• Righteous Gemstones’ fourth and final season premiered on HBO last week
  • Critics give Danny McBride comedy a perfect score
  • Final season premiere features guest role for Bradley Cooper
Credit: Imago

The final season of The Righteous Gemstones, much like the Old Testament, is likely to be completely and utterly insane. And the Danny McBride helmed televangelist sitcom could not have started its last run in more impressive fashion.

Last week’s season debut, featuring an incredible guest turn from Bradley Cooper, has seen critics turn in a series of reviews that have left the season with a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The series, which features John Goodman as the widowed patriarch of the Gemstone family – a grifting, narcissistic hellscape of power and money obsessed siblings (think Succession only set in a Bible Belt megachurch with a smattering of murder, militia and Joe Jonas) and their extremely questionable uncle Baby Billy – has been widely acclaimed across its first three seasons but, if last week’s season premiere is anything to go by, McBride and co. could be saving the best ’til last.



Of course, the Gemstones returning to TV at this moment in time is wondrous news for the Walton Goggins hive as we now get to enjoy the main man as both Baby Billy and as Rick Hatchett in the third season of the White Lotus.



Critics who have been lucky enough to cast their eyes across the entire season have been devout in their adoration for the show, with Ben Travers of IndieWire stating, “To say [Walton Goggins] goes out on a heavenly high is like saying Michael Jordan played a decent final game for the Bulls.” Nandini Balial of RogerEbert.com writes, “The Righteous Gemstones” is funny, wry, clever, disgusting, moving, shocking, and endearing in ways that are purely aspirational for most comedies on TV, and I’m sorry to say goodbye to it” while Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence exclaims, “To the very end, The Righteous Gemstones remained true to itself — while never forgetting that it’s a comedy, going balls-out with its humor at the right moments. (Sometimes quite literally, thanks to Walton Goggins.)”

McBride’s unparalleled proclivity for blending gross out immaturity with genuine drama and heartfelt moments has also received a deluge of plaudits, as Collider’s Ross Bonaime praised the series creator, saying, “Once more, McBride has shown that The Righteous Gemstones is his crowning achievement so far in television, taking his absurd humor and turning it into something quite lovely and surprising in the end.”

With new episodes dropping on HBO every Sunday, we’re going to be fanatically devoting ourself to the church of Gemstone while we still can.

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Joe Baiamonte
Joe spent four years heading up SPORTbible’s editorial team before taking over at UNILAD Sport. Joe has regularly provided WWE coverage for almost a decade, interviewing many of the biggest names in the business and covering several major events in the United States and Europe, including four WrestleManias.
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