The Righteous Gemstones made Tim Baltz fight a naked man to become a better person
The Righteous Gemstonesis extremely dedicated to being a family show, and equally dedicated to being the least family-friendly show on television. Usually, this means heaps of colorful cussin’ seasoned with a bit of comedic nudity, or an ongoing plot where the Gemstone youth ministry forms a task force called the Smut Busters to raid porn shops and clear out their inventory (trying to put them out of business by giving them lots of business).
Creator Danny McBride is about as serious about crafting a dick joke as Tom Cruise is at jumping out of airplanes in Mission: Impossible. To extend the Mission: Impossible metaphor further, the Burj Khalifa of The Righteous Gemstones season 3 is an extended full-frontal fight scene with a pissed-off naked man.
In the current season, The Righteous Gemstones is finally giving BJ Barnes (Tim Baltz), the timid husband of Judy Gemstone (Edi Patterson), his time to shine. He’s asserting himself more and relishing his new job as a tour guide at the Gemstones’ megachurch campus, and trying to sort out his crumbling marriage to Judy. Judy, meanwhile, is having an affair with Stephen (Stephen Schneider), a musician on her gospel music tour that she regularly makes out with.
According to Baltz and Patterson, this is the emotional core that The Righteous Gemstones always takes seriously, and the reason why you can build to a brawl between BJ and a naked Stephen and have it both be funny and resonant.
“There’s a lot of emotional turmoil for our two characters,” says Baltz. “And I think BJ has always looked at Judy and understood her flaws or imperfections and loves her despite that, and this pushes it to a point that really tests that love and that commitment, and forces both of them to look
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