The Righteous Gemstones: Praise the Lord and give us your cash — it’s time for Bible-bashing satire

There’s a line in Alan Partridge’s Alpha Papa about the hierarchy of religious satire.

When his radio sidekick Simon cracks a near-to-the-knuckle joke, Partridge rebukes him off air: “Never criticise Muslims. Only Christians — and Jews a little bit.”

And so we come to HBO comedy The Righteous Gemstones and its fair-game target: a family of zealous Christian televangelists from Carolina.

The show is written by Danny McBride (Vice Principals), who also stars as Jesse Gemstone, the corrupt eldest son of a patriarchal religious dynasty led by preacher Dr Eli Gemstone (John Goodman).

The family is supremely wealthy thanks to Eli and his late wife Aimee-Leigh’s careers as television preachers, with a chain of stadium-sized super churches and fleet of private jets called Father, Son and Holy Spirit to their name. A sign outside the lavish family compound reads: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, followed by “no trespassing”.

With a premise ripe with comic potential and a seasoned cast (Modern Family’s Adam DeVine plays youngest son Kelvin), it should be a brilliant satirical skewering of extreme Bible Belt zealotry. So it’s a shame the comedy never really takes off.

There are moments of excellence — including a very funny opening sequence at a mass baptism in China when someone accidentally switches on the wave machine — but the comic potential isn’t mined as hard as it could be and the punches feel too broad.

One thing the opening episode does makes clear is that behind all the hallelujahs, this is a family which has left its moral compass in the back of a luxury SUV.

Returning from a mass baptism, Jesse is alarmed to receive a piece of video footage capturing him in the midst of a drug-fuelled orgy. If he doesn’t come up with $1 million by Sunday, an anonymous blackmailer will leak the footage to the press.

Meanwhile, the family’s decision to open yet another superchurch is drawing anger from a group of pastors worried about losing their congregations. John Goodman — very much the comedy’s straight man — dismisses them in the manner of an all-powerful mafia boss. Cassidy Freeman is particularly good as Jesse’s passive-aggressive wife Amber, rebuffing criticism with a catch-all “that’s the devil in you talking”.