A couple weeks ago, I logged into my HBO Max account to catch up on the current season of The White Lotus (I'm a Laurie, in case you're wondering). As I navigated to the Top 10 Series section, another title caught my eye: The Righteous Gemstones, a comedy created by Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals) that I cannot believe I didn't watch sooner. Reader, it's the funniest thing I've watched in recent memory.
The #3 Show on HBO Max Features the Single Funniest Character I've Seen in Years
and There's a 'White Lotus' Connection
•
Published Mar 28, 2025
Ryan Green/ HBO
The Righteous Gemstones follows a family of mega-rich televangelists in South Carolina: patriarch Eli (John Goodman), his three adult children, Jesse (McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam Devine) and their families and folks in their orbit. Now in its fourth and final season, this show is absurd in the best way. The plot lines are absolutely unhinged (they may be Christians, but these people are largely terrible) and the characters are chaotically iconic. None more so, in my opinion, than daughter Judy Gemstone, played by Edi Patterson in one of the funniest TV performances I've ever seen.
Photograph by Connie Chornuk/HBO
Judy is in a league of her own. She's loud, she's raunchy and she's responsible for many of the show's most memorable lines. (I've thought about her Outback Steakhouse monologue multiple times a day since first seeing it.) The only other TV character I can kind of put in her league in terms of outrageous line reads and pee-your-pants physical comedy is Kaitlin Olson's Dee on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
There's also a White Lotus connection: Walton Goggins (Rick on the current season) stars as Baby Billy Freeman, Eli's brother-in-law and a has-been gospel star.
Jake Giles Netter/HBO
Shockingly, amid all the shenanigans, goofy musical numbers and wildly NSFW jokes, there are moments of genuine emotion. I never thought I'd sympathize with a megachurch leader, but John Goodman plays Eli's grief over his wife's death and disappointment at his children's selfishness so convincingly that I find myself feeling sorry for him.
Whether or not you think you're in the market for a new TV show to add to your roster, I implore you to check this one out.
The Righteous Gemstones is streaming now on HBO Max.
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