‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Series Premiere Review: Televangelists

The Righteous Gemstones is a family televangelist church. For years on end, the Gemstone Family ran their church which, surprisingly, grew and survived to this day. Now, it has managed to blend in with the trends of the 21st Century, it seems. With the family matriarch gone and the patriarch aging, his sons and daughter will soon inherit the church responsibility. However, heirs and heiress seem to have the lives they wish to live outside the church, whether they acknowledge that or not is a different situation.

On Sunday’s series premiere of The Righteous Gemstones, Eli Gemstone (John Goodman), Jesse Gemstone (Danny McBride), and Kelvin Gemstone (Adam Devine) come home from their China Evangelical Mission. As Eli mourns his wife, Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (Jennifer Nettles), Kelvin contemplates his life. Meanwhile, Judy Gemstone (Edi Patterson) secretly lives with her fiancé, B.J. (Tim Baltz). Desperately, Jesse tries to deal with someone blackmailing him for 1 Million Dollars.

The Lonely Widower

Fred Norris/HBO

On a physiological level, Eli is alright. He leads a church that is his family’s legacy and has amassed wealth more than one can imagine. Also, Eli and his family lived in a prestigious compound, each having a house to themselves. However, the bottom line of his life is that he is lonely. The loss of Aimee-Leigh made him rethink the direction of the church, let alone his life.

Perhaps at this point, Eli is in a place where he is reliving his glory days. A scene in the episode shows him watching a videotape of him and his wife at a service. Also, he frequented a bust of Aimee-Leigh to remember her. Running the church seemed to work for Eli since he used to do this with Aimee-Leigh, so it is both profitable and therapeutic. Still, he would surely flip if he knew what his children were doing.

The Youngest Gemstone

Fred Norris/HBO

Kelvin is the youngest of the three siblings. Unlike his older brother and sister, Kelvin had no lover; at least not yet. He spends his time in his mansion, indulging himself in his collection of vintage arcade video games. The only sense of companionship that Kelvin had was in the form of Keefe Chambers (Tony Cavalero), a reformed devil worshipper. Throughout the episode, one can sense how Kelvin started to question himself and what he was doing with his life.

Sure, Kelvin had riches at his disposal and is part of a world-renown church, but he does not see the meaning of it all. Kelvin goes as far as mentioning that maybe it is time for the Gemstones to end when confronting Jesse about his blackmail problem. For the most part, Kelvin seems to be kept around for who he is in a church sense. As a person, however, he is lost and is starting to realize this fact.

The Not-so Famous Gemstone

Fred Norris/HBO

Unlike the rest of the family, Judy did not go to their evangelical missions. They left her behind doing secretarial work. A bunch of sexists, the Gemstone men are. At some level, Judy did resent her family for this fact, but she did not hate them. Instead, she wishes to be with them, trying her best to gain Eli’s approval. However, Judy is sane enough to dream about life outside the Gemstone compound.

The not-so-good part about this dream is that she wishes to live with some insecure, washed-out white guy named B.J: a ridiculous name to have in this century. Despite being cultured into some weird-ass church upbringing, Judy was smart. She had the means to save Jesse from the mess that he found himself. Also, Judy was not as smug and as uncalculating as her brothers. Who knows, maybe at some point in the season, Judy would find a way out of the Gemstones’ cursed compound.

The Careless Gemstone

Fred Norris/HBO

Being the first-born, Jesse entitles himself too much of the Bible’s first-born promises in a literal sense. He seeks to take over when Eli retires, so he leads a life similar to him. Jesse has a wife, Amber (Cassidy Freeman), a former journalist turned-church devotee. Jesse has children, too, but do not share the same vision as he and his siblings did. Jesse’s first-born, Gideon, ran away. Also, Pontius Gemstone (Kelton DuMont) started to follow after his older brother’s path while Abraham Gemstone (Gavin Munn) remained a silent kid.

Jesse’s problems did not revolve around his family alone. A video of him doing drugs and partying in his mansion found its way to blackmailers that wanted 1 million dollars from him. In haste, Jesse thought that the blackmailer was their rival pastor from a place where they planned to build a church. Jesse’s brilliant plan of trying to assault the pastor before the set meeting with the blackmailers ended in one of his friends, Chad (James DuMont) getting shot. If it were not for Judy and Kelvin’s assist, Jesse would likely have started the Gemstone’s downfall with his video going viral.

‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Series Premiere Final Verdict

The Righteous Gemstones presents us with a satirical point of view of how Christians who profit from running a church live. And to top that, they also have a ridiculous amount of followers who fall for their shit, hence the revenue they make. Also, the show created a narrative so funny yet so real. If you are looking for a good laugh about ‘Christians,’ then this show is for you.

The Righteous Gemstones continues Sunday, August 25th with ‘ Is This the Man Who Made the Earth Tremble’ at 10/9c on HBO.