Stash your money, the Mighty Gemstones (OCS) are back!

This is the other side of “Succession”, the series that has unleashed passions this year. The starting point is a priori similar: these are also the adventures of a family of American millionaires headed by a powerful patriarch who gave birth to a family of degenerates dreaming only of dethroning him. So much for the common base. With one huge difference, however, these are not New York media moguls busy making takeovers, but televangelical pastors from the American South. Above all, the series “The Righteous Gemstones” (OCS) does not aim to denounce the impunity of the powerful but to make fun of them until they choke on laughter. In recent years, it has become the trademark of the creations of actor Danny McBride, the originator of the program and who, after playing a baseball player with an oversized ego in the delirious “Kenny Powers” and a paranoid vice-principal in the comical “Vice-Principals”, plays the eldest son of Eli Gemstone (John Goodman), the family’s head preacher.

For season 2, the creator of the program has decided to force the line a little more. This time, the Gemstone family no longer faces sex tape blackmail and purists of the Catholic religion, but rather a part of its members who, in order to take power, are ready to join forces with competing televangelists. Weakened, aging, will pastor Eli Gemstone hold up when a ghost from the past appears determined to make devastating revelations about his origins? It’s all the madness of the deep south of the United States that is once again summoned by the series: Christian rock, wrestling matches, Texas violence, masculinist sect, real estate scams and even a gang of assassins perched on motorcycles. cross… As often with Danny McBride, the load is limitless and the vulgarity at its maximum. Behind the bursts of laughter, the spectator gradually discovers a subversive criticism of the cult of money by pastors. Huge villas, gleaming 4x4s, ridiculous costumes and jewellery, dubious investments… We see them getting rich from not knowing what to do with it, thanks to the credulity of their public.

This season really takes off with the return to the screen of McBride’s alter-ego Walton Goggins. The understanding and the madness at the center of their duo are reminiscent of those of actors Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in the cinema. We also remember the arrival of a New York investigative reporter in the person of Jason Schwartzman, the role given to Eric Roberts, pillar of American B movies and the appearance of Joe Jonas, one of the members of the group The Jonas Brothers, who plays… himself. In other words, a hellish cast that allows all the actors to let go completely when they swing the punchlines of McBride’s team. Of course, this “southern” frenzy – the accents of the actors are worth the detour – is not intended for all audiences. For lovers of American culture, fans of Hara-Kiri and anti-clerical humour, it is on the other hand blessed bread. Others will see behind the giggles a denunciation of the violence of American consumerism. Tackle most of America’s obsessions in one set, the Gemstones have done it!

“The Righteous Gemstones” is available on OCS with CANAL+.