The final season of The Righteous Gemstones launches on Max and HBO on March 9, and based on the first trailer, which came out today, it’ll finally give America what it’s always wanted: John Goodman as an irrefutable sex symbol.
Gemstones has always been absolutely amazing at styling its characters, nailing the weird, perpetually ’80s/’90s vibe that televangelists seem to live in. Eli Gemstone with long hair, living on a houseboat, dating for the first time since the loss of his wife, and lounging in a bathrobe like Goodman’s old buddy from The Big Lebowski represents the kind of casual comfort and ease with one’s self that has widely eluded all of us here in the real world so far in 2025. Retirement Eli is aspirational in a way the Gemstones intend their gaudy, gilded tackiness to be, but has never actually been for most viewers. Not everybody aspires to the grotesque McMansion prosperity of the Gemstones and their South Carolina compound, but who wouldn’t want to live and get laid on a boat? Eli’s got it figured out.
And of course his kids have to come and ruin it for him. That’s what they do, even if they’ve grown to the point where Kelvin (Adam Devine) can openly admit his love for Keefe (Tony Cavalero) and Judy (Edi Patterson) can support her husband BJ (Tim Baltz) and his dream of competitive pole dancing. Like Succession, the driving theme of The Righteous Gemstones has been that the next generation does not have what it takes to take the reins from their wealthy parents—that growing up with the kind of wealth and privilege that their parents didn’t know has fully divorced them from any notion of responsibility or common sense. So it’s no surprise to see Jesse Gemstone (series creator Danny McBride) and his wife Amber (Cassidy Freeman) floundering with another absurd product engineered solely to separate their parishioners from their money. Although really, who wouldn’t want to hole up in their own futuristic, womblike Prayer Pod and binge some Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers? (Yes, Walton Goggins returns as Uncle Baby Billy, somehow fitting Gemstones in alongside his starring roles in The White Lotus and Fallout.)
We don’t know where any of this is headed—other than the end of the series—but we’re damn sure excited to find out. Check out the trailer below and tune in to The Righteous Gemstones on Max and HBO when it returns on March 9.
