“The Righteous Gemstones” ended its four-season run with an appropriately joyous Gemstone clan celebrating the marriage of Kelvin and Keefe (finally!), and a coda in which patriarch Eli finally sloughs off the burden of grief — and every member of the family shows just how much they’ve evolved since we first met them.
What Danny McBride’s satiric take on a religious empire has always done with astonishing deftness is balance incredibly vulgar comic situations and dialogue with deeply felt emotions, which kept the show from collapsing into the shallows of dumb humor. And it kept the characters grounded.
Judy (Edi Patterson), Jesse (McBride) and Kelvin (Adam Devine) — the kids of widower Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) — are selfish, narcissistic, greedy, grasping but also capable of self-reflection, vulnerability, contrition and growth.
But despite the skill of the cast, “Gemstones” has gone unnoticed by voters, who may want to honor the women on the series.
Patterson, as the overlooked Judy, could be especially heartbreaking.
Oppressed by the patriarchy of the Gemstone church, she acts out, masking her hurt, sleeping around and ripping with the best of them (i.e., her brothers). But she does find true love with optometrist JB (Tim Baltz) — it only took a deadly rivalry with a service monkey called Dr. Watson to break her shield.
Patterson’s body language and eyes are often at odds with what’s coming out of her mouth, and in Episodes 8 and 9, as JB recovers from a paralyzing pole-dancing accident, Dr. Watson is introduced to their household to help. As the monkey becomes the nursemaid that Judy could not be, her jealousy rages as does the monkey’s — he tries to kill her.
Both Judy and the monkey lost their mothers at young ages, except Dr. Watson copes by caring for people while Judy pushes them away. It’s a hilarious yet apt parallel that culminates in Judy delivering some home truths to the monkey about losing your momma — a healing self-revelatory moment that allows her to move on.
Season 4 also sees Jesse’s wife, Amber, played with gentle stoicism by Cassidy Freeman, step into her own, developing a successful couple’s program through the Gemstone church and gently guiding her slowly maturing husband in the right direction. Freeman’s the straight man here and her performance combines both quiet influence and steely strength. She’s like love: patient and kind, but she will find a way to get her way. She got to show off her expert marksmanship in an earlier season when she hit a fleeing Jesse in the nether regions after an admission of some really, really bad behavior.
Jennifer Nettles as the late Aimee-Leigh Gemstone really gets to dig into her friendship with Lori Milsap (Megan Mullally), who, has found a romantic connection with widower Eli. The scenes with Nettles and Mullally recording an album together are a touching look at how friends can support each other through life’s rocky events. Nettles’ open-hearted take on the role is another way the show has stayed grounded.
Oh, and the music is wonderful.
Mullally’s supporting turn should not go unnoticed — not only does she ace the comedic balance of the show, but she’s also involved in a sex scene with Goodman, finds out her ex-husband is a serial killer and sees her son try to kill the Gemstones, and then die in a beautifully written scene. And it all makes sense and adds up to a fulfilling end to a truly hilarious and heartfelt four seasons.
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