Rent Moral Orel (2008)

Moral Orel review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Moral Orel had perhaps one of the wildest transformations as a parody of the claymation Christian classic Davey & Goliath that quickly transformed into a pitch-black dark comedy. The episodes have a familiar pattern similar to the Davey & Goliath formula. The young boy Orel would have a question about life and how it related to faith. He would then misinterpret the lessons of his parents and the Bible, leading to hijinks. His father would then discipline him. However, it’s the way this formula proceeds that is darkly comedic.

Orel gets his advice from repressed, depressed, and mentally unstable adults in his community. His father is an alcoholic misogynist, his coach a closeted homosexual, his reverend a bitter man who can’t get laid, and his mother a sexually repressed woman. They all steer him in a vague direction of good advice that is so vague it leaves room for error. This brings about Orel’s troublesome manners of reading adults. It often leads him down roads of taking drugs, impregnating women (yes, really), and even committing violent and racist actions. And since his actions are all posed in the framework of doing the Lord’s bidding, he only receives a spanking from his father (implied by Orel pulling up his pants during the final scene of each episode) and his belt-less father delivering a clunky moral message more about obedience than anything ethical.

The first season ends on a rather bitter note, where Orel’s parents are ready to divorce when the father finds out Orel’s brother wasn’t his own. All of this happens on Christmas where Orel believes that his brother is really the messiah. His parents don’t have the heart to discipline him, leaving him out in the cold. Orel, believing in miracles on Christmas, prays that something good will happen in the remaining minutes of the holiday. Nothing good happens. Nothing happens at all. Life just goes on.

Season two is where things really hit their darkest level. Sure, the season starts innocent enough by continuing Orel’s many misunderstandings. This prompts some of Orel’s more concerning takes on dogma and evolution. Towards the end of the season, Orel commits an act so aggravating that Orel’s father, Clay, feels he has to do something extra-disciplinary. To teach Orel more about life, he feels a hunting trip is in order. However, the trip does not exactly go according to plan. Orel can’t bring himself to kill another animal, angering Clay. Later, Clay drinks an abundant amount of booze that causes him to become more direct, hateful, and nihilistic around his son. Even worse, Clay shoots his own son, leaving him to defend himself in the night from a bear. When Clay awakes the next morning he denies having shot Orel and a bitter Orel finds himself more distrustful and hateful of his father.

And then season three comes about to stop becoming a comedy for the most part and instead transform into a dark commentary on repressive emotions and religious excuses. Characters are explored for their dark secrets and hidden vices, some of them reconnecting with others they have pushed away while others are still tortured by their tragic past. Love is confessed and love is lost, as characters who were once such one-note jokes are given a surprising amount of depth. Despite this seeming to bring Orel’s to a lot of bitter conclusions, the ultimate resolution is surprisingly bittersweet and finds the good-intentioned Orel coming out okay on the other end.

I can’t honestly say I’ve seen another Adult Swim show have such a transformation. Their animated series always seem to fall back on the comedy of apathy but Moral Orel digs a little deeper in its charming claymation to find something more than just easy religious jokes. There’s a heart present in this satire you just don’t seem as prominent in most Adult Swim programs, making this is easily one of the must-watch shows of the block.