TV Review: "The Righteous Gemstones" (Season 4)
The HBO series goes out on a scattered but touching, and surprisingly queer, note.
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Warning: Spoilers for the series follow.
Few series have been quite as skilled as blending together the sacred and the profane as HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. It’s one of those shows that has made obscenity, vulgarity, and absurdity into a true work of popular deranged art, and I’ve devoured every season. All good things, however, must come to an end, and so it is with this gleefully irreverent yet strangely heartfelt show, which just completed its fourth and final season.
A prologue episode introduces us to Bradley Cooper’s Elijah Gemstone’s and his colorful career during the Civil War, including his claiming of a gold-plated Bible. When the season properly begins Eli seems to be enjoying his retirement, only to be dragged back into the fray by his three children, who delight in mocking him and generally making his life miserable. As if all this weren’t enough, he also falls in love with Lori Milsap, Aimee-Leigh’s best friend, while the three younger Gemstones, and Baby Billy, of course, have their own various adventures.
I have to admit that I found this more scattered than previous ones which, considering just how frantically paced the show tends to be, is really saying something. It’s clear that the series had really run out of ideas after the third season which, you’ll recall, ended with the various members of the clan celebrating while Aimee-Leigh’s spirit looks on. But, as we know, everyone wants more, more, more, which helps to explain why there are so many seasons of The White Lotus where two would do. And, as with The White Lotus, there are certainly quite a few balls in the air this season of The Righteous Gemstones, but some of the storylines just seem to wander off into oblivion, if they had any point at all others actually have a decent payoff.
Some characters suffered from this more scattered approach than others. Amber is sadly underutilized this season, largely appearing in brief moments to help fix other characters. Baby Billy’s wife Tiffany is also barely present this season, which is a real shame, because Valyn Hall is truly hilarious in the role. There’s also a subplot involving Gideon’s struggle to find his preacherly persona that falls flat, primarily because it’s never really given the development that it needs (one can’t help but wonder whether the screentime expended on the prologue episode would have been better spent developing existing storylines a bit more).
Arguably the silliest and least consequential of the season’s stories is Baby Billy’s who, in typical Baby Billy fashion, decides that his newest venture will be a TV show based on the teenage years of Jesus. The title? Teenjus, of course. Not content with wasting millions of the Gemstones’ money, he also develops a cocaine habit and takes on the role himself, despite the obvious incongruity of a man of his age playing a teenager. It’s all very silly in typical Gemstones style, of course, but for me it just didn’t land. Goggins gives his usual unhinged performance but, given that he was also filming for the third season of The White Lotus, one can’t help but get the feeling that his heart’s not really in it.
This season sees three notable additions to the cast, with Megan Mullally, Seann William Scott, and Michael Rooker joining the Gemstones as Lori, Corey, and Cobb Milsap, respectively. Mullally and Scott are both reliably entertaining, managing to be both funny and soulful at the same time. Scott in particular gives an unsettlingly earnest performance as a man repeatedly torn between his loyalty to his father and his mother, the former of whom is an unhinged sadist. Rooker is truly terrifying as Cobb, a man who is willing to literally destroy anyone who impinges on his supposed rights as a man. This includes his son, and in this respect he stands as a counterpoint to Eli who, despite his flaws, has always stood by his children. It’s thus apposite that Corey is the one who ends up killing Cobb–who has kidnapped Eli and Baby Billy and killed several cops–even if doing so breaks his own fragile psyche. This leads him to try to come perilously close to killing the three Gemstone children, though fortunately Jesse (with the assistance of BJ’s service monkey) manages to shoot him first, resulting in his death.
Clearly, there are some bleak notes to this season. These have been present before, of course, but thanks to Scott’s phenomenal acting we actually come to feel for Corey, despite his monstrous actions. Indeed, I’ve always been drawn to the way that The Righteous manages to be surprisingly heartfelt amid all of the insanity. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the moment when the three Gemstone children, having been shot by the psychologically damaged Corey, manage to fatally shoot him in return. As he lies bleeding to death on the ground, they collectively pray, giving him some measure of comfort as he dies. It’s a powerful moment and, though the Gemstones do offer a few sarcastic comments as they offer up this prayer, they manage to access something that is both poignant and sacred.
This isn’t to say that this season isn’t funny, because it is. There are many moments of ridiculousness that we’ve come to expect from this show. Edi Patterson’s Judy continues to be the MVP when it comes to deranged vulgarity, and I think it’s safe to say that she’s elevated obscenity into an artform. Less successful, however, are the bits with the Capuchin monkey Dr. Watson, who Amber introduces to BJ after his terrible accident while pole-dancing (yes, you read that right). In my humble opinion, once you start leaning on monkey masturbation jokes for your humor, then it’s safe to say that you’ve jumped the shark.
And, surprisingly enough, this may be the queerest season of The Righteous Gemstones that we’ve seen yet. By this point Keefe and Kelvin have openly acknowledged their relationship and, in addition to seeing Kelvin win the “Top Christ Following Man of the Year” award, they end up getting engaged. In the finale, the two of them tie the knot, with Eli officiating. To be sure, there’s something more than a little utopian about the idea that a family of evangelists like this one would be so accepting of the gay men in their midst, let alone that an openly gay minister would win an award like “Top Christ Following Man of the Year. Then again, as Tammy Faye Messner showed us all those years ago, it’s quite possible for those who are in the evangelical tradition to be open, accepting, and affirming of queer folks. In any case, their whole story is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the final season, in large part because Keefe, in all of his earnestness, is just so damn lovable.
In the end, though, the finale manages to bring it all back together. It ends, appropriately enough, with Eli and Lori finally reconnecting, ready to embark on the next stage of their life. Given just how much Eli has gone through during the four seasons of this show–most notably just dealing with his idiot children and his deranged brother-in-law–one can’t help but be glad that he finally gets his own happy ending. He can also take comfort that his beloved Aimee-Leigh is looking on, giving her enduring love and her blessing. It’s a fitting end for this raucous and ridiculous and heartwarming show.