The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 is the second season of an American black comedy television drama series created by Danny McBride. The series follows a famous yet dysfunctional family of televangelists and megachurch pastors led by widowed patriarch Eli Gemstone (John Goodman). Eli and his immature children, Jesse (Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam DeVine), lead opulent lives funded by church donations.
M I N O R S P O I L E R S
The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 picks up roughly from the end of Season 1 and everything seems to be peachy keen with our twisted family of televangelists and megachurch pastors. Then, of course, new plot elements are introduced to brings drama, tension and conflict into this metaphorical Garden of Eden. The protagonist appears to be Junior Marsh (Eric Roberts), an acquaintance from patriarch Eli’s dark past. In addition, Jesse and Amber link up with the evangelical Christian power couple the Lissons (Lyle and Lindy) to exercise independence from Eli, while investigative journalist Thaniel Block (Jason Schwartzman) turns up to threaten the Gemstones’ closely guarded secrets.
Basically, these main plot lines set up the whole of 2nd season and amidst several twists and turns the immature behaviour of the Gemstones siblings remain the core source of entertainment throughout. Once more, spoof real-life examples of American Evangelical Christian culture and going way over the top! It’s probably hard to imagine supposed Christians spouting non-stop vulgarities and acting in the most selfish manner possible but there you go – surely there is a glimmer of truth in all this.
Despite most of the season expecting Junior Marsh to be the bad guy, ultimately by the finale we discover that the cause of the mayhem the Gemstones encounter in this season comes from an unexpected source. As with Season 1, the excellent cast deliver brilliantly (especially Goodman this time round) supplemented with the new characters and a couple of surprises in Macauley Culkin and Joe Jonas!
If you enjoyed Season 1, well The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 is more of the same, with genuine laugh-out-loud moments peppered throughout. Eminently binge-worthy!
Now streaming on HBO Max.
… still there’s more …