Beforel Orel: Trust

Moral Orel is, by such an insane margin, the best show I’ve ever watched. The way Dino completely sets you at ease with the first season—everything being an irreverent, funny hyperbole of “kids will be kids”—then ruins the picture of comfort and fun with the season finale is phenomenally done. Season two tries to go back to that shallow ‘there’s no serious problems here’ vibe, but the despair of season one’s finale underlies the entire thing, until we get to the finale of season two, and you’re gutturally destroyed. Season three just hurts in the most beautifully real way. The build-up of this show—the slow pull back on the comedic, light-hearted drapes—does a perfect job of making the commentary and despair feel real and devastatingly hard-hitting.  The Bible Belt commentary throughout the entire show is masterfully done, the humor being simultaneously fun and critical, and holy shit… the characters?? Best character portrayals ever in this show, with each person having serious flaws but also valid reasoning for those flaws, making it hard to deem anyone purely bad or purely good (except our dear Morel, of course). The claymation is such a clever means of portraying this story, setting you up for the nostalgia and Christian-centric plots of the late 1900’s family movies, then completely destroying those expectations with a depressing, controversial, and real breakdown of religion, family dynamics, and the inevitability of our loss of innocence.   I truly cannot recommend this show enough. And while Adult Swim has some fantastic shows, I’ll never forgive them for cancelling Moral Orel. As others have said, this show walked so shows like Bojack Horseman could run. It was well beyond its time, giving audiences a reflection of themselves that they weren’t quite ready to face. Bring Moral Orel back :(