The Righteous Gemstones
 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...stones-1148617

"HBO has given a series order to The Righteous Gemstones, a comedy from Danny McBride about a televangelist and his family.

The series will tell the story of a world-famous televangelist family with a history of deviance, greed and, yes, charitable work, all in the name of Jesus. It's the third series McBride has done for HBO, following Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals.

John Goodman will star as Gemstone family patriarch Eli, who has built a global following via his ministry and weekly TV show. Though he's no longer the force he once was, he still expects unquestioned loyalty. Goodman also stars in The Conners, the Roseanne spinoff premiering Oct. 16 on ABC.

McBride plays Jesse, Eli's oldest son and presumed heir to his father's throne. He wants to take what his father built and expand it for a more modern audience.

The Righteous Gemstones also stars Edi Patterson (Vice Principals) and Adam Devine (Workaholics) Judy and Kelvin,Eli's other children; Cassidy Freeman (Longmire) as Amber, Jesse's wife, who gave up a journalism career to devote herself to the church and her husband; Tony Cavalero (School of Rock) as Keefe Chambers, an ex-Satanist who was saved by Kelvin; Tim Baltz (Bajillion Dollar Properties) as BJ, Judy's fiance; and GregAlan Williams (Greenleaf) as Martin Imari, Eli's trusted counsel.

McBride created the series and will executive produce with his Rough House Pictures partners Jody Hill and David Gordon Green. All three will also direct episodes."

Re: The Righteous Gemstones
 

Re: The Righteous Gemstones
 

Big fan of Danny McBride & I really wanted to like this.

The production values are high, the cast is great, ditto the acting, but not really my cuppa tea.

I watched the first episode of the first season last night, and I was surprised at how subpar it was. Both the writing and the acting (except for Goodman) were poor and pretentious-- even for a black comedy. I bailed after 20 minutes.

I've read that each successive season gets better, but does the first season get better?

“Tired of life in the lap of luxury, Baby Billy pursues a new vocation as a gameshow host…”

What would they use?

Re: The Righteous Gemstones
 

I'm sure I've said this in another thread about one of McBride's shows, but I don't think I'll ever get completely tired of them. There's a certain type of dude, and I grew up with more than a few of them, that he has down. Everything about them. Not dumb, but not that smart. Living out an epic narrative in their head every day. Transparent and childlike in their reactions, always. But also of complete faith that things will work out in the end because they really believe they're the hero in their own story.

I think of this man as the 'the game cheats!' guy. By which I mean, the kid who, when you're playing video games and they lose, almost invariably insists that they DID hit the button in time and 'the game cheats.' And they believe it, completely. They could pass a polygraph.

I'm not sure either of the shows since Eastbound have been as good, but Gemstones is better than Vice Principals, at least. And I appreciate that he keeps gifting us with these weird character actors that he plucks from nowhere, who then proceed to steal the show. Edi Patterson, in this case, who's a comedic revelation as Judi.

Re: The Righteous Gemstones
 

Yeah, very gangly, but in a way where you can see how if she tried to act suave she'd seem like a totally different person. Which is, I suppose, good acting.

Re: The Righteous Gemstones
 

I think if I had to boil down all these shows to a single message it would be:

The most powerful force in the universe is insecurity.