I forgot to mention The Righteous Gemstones yesterday. Not sure how the fuck I managed to forget to mention the absolutely BEST tv you’ll see right now. This is pure delight – a greasy, glitter-drenched southern gothic fever dream about televangelist dynasties, righteous dysfunction, and Christian capitalism turned up to 11.
If you haven’t seen it, don’t worry. You’re not late to the party. You’re just fashionably, biblically late, and I’m about to baptise you in the gospel of Judy-Leigh Gemstone.
Judy-Leigh, played by the outrageously brilliant Edi Patterson, is the middle child of the God-fearing, money-grabbing Gemstone family. She is also, and I say this with all the conviction of a Sunday morning sermon, the most unhinged and fucking incredible character on tv right now.
Imagine a woman so desperate to be respected that she’ll verbally eviscerate her entire family during brunch, then cry, then attempt to flash her tits for validation. That’s Judy. She is a hurricane in high heels, a karaoke tyrant, a gifted singer with the stage presence of a Baptist Beyoncé on bath salts. She is 100% that bitch, and she’ll remind you, loudly, until you believe it too.
What makes Judy-Leigh special isn’t just that she’s funny (although she’s devastatingly funny). It’s that she’s allowed to be a full mess – angry, horny, jealous, ambitious, insecure, delusional – and somehow still sympathetic. Edi Patterson walks this tightrope with the grace of a drunk acrobat, swinging wildly between chaos and catharsis with every scene. One minute she’s starting a fistfight at a church picnic, the next she’s giving you a look so raw you forget you’re watching satire.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s a show about what happens when faith, fame, and family collide, and everyone’s too proud or too dumb to steer clear of the wreckage.
But through it all, Judy-Leigh stands out, not just as the best character on the show, but as a high priestess of female rage and hilarity in a tv landscape that too often plays it safe.
She’s the sister who got left out, the woman who wants it all, and the walking reminder that “too much” is sometimes exactly the right amount.
So if you’re tired of watching neat, nice, likable women on TV, do yourself a favour: get Gemstoned. And let Judy-Leigh scream, sing, and slut-strut her way into your soul.
Halle-fucking-lujah.
