The righteous gems is extremely committed to being a family show, and equally committed to being the least family-friendly show on television. Usually this means a bunch of colorful swear words spiced up 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 stores and clear out their inventory (trying to get them out of the store ). business by getting them lots of business).
Creator Danny McBride is about as serious about making a dick joke as Tom Cruise is about jumping out of planes in Mission: Impossible. To take the Mission: Impossible metaphor even further, the Burj Khalifa of The righteous gems season 3 is an extended frontal fight scene with a pissed off naked man.
In the current season The righteous gems finally gives BJ Barnes (Tim Baltz), the shy husband of Judy Gemstone (Edi Patterson), his time to shine. He asserts himself more and enjoys his new job as a tour guide at the Gemstones’ megachurch campus, and tries to straighten out his crumbling marriage with Judy. Meanwhile, Judy has an affair with Stephen (Stephen Schneider), a musician on her gospel music tour with whom she regularly kisses.
Photo: Jake Giles Netter/HBO
According to Baltz and Patterson, this is the emotional core that The righteous gems always takes seriously, and the reason why you can build a brawl between BJ and a naked Stephen and make it both 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 in spite of that, and this pushes it to a point that really tests that love and that commitment, and forces them both to go to look at the relationship and understand who they are, you know And like any couple going through that, ask yourself in a very real, kind of naked way, what do we have to do to get back from this?
“It was ultimately very important and great for me that it is never ever that Judy doesn’t like BJ,” adds Patterson, who also writes on the show. ‘She’s ordinary ruined.”
This culminates in this week’s showdown where BJ, after some coaching and loaner brass knuckles from Jesse (McBride), goes to Stephen’s house to beat him up. But classic Gems fashion, a moment of toxic catharsis turns into a parade of humiliation, as BJ walks in to find Stephen buck-ass naked in bed, masturbating furiously. Stephen then beats him up.
Photo: Jake Giles Netter/HBO
The fight is both a straight-up raunch, making sure Stephen’s genitals are in focus whenever possible, but also a well-choreographed brawl that Baltz really had to pump himself up for.
“That flight scene was the last two days for me this season, so we’re building towards it all the time,” says Baltz. “I was training, I would talk to the director and the stunt coordinator. So I felt really prepared to go into it and thankful it was the latter, but it’s no less intense.
Baltz and Schneider were backed up by a stunt team, and Baltz—a comedic actor who had never really done a fight scene—was assured that his stuntman would do the hardest things.
“But you also have to take a lot of those blows!” Baltz says. “And they prepare you for it. But you know, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth – and me Certainly got punched in the mouth.”
And luckily for him, he wasn’t naked in the fight.
“I wish it had been a little warmer,” says Baltz. “Not just for me, but also for Stephen.”