing group of orphaned siblings running a ministry, who steal away a big race car driver donor from the Gemstone church. Beloved “that guy” Shea Whigham plays driver Dusty Daniels with aplomb even though he gets little screen time.
Jesse’s inability to even get a race car started when they race to keep the donation and then his immediately crashing is a great contrast to the high-speed chase Gideon pulls off in the second episode. Gideon has always been a bit of an outsider in his family but the show knows how to use him well as a foil.
It’s not a surprise The Righteous Gemstones manages to pull in so many guest stars within the first two episodes. Who wouldn’t want to play in this sandbox? Even if it means a wig or old age makeup (or both) in the cases of Whigham, Steve Zahn, and Casey Wilson.
As usual, Eli gets the more serious plot of having to help out his estranged nephews Chuck and Karl (Lukas Haas and Robert Oberst) who run afoul of a fundamentalist group of doomsday preppers led by their father Peter (Zahn). Although it could feel like a retread of last season’s theme of the past coming back to haunt them, I appreciate it giving John Goodman another plot that shows off his acting chops and provides a nice contrast to the straight-up foolishness of the children.
Whether the show has more to say about these types of fundamentalist groups beyond Jesse’s Ruby Ridge and Waco jokes is yet to be seen, but The Righteous Gemstones doesn’t pull punches. Already viewers will pick up on Jesse’s ironic criticism of the preppers loving religions and guns and living on a compound together – who else does that remind you of?
Can the kids stop the church and their personal lives from falling apart? Or will the Gemstones once more be wracked by a scandal they have to pull themselves out of?
Ultimately it’s hard to say if any of these stakes matter as long as the jokes are good, but you’ll want to keep watching.
Additional Thoughts:
- Judy wearing a sequin skirt just to go to the movies is iconic.
- “What if we’re not Leno? What if we’re just Conan?”
- Technically Sugar Ray is the band, not the frontman, so is Jesse’s insult correct? Do all the band members look like Judy’s lover Stephen?
- Poor Keef having to inhale melted butt plug chemicals.
- We did not get nearly enough Gideon last season so I am hoping he will get plenty of screen time with his new job as driver for Eli.
- I will try to keep the Succession comparisons minimal for the rest of the season but “We ain’t a ‘hold hands’ family” is so similar to Roman asking his siblings if they could do the “huggy thing.”
- No Uncle Baby Billy on these two episodes, but we got a peak in the season trailer. BLESSED!
What did you think of this episode of The Righteous Gemstones? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Righteous Gemstones airs Sundays at 10/9c on HBO.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture fanatic who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing and podcasting about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama.