The dynasty atop HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones” spent four seasons disseminating a breathless reign of debaucherous, selfish and hysterically ungodly behavior from the pulpit of their South Carolina megachurch.
Every time it seemed like Jesse (co-creator Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam Devine) had plumbed the depths of their moral caverns, they managed to dig deeper in their childlike pursuit of fame and fortune — all for God, of course. Yet, this critical darling only managed to earn four Emmy nominations for its first three seasons. Mercifully, its final season changed that trajectory with six below-the-line nominations: cinematography, music supervision, sound editing, stunt coordination, contemporary costumes and period makeup.
While it never broke into the top categories, the strong showing for Season 4 proves the Television Academy has been paying attention to the wild swings the series took, specifically its Civil War-set Season 4 premiere. Telling the story of the Gemstones’ crooked ancestor Elijah (Bradley Cooper), the thrice-nominated episode is a complete departure from everything that came before and after it.
“It was always the monster episode,” says Emmy-nominated cinematographer Paul Daley. To create the righteous battlefield of Elijah’s awakening, Daley leaned on the classics, including John Ford Westerns and epics like “Glory.” He even put the film through a bleach bypass to give it the look of days gone by with more highlights, lowlights and contrast.
But no matter what Daley did in or out of the camera, it was the South Carolina summer conditions — and immaculate production design — that made it feel real. “We’re on that set, in that campsite, for days. You’re traveling through the woods, rainstorms, 100-degree days, 95% humidity. You’re in it, so it really wasn’t a hard sell to feel in that environment.”
Conversely, both costume designer Christina Flannery and music supervisor DeVoe Yates earned nods for the second episode, which hard cuts back to the Gemstones as they reap the benefits of Elijah’s decisions 160 years later. In the episode, they stage an annual telethon in honor of their late mother’s birthday, bringing the entire family back together.
The music, including an incredibly chaotic number that bookends the episode with the main trio taking flight in jetpacks, had to be written and choreographed to the second. For Yates, the episode’s music is some of the show’s best, but also the most jarringly Gemstone.
“I think part of it was just that you’re thrown back in the chaos,” he says. “You see everybody all at once again. Everybody you’ve loved is there and they’re all doing this crazy, giant musical number. It’s scripted in terms of how things start to go haywire, and the songs build towards those moments.”
It’s all perfectly attuned to the chaos of the Gemstones, right down to the clothes they wear for this swan song. In the musical number, the siblings don elaborate angel wings that are too boastful to be holy. Flannery says they had to be shipped in from Ukraine and almost didn’t arrive in time. But bigger and dangerously unpredictable has always been the motto for the Gemstones, even in a moment of family crisis. When the siblings go to retrieve their father (John Goodman) from a self-imposed exile on a fishing boat in Florida, their choice of marine attire carries with it a very intentional visual reference.
“The uniforms that Scientologists wear in Sea Org, that’s what I was referencing,” Flannery says. “Judy kind of looks a little bit like Olive Oyl. Jesse still somehow looks like Elvis and Kelvin’s wearing a cape, so he still has that kind of feminine aspect and over-the-top theatrical moment. It’s just about going for it because it is so stupid and so funny, and it worked.”
