Moral Orel is a hell of a ride. Dino Stamatopoulos’ clay-animation masterpiece was a show that was hilarious most of the time, and when it wanted to tug at your heartstrings or disturb the hell out of you it knew just how to do it. Its third season is a spectacular 13-episode batch that was cut short and was emotionally draining and beautiful. The show made a jump from a comedy with a formula of Orel doing something he thinks is right, misinterpreted from sermons– or stories about the consequences of those things– to a dark comedy-drama that focused on everyone in town once season two’s finale and season three hit.
Early on, though, Moral Orel showed signs of what was to come, especially in season one’s The Best Christmas Ever. Oddly aired as the series premiere and a Christmas special on Adult Swim, it actually ties up a lot of loose ends from the season that was supposed to come before it and it ends in a sad cliffhanger that would itself be tied up in season two.
In the episode, Orel, after a series of misunderstandings and an assumption that perhaps Jesus is back, begins to believe his brother, Shapey, is actually the second coming. He begins to bring Shapey around and give him gifts (such as a gift certificate to Pizza Joe’s, as advertised all around Moralton in the episode with a jingle: “if the Lord were alive today, what would you give him this Christmas? What do you give someone who has everything and more?”) and do what he wants to do (like destroy the church’s Nativity scene) to appease him. We find out, though, that Shapey, of course, isn’t the second coming at all, but the result of an affair Bloberta had with someone we would one day find out was Coach Stopframe, and she plans on divorcing Clay, shattering Orel’s family. She gets a call from Reverend Putty to come pick up the boys from the destroyed Nativity scene, and tells Orel about the divorce and leaves him alone to go find Clay, drinking away his sorrows at the bar.
All of this is a sign of things to come. The clip above is the last scene in the episode, where Bloberta lets Orel know about the divorce and he finds Clay at a bar. He hopes that God can still make the day the best Christmas ever, and is left staring into the sky, hoping for something good to happen in two minutes. It’s a surprisingly solemn end to the episode, one that most saw as their first glimpse of Moral Orel. It’s a good show of the emotional range this show had. From the upbeat highs of season one’s adventures with Orel, to the dark lows of season three’s tales of the townspeople. And this is brilliant, because it’s refreshing to have a good animated show have an element of drama that really works perfectly, especially on a network like Adult Swim where any and all drama comes from the anime.
This has become, for me, a staple for the holiday, ever since I got into the show. It’s not the happiest of Christmas episodes, but it’s one of the best Christmas episodes one could watch. It’s an emotional ride. It’s pretty dang funny, and then it’s just a perfect amount of sad. I love it. Perhaps you will too. Check it out if you never have.
And watch Moral Orel. All of it. It’s one of the best shows Adult Swim has ever had to offer, and season three is an absolutely incredible season of television. Watch it.
Ho ho ho.
