The Righteous Gemstones’ Ungodly McMansions Will Redeem You From Luxury TV Overload

Patriarch preacher Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) is of relatively new money, having established a Joel Osteen–esque empire with his late wife Aimee-Leigh in the past several decades. His manse leans more traditional, though it comes with its fair share of grand gauche elements, like a gratuitous memorial garden and a megawatt gold front door. In tracing the roots of the Gemstone look, “you could google ‘new money decoration’ to be as baseline as that, but then also there’s a little pantheon of people that we referred to,” set decorator Patrick Cassidy says, citing famous megachurch power couples like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Jimmy and Frances Swaggart as some real-life figures in whose image the Gemstones were made.

Jesse Gemstone’s house

Eli’s three children maintain their own estates on the family’s South Carolina compound, and their respective dwellings are where the show’s delightfully tacky design truly shines through. While neither of the megachurch founder’s two adult failsons seem a fitting choice for Eli’s successor, Jesse Gemstone (played by show creator Danny McBride) is the eldest and sees himself stepping into his father’s shoes as head of the congregation, which is illustrated in his home’s design. Jesse’s desire to be regarded as a powerful alpha male manifests in features meant to shout his wealth and importance from the pad’s rooftop, literally.

“He wants to be respected. He’s always just like, ‘Wait, why am I not in charge?’ Obviously he’s ready to take the throne,” production designer Richard Wright tells AD, noting that Jesse’s home nods to his father’s aesthetic but with a more contemporary bent. “Jesse’s house is one of my favorite exteriors because it has so many weird features that are unclear why they’re there, all sorts of cupolas and points. It’s a pretty detailed McMansion design.”

The cavernous residence’s ornate interior flourishes are meant to signify well-to-do status, but not refined taste.

Photo: Courtesy HBO

Judy Gemstone’s house

For the Gemstone brood’s only daughter, Judy (Edi Patterson), a more coherently inelegant vision takes shape: “Judy for me was the angriest little rich girl who made the most money in the world: ultrafeminine, a lot of pink and icy blues,” Cassidy says. It’s tough to pick favorite features between the throw pillows emblazoned with Magic Photo glamour shots of herself and husband BJ (Tim Baltz) and taxidermy arranged in action poses, but the explicit painting of Judy and BJ as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden—nude and pictured with the forbidden fruit, no less—makes a bold, if blasphemous, decorative statement from its station above the fireplace.