Every year, the Emmy nominations are announced, and like clockwork, the internet gets up in arms over their favorite show getting snubbed. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Incredibly, The Righteous Gemstones has never received a single nod in the comedy categories during each year that it was on the air.
As the series was just canceled this year, the Emmys had one last chance to get it right. Sadly, they didn’t take it.
Thankfully, every season of The Righteous Gemstones is available to stream on HBO Max. Watch With Us explains why it’s the Emmy snub that most deserves your attention.
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‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Combines Humor With Great Character Development and Storytelling
The characters of The Righteous Gemstones aren’t just joke-delivery machines: they’re fully fleshed-out characters that have been lovingly developed over the past four seasons. The fact that they’re antiheroes who are often deeply unlikable only adds to their complexity and appeal.
Judy (Edi Patterson), Kelvin (Adam Devine) and Jesse Gemstone (Danny McBride) are three spoiled, adult siblings and heirs to the vast Gemstone televangelist dynasty, living in the shadow of their patriarch father, Eli (John Goodman). Through each season, the series charts the family’s interpersonal conflicts and relationships as they struggle to get along while fending themselves from outside forces that wish to destroy them.
Created by McBride, The Righteous Gemstones showcases similar humor and story-writing as McBride’s previous series: Vice Principals and Eastbound & Down, both of which are as absorbing and empathetic as they are hilarious.
It Features at Least Two Award-Worthy Comedic Performances
Patterson first collaborated with McBride on Vice Principals, playing the unstable high school teacher Miss Abbott. While she was an absolute hoot back then, Gemstones allowed her to really come into her own as a powerhouse comedic actor. Patterson, as the relentlessly provocative, foul-mouthed Judy, was not only one of the funniest performances in any comedy show while it was airing — Patterson imbued a pathos to the character that a lesser performer might not have been able to handle.
Similarly, Adam Devine as Kelvin Gemstone is the actor’s best role since he broke out with Workaholics. After Workaholics ended, it seemed like no director really knew how to use Devine. He was consistently cast as regular, even “cool” guys, when he excels at playing arrogant manchildren. As Kelvin, Devine finally found a shoe that fit. He was allowed to play to his true strengths as the youngest Gemstone sibling with the most to prove, but Kelvin was also given an affecting, multi-season arc in which he discovers his repressed sexuality. Devine balanced this tightrope walk with skill.
It Expertly Skewers the Televangelist Industry
In the world of The Righteous Gemstones, the Gemstone family runs the most powerful televangelist megachurch in America. And while they put on a front of religious piety, they are extremely corrupt and selfish — they don’t really practice what they preach.
‘Righteous Gemstones’ Creator Danny McBride Teases Final Season
As McBride’s shows have consistently focused on men in America who have an overinflated ego, he felt that focusing on the leaders of a megachurch would be the ultimate manifestation of this creative interest. While televangelists and megachurches act like they’re in service of a higher power, they often behave as if they’re the highest power of all, using the money acquired from flashy sermons to fund extravagant, lavish lifestyles. Gemstones perfectly satirizes this dishonest commercialization of religion and the consequences of hypocrisy while writing characters that you genuinely want to watch.
Stream The Righteous Gemstones on HBO Max now.
