'The Righteous Gemstones' Trailer: Can I Get An Amen?
If there's one thing Danny McBride does well, it's making very funny shows about loud, crude jerks. And he's at it again with The Righteous Gemstones, a new HBO series that looks like it has its fair share of rude loudmouths while also being pretty damn funny. The series focuses on a world-famous televangelist family that is clearly anything but holy. Watch the latest The Righteous Gemstones trailer below.
The Righteous Gemstones Trailer
Yep, this sure looks like a Danny McBride show. In The Righteous Gemstones, the Gemstone family is "well into the second generation of a grand televangelist tradition."
McBride is "Jesse Gemstone, the eldest of three grown Gemstone offspring, who looks to lead in his father's footsteps but finds his past sins jeopardizing the family ministry." John Goodman plays McBride's father, Eli Gemstone, "who finds himself at a crisis point as he mourns the loss of his wife, Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles), and questions the Gemstones' mission." Adam Devine is McBride's brother "pseudo-hipster Kelvin, the youngest of the trio and a thorn in Jesse's side," and Edi Patterson plays McBride's sister Judy, "who is secretly living with her fiancé and dreams of escaping the Gemstone compound."
The show also stars Walton Goggins, who co-starred along with McBride on Vice Principals, as Baby Billy, "a former child star who clogged and sang for Jesus. As an aging man, he has fallen on hard times and comes to the Gemstones for salvation." Cassidy Freeman plays Jesse's wife, Amber, "a former journalist now devoted to the church. Tony Cavalero is ex-Satanist Keefe Chambers; Tim Baltz plays Judy's finance, BJ; and Greg Alan Williams is Martin Imari, Eli's right-hand man.
Appearing at the TCAs this week, McBride – who writes and directs the series as well – stressed that The Righteous Gemstones is not a takedown of religion (via EW):
"The goal of it is not to be a takedown of anything...It's setting a story in a world that I haven't seen. When Hollywood decides to take on religion, I think they make the deadly mistake of lampooning people for their beliefs, which is not something I'm interested in doing. I would not go and pass judgement on other people. For us it's about lampooning a hypocrite, lampooning somebody who presents themselves one way and is not that way."
McBride added that the show is more about mocking people who don't "practice what they preach" and that that's not "something that is just relevant to the world of religion and televangelism" but also "relevant to the world we live in. We're constantly being exposed to people who present themselves one way on social media but act another way in person."
The Righteous Gemstones arrives on HBO on August 18.