Lest we forget the titular Gemstone family of HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones has had a rough and tumble past, series creator Danny McBride dropped a reminder with Sunday's “Prelude,” a flashback (waay back) story that kicks off the religion and family satire’s fourth and final season.

It’s a unique, but fantastic way to begin the ending, but it’s also a bold move to choose to show a season premiere that features none of the regular Gemstones characters we know and are completely fascinated/horrified/tickled by. No Eli (John Goodman), Jesse (McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson), Kelvin (Adam Devine), Uncle Baby Billy (Walton Goggins), and the rest of the Gemstone fam appear in the Civil War-set page out of the family’s history book.

Which is why multi-Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper ended up in the Gemstones stomping grounds of South Carolina, playing a bad dude who steals...