The first episode of “The Righteous Gemstones’” final season isn’t particularly funny. To clarify further would verge into spoiler territory, since part of the premiere’s charm is discovering why creator Danny McBride chooses to walk the curious path he does. But its shrunken sense of humor — which, while diminished, still adheres to the series’ brutal, black-comic origins — isn’t so much a slight, as a flex. Over four seasons, “The Righteous Gemstones” has gone to some dark places and addressed serious subjects. Death shakes its scythe from time to time, reminding this family of preachers what they’re preparing their followers for, especially as it relates to their matriarch’s premature passing.
But throughout each test from God on high, hilarity reigns supreme. Unholy language, depraved behavior, and preposterous ideas flourish. The contrast between the saintly behavior expected of these evangelists and their less-than-righteous day-to-day lives is a reliable, ever-replenishing fountain of comedy, as everlasting as the Lord’s love. So no, the Season 4 premiere isn’t all that funny. But it makes a powerful point. One that lingers, as intended, across the eight subsequent episodes, and gives the final season a fitting framework as a message of hope for the hopeless.
Entering Season 4, the Gemstones are comfortable. Jesse (McBride) is hawking “prayer pods” to malls across the nation, and when they inevitably fail — a private room in a public space, especially within the eerie husks of America’s shopping centers, is not going to be used as intended — it’s no big deal. Sure, the misguided invention is another ding to Jesse’s ego, but that armor is all but impenetrable by now, as is his status as leader of the family’s (hugely profitable) church. If anything, Jesse gets a light nudge to be a better father to Gideon (Skyler Gisondo) and Pontius (Kelton DuMont), two brothers on opposite ends of the piety spectrum.
Even his brother’s success doesn’t threaten Jesse as it once did. With his rainbow-emblazoned youth group Prism, Kelvin (Adam DeVine) is gathering quite the flock of queer churchgoers. He’s even attracted awards attention, securing a coveted nomination for Top Christ-Following Man of the Year. His stiffest competition is the family rival, Vance Simkins (Stephen Dorff), and their showdown over a series of faith-based competitions provides a strong spine for Season 4. (“The Righteous Gemstones” has always excelled at building beautiful set pieces, and while none will ever top what they cooked up last season for Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers, this year’s efforts remain magnificent.)
Judy (Edi Patterson) and her husband, BJ (Tim Baltz), are back on the upswing after Season 3’s marriage struggles, but their main arc is another sequence better left unspoiled. Let’s just say it involves a stripper pole, a monkey, and misplaced attention.
In need of equal discretion are the antics of the Gemstone family’s unquestioned MVP: Uncle Baby Billy Freeman, played to madcap perfection by Walton Goggins. TV’s hottest character actor (thanks to plum roles in recent hits like “Fallout” and “The White Lotus”) has been cooking with gas (and possibly huffing it, too) since Season 1, when his slyly villainous man of the cloth debuted his signature silver pompadour, dropped the absolute banger “Misbehavin’,” and evoked God’s wrath via a lightning strike that set him on the straight and narrow (well, straighter and narrow-ish).
To say he goes out on a heavenly high is like saying Michael Jordan played a decent final game for the Bulls. I went into Season 4 demanding a spinoff series — perhaps one where Goggins’ current “White Lotus” co-star, Amy Lou Wood, plays his long-lost daughter or rival TV host; she just seems like a perfect fit for the “Gemstones” universe — but I came out the other side of the nine-episode final season so invested in the conniving ol’ cocaine addict finding his twisted version of a happy ending, that I’m now torn over whether his timeless saga should continue or not.
Goggins is simply incredible, fully committed to Baby Billy’s comic lunacy yet never losing sight of his recovering sinner’s withered heart. If it wasn’t for the decades of adoration and respect built up around his impeccable work in “Justified,” Baby Billy would be an unquestionable career best.
But let’s get back to who we can talk about: The now-retired Eli (John Goodman) isn’t easily adjusting to a rudderless existence. His hair is long, his blood-alcohol level is high, and his decision-making (as evidenced by his haircut, among other indignities) isn’t exactly seaworthy. But when he makes his way back to land to celebrate his late wife’s birthday, Eli crosses paths with her best friend, Laurie (Megan Mullally), who finds herself in a similar boat, metaphorically speaking. (Did I mention Eli was living on a yacht? Hence all the boating references? OK, well, there you go.) The two former friends reconnect, and their renewed spark may just save them from living out their days in a hazy cloud of grief.
Eli’s new relationship gives “The Righteous Gemstones” a softer, more sentimental goodbye than some may expect, but it’s as well-earned as it is well-executed. Goodman excels at channeling his character’s grief in ways both moving and amusing, alternating between heartrending moments of piercing pain and absurd moments of abject embarrassment. Sometimes, when he manages to conjure each reaction simultaneously, you’re not sure whether to laugh or cry, and that suits the show around him just fine.
McBride’s series — which he makes with his longtime pals and production partners at Rough House Pictures, Jody Hill and David Gordon Green — always puts the comedy first. There’s an unspoken guarantee you’ll never finish an episode without spitting out your coffee over a brilliant flash of coarse humor, or bursting into a maniacal giggle fit from a perfectly timed punchline. Even the relatively staid premiere stole a handful of grim chuckles thanks to its guest star’s exceedingly blasé delivery of impossibly bleak news. Where other “prestige” comedies if its era would fall back on drama to make up for moderate laughs or court awards voters, “The Righteous Gemstones” only deploys it to tie its narrative together or endear us further to the characters we already love.
The latter point will make it especially hard to say goodbye. McBride & Co. know this family so well, share their foibles so brazenly, and embrace their story’s grandiosity so vividly, it’s hard to imagine what, if anything, could replace their latest HBO triumph. But it’s that same fearless attitude that’s carried them from “Eastbound and Down” to “Vice Principals” to “The Righteous Gemstones,” so we dare not doubt their ingenuity. Instead, let us simply pray that Baby Billy finds his way back to us, in this life or the next.
Grade: A-
“The Righteous Gemstones” premieres Sunday, March 9 at 10 p.m. ET on HBO. New episodes will be released weekly.
