THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES & SUCCESSION - SEASON TWO

THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES

The Righteous Gemstones follows the world famous Gemstone televangelist family, a global TV and arena ministry who fly in private jets, wear ludicrously opulent clothes and live in huge mansions and estates - all while doing the Lord’s work. Their moral rectitude and solid reputations are at risk when eldest brother Jesse is compromised by a blackmailer who threatens to undo all that their family has built – so Jesse sets out to devise a plan to thwart the blackmailers, while attempting to gain the assistance of his siblings, Kelvin (played by Adam Devine) and his sister Judy (Edi Patterson) with whom he has very rocky and difficult relationships. For fans of Danny McBride and his style of comedy, as exemplified by his other HBO comedy shows Vice Principals and East Bound and Down, this is very much in the same vein as those tonally speaking – it’s the same team of writers and directors (David Gordon Green and Jody Hill) and  - it’s also very, very funny. It’s very fertile ground for a comedy and if you’re after some raucous and edgy laughs – get on it. It’s just premiered on Foxtel.

SUCCESSION SEASON 2

I’ve reviewed this before season one premiered - it’s now in its second season. It’s currently on Foxtel on the Showcase channel – The showrunner Jesse Armstrong co-created The Thick of it and Peep Show and wrote a script some years ago called Murdoch….it made ‘The Black List’ (of top un-produced screenplays in Hollywood). He fictionalised it and turned it into Succession. It’s about the fictional Roy family, the dysfunctional owners of a global media empire – run by the family’s overbearing, histrionic and demonic patriarch, Logan Roy (Brian Cox).