TV Review: Moral Orel, Season 1 [Adult Swim]

Every once in a while a show will come along (or a movie, for that matter) that I disregard upon its initial release, only to discover, usually much later and long after the series is over, that it was much different than how I perceived it. From catching the trailer for "Moral Orel" a couple of years ago, I passed it up, thinking it was just an intentionally cheesy animated show from Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's much older brother. And really, how could I be at fault? Just from the trailer (which was for its Christmas episode; ironically, it was the first episode to air, yet produced to be the last one of the season) we get a naive young boy, overenthusiastic about God, claiming that it will be the "best Christmas ever!" Yes, I get it, I thought to myself. It's a spoof of older Christian-themed cartoons. I'll pass on that one.

As it turns out, however, "Moral Orel" is oftentimes depressingly bleak, and sometimes poignant, two words that I never thought I'd find myself using to describe a show on Adult Swim. And I will probably never have to again: It's directly because of the show's depressing nature that it was canceled, right after the completion of its third season. The mix of Orel, a happy-go-lucky 12-year-old boy who strives only to make God happy, with the uncaring, unforgiving world around him, is an often shocking juxtaposition; though it's often played for laughs, there's usually a disturbing undercurrent hidden directly underneath its layer of comedy. It has to be one of the most hard-hitting, thought-provoking shows to ever air on a channel known for taking the thought out of its comedy.

Each episode begins pretty much the same way: Either through the words of local Protestant preacher Reverend Putty, or directly from the mouth of his parents, Orel misunderstands (or takes too literal) how he should make God happy, often leading to funny, if more than a little unsettling, hijinks. For example, in one episode ("Loyalty"), Orel learns that one should be loyal to his/her friends. So when Orel befriends a bully named Joe, he feels that he needs to go along with whatever the bully wants to do. It starts off "innocent" enough, with the kids throwing rocks at cars, but then quickly, and uncomfortably, escalates into beating a couple of gay kids up with baseball bats. In yet other episodes, Orel's misunderstanding leads him to become addicted to alcohol (just like his father) and crack (when he mistakes a drug dealer in an alley for a homeless man).

Every episode ends with Orel being ordered to go to his father's study, where his dad gives him some sort of lecture about what he did wrong, while brandishing an alcoholic beverage in one hand, and a belt in the other. His father's lectures, however, are also misguided, leading one to understand how Orel can misconstrue the Lord's words in the first place (in the aforementioned "Loyalty" episode, his father isn't at all concerned with the fact they beat up the gay kids, instead expressing concern that Orel ignored all his other friends just to hang out with Joe, when he should have invited them to join in, as well). Following this, we are then treated to a little video montage of Orel making a little claymation scene out of his collection of religious action figures over the end credits. These sequences are genuinely cute and often very funny. It's a great final touch that often lessens the dark mood of the episode that preceded it.

On the outside, "Moral Orel" is just a claymation spoof of '50s and '60s sitcoms, but you don't have to dig far to find pointed comments about religion, and the state of mankind in general. The most blatant example of this can be found in the Christmas episode, which is hands-down the most depressing episode of the entire season; after Orel's world slowly crumbles all around him on Christmas Day, Orel still has the utmost faith that God will turn the day around, and somehow make it "the best Christmas ever!' However, the episode ends with the insinuation that nothing of the sort happened. It is the scenes like this that raise the most questions: Is it perhaps also insinuating that God is not there? That Orel is dedicating his entire life to making something happy that does not exist?

The show is definitely not without its flaws. The way in which Orel is constantly misunderstanding Reverend Putty's sermons is also sometimes ridiculous. I know, part of it is because he is twelve, but it often crosses the line into simple common sense, and the end result feels a little tacked-on. Maybe that's the point, but it didn't stop me from eliciting a couple of groans, especially in the earlier episodes. The show's predictable formula also starts to get a little annoying after a little while. Within the first two minutes, you can often tell precisely where the entire episode is headed. But this is a problem inherit of just about every animated show on Adult Swim, as the eleven-minute running time certainly doesn't leave much time in the way of story development.

The writing, by none other than Dino Stamatopolous (best known as one of the writers on the excellent sketch comedy show "Mr. Show") and a couple of other Mr. Show alumni, including Jay Johnston and Scott Adsit, is above par for this kind of animated parody. In the hands of a writing crew with less talent, it could have easily just stuck to being a spoof of old sitcoms, been overly cheesy, and called it a day. If this were the case, it probably still would have been on the air. But the writing on this series takes serious risks, often pushing the comedic aspects farther back in priority to allow for genuine scenes of poignancy, or shocking scenes of despair. The end result is something unlike anything you've ever seen, especially on this channel.

If the second and third seasons prove to be anywhere near as good as this one was, then it will only serve to cement "Moral Orel" as an underrated classic in modern animation; a show that was so fearless and daring, that not even Adult Swim fully understood it, much less knew exactly what to do with it.

Rating: B+