Amanda Seyfried & Aaron Paul’s Darker 53-Episode Version Of The Righteous Gemstones Deserves To Be Binged

Published Oct 19, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel. There's a 53-episode drama series from 2006 that's a little like a darker version of The Righteous Gemstones, except with Aaron Paul and Amanda Seyfried instead of Edi Patterson and Adam Devine. The Righteous Gemstones is the third HBO comedy collaboration between Danny McBride and Jody Hill after Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals. Uproariously funny and demented, as you would expect, The Righteous Gemstones aims at televangelists, picking and pulling apart the American institution. McBride stars alongside Patterson, Devine, John Goodman, Walton Goggins, and more as a family of power-hungry preachers always looking for a new way to make money. Before this dark comedy ever aired, there was another HBO TV series that tackled a specifically American flavor of organized religion. Big Love ran for five seasons and 53 episodes between 2006 and 2011. The series stars Bill Paxton as Bill Henrickson, the patriarch of a fundamentalist Mormon family in present-day Utah. The Henricksons are polygamous, meaning they marry multiple spouses. The practice was a tenet of the original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the church no longer recognizes the practice, and polygamy is illegal in the United States, making the Henricksons lawbreakers and outsiders among even those within their own religion. Bill is married to three women at the start of the series, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin, and the polyamorous group has seven children between them. Much of the drama in Big Love comes from the tension of this non-traditional family, and their attempts to blend in with the rest of the modern world. HBO’s Big Love Is Like A Darker Version Of The Righteous Gemstones Credit: MovieStillsDB Despite the more comedic tone of The Righteous Gemstones, the show has a lot in common thematically with Big Love. Both series explore a very uniquely American religious phenomenon. While televangelism and the Mormon religion are not restricted to the United States, they are no doubt more of a fabric of our culture than they are in the other places they appear. Both shows balance the absurdity of their premises with a surprising amount of care and pathos. The Righteous Gemstones leans more comedic, but Big Love never pretends that what it's about isn't, at the very least, quirky. The series know what they are dealing with, and the story and characters behave appropriately. The Righteous Gemstones and Big Love are both afflicted by the same problems as well, with middle seasons that meander. In The Righteous Gemstones' case, it has humor to fall back on. The heavier drama in Big Love means that when the show becomes unfocused, it can be harder to get a handle on things. Big Love Has One Of HBO’s Best Casts Credit: MovieStillsDB When Big Love is unfocused, we also lose out on seeing the best of one of TV's greatest casts. Big Love features a staggering amount of stars and acting veterans you wouldn't always expect to see on screen together. Along with the four main characters, you have Amanda Seyfried and Aaron Paul, just a few years before Breaking Bad. Other notable cast members include Melora Walters, Daveigh Chase, Bruce Dern, Harry Dean Stanton, Patrick Fabian, Sissy Spacek, and Robert Patrick, just to name a few. Big Love is specifically set in modern times, and the ensemble of recognizable faces goes a long way to making the show feel real. Release Date 2006 - 2011-00-00 Network HBO Max Directors David Petrarca, Daniel Attias, Adam Davidson, Michael Lehmann, Jim McKay, Julian Farino, Charles McDougall, Alan Poul, Michael Spiller, Daniel Minahan, John Strickland, Mary Harron, Alan Taylor, Rodrigo García, Sarah Pia Anderson, Steve Shill, Tom Vaughan Writers Alexa Junge, David Manson, Paul Redford Cast Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin, Amanda Seyfried, Douglas Smith, Grace Zabriskie, Mary Kay Place, Matt Ross, Cassi Thomson, Shawn Doyle, Mireille Enos Creator(s) Mark V. Olsen, Will Scheffer