"Hard Funny" and Deeply Sincere: How 'The Righteous Gemstones' Strikes the Perfect Balance

This highly unique, Bradley Cooper-starring season opener showcased the unsung comedy at its absolute best

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For four seasons now, and over the course of six years, The Righteous Gemstones has built a reputation not just as a comedy for the elite who pride themselves on being in the know with HBO sitcoms like Curb Your Enthusiasm, but also as a favorite of the masses. Its ratings support exactly that.

From Deadline on Monday:

"As for The Righteous Gemstones, the Danny McBride laugher enjoyed its strongest season premiere ever by luring 919,000 cross-platform viewers in the U.S. The Season 4 premiere outperformed the Season 3 premiere by nearly 30%; Season 3 went on to average 5.5 million U.S. cross-platform viewers."

This is the series often called evangelical Succession. It’s a fair descriptor for a show that stars John Goodman as Eli Gemstone, the head of a sprawling megachurch, and his three dunderheaded children—played by Danny McBride, Edi Patterson, and Adam Devine—who all think they’re ready for primetime, but couldn't be further from it.

Danny McBride’s satire skewers a certain right-wing Republican Southern base, but it’s also a bit of a love letter. It’s hysterical, but not mean. There’s a sincerity within The Righteous Gemstones that ensures it connects both with fans who want to mock its subjects and with fans who are its subjects.

Adam Devine, Danny McBride, and Edi Patterson

I don’t think that’s ever been better exemplified than in the opening episode of this final season, which premiered last Sunday. Let it be known, the show is “hard funny.” There are dick jokes, pratfalls, and big belly laughs—the kind too rarely seen on TV and practically nonexistent in film today.

But this Season 4 opener slows things down to a more pensive, deliberate level. It called to mind some of the best episodes of Atlanta, where departures from the main cast (and sometimes from the present, too) weren’t just for the sake of art but to explore deeper truths.

And in this episode, “Prelude,” The Righteous Gemstones lands its biggest stunt casting yet: Bradley Cooper.

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