INSIDE THIS ISSUE Horoscopes....................................................... 2 Now Streaming................................................. 2 Puzzles............................................................. 4
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Mark Wahlberg starts an ‘Instant Family’
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Long shadow of the past: new season of ‘The Wheel of Time’
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Underwood on Idol: Carrie Underwood speaks on ‘American Idol’ return
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March 08 – March 14, 2025
Closing the ‘Book of Gemstone’: McBride’s dark televangelist comedy ends after four seasons BY DANA SIMPSON Those who worship the Family Gemstone will be happy to hear the good news: they are back at the pulpit again. Donning their best, sparkliest apparel — and, from the looks of the trailer, some feathered angel wings to boot! — the snazzy, southern televangelists return for one final installment of their HBO comedy series as spring arrives. Season 4 of “The Righteous Gemstones” premieres Sunday, March 9, on HBO and Max. A dark, religion-centered comedy, “The Righteous Gemstones” was conceived by Danny McBride and his industry friends when they moved back to Charleston, South Carolina, in 2017. An American actor and filmmaker best known for the baseball comedy series “Eastbound & Down,” the so-called “stoner comedy” “Your Highness” (2011) and most recently for contributing to John Carpenter’s Halloween franchise as a writer, McBride was born in Statesboro, Georgia, and grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia. And although televangelists existed in his periphery as a child, the multi-talented actor says the intricacies and illegalities surrounding much of that world only became apparent to him in adulthood. “I grew up going to church every Sunday, so I’d been to church for years and years of my life,” McBride told CNN near “The Righteous Gemstones’” Season 2 release in 2022. “I know the Bible, I know all the apostles and I know all the
stories, and it was a big part of my childhood growing up. ... And when I moved back to Charleston, I saw all the churches here and it just really kind of got me thinking about church again.” The series follows the Gemstones, a family who has gained wealth, status and (possible) salvation by way of their world-famous megachurch in the southern United States. Dedicating their lives to swindling, scamming and preaching the Lord’s word in all manner of ridiculous ways, the Gemstones are quite contrarian in their approach: greedy but charitable, cutthroat but kindhearted. At the head of the Gemstone family dynasty is Dr. Eli Gemstone, played by Primetime Emmy-winning actor John Goodman (“Rosanne”). The founding father and former head pastor of Gemstone Ministries, Eli is expected to spend much of the series’ fourth and final season aboard his boat as he tries to find the best way forward following the events of Season 3. “We meet [Eli] in a much, much different place than we’ve ever seen him in seasons past,” McBride told GQ in a January 2025 interview. “He’s definitely going through some things in his life and trying to figure out how to take the next steps into whatever lays ahead for him, but because he’s a Gemstone and because his kids are psychopaths, that will not be as easy as it should be.”
Speaking of his psychopath children, Jesse, Kelvin and Judy are played by McBride, Adam Devine (“Workaholics”) and Edi Patterson (“Knives Out,” 2019), respectively. While Jesse, the eldest of Eli’s adult children, has taken on the bulk of the pastoral duties at Gemstones Ministries, his temper and foul mouth have yet to be impacted by his preaching. Of course, other familiar faces will be returning in for the series’ last season, including Walton Goggins (“Justified”) as Baby Billy Freeman, who this season is launching his own TV venture called “TeenJus,” a young adult show about a teenaged Jesus Christ; Tony Cavalero (“School of Rock”) as Keefe Chambers, who has a closer bond than ever with Kelvin in Season 4; Tim Baltz (“Shrink”) as Judy’s husband, BJ; and Cassidy Freeman (“Smallville”) as Amber, Jesse’s faithful wife and mother to his three sons: Gideon (Skyler Gisondo, “The Resort”), Pontius (Kelton DuMont, “Logan,” 2017) and Abraham (Gavin Munn, “Raising Dion”). Greg Alan Williams (“Greenleaf”), Jennifer Nettles (“The Exorcist: Believer,” 2023), James DuMont (“Jarassic World,” 2015), Jody Hill (“Vice Principals”), Troy Hogan (“Friday Night Lights”) and Valyn Hall (“The Internship,” 2013) also return, while Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”), Seann William Scott (“Shifting Gears”) and Arden Myrin (“Insatiable”) join the cast as the Milsap family.
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