Erik Adams
“O C’mon All Ye Faithful” is now streaming on Disney+.
Let’s get something out of the way first. No, The Simpsons isn’t the boundary-pushing, trend-setting, conversation-starting animated sitcom it was at the beginning of the 1990s. That being said, the iconic animated comedy has found ways to stay entertaining for three and a half decades, like experimenting with its format by doing more horror episodes outside of the annual Treehouse of Horror anthology and noncanonical episodes like the fantastic “A Serious Flanders.” It’s fitting, then, that for its 35th anniversary, The Simpsons would go back to where it all began – a Christmas special – and hit the yuletide jackpot all over again.
In “O C’mon All Ye Faithful,” British mentalist Darren Brown visits Springfield to try and bring the Christmas spirit back to the town. Unfortunately, things go awry when Brown hypnotizes Homer in an attempt to make him a better gift-giver and ends up making him believe he is Santa Claus. Guest stars on The Simpsons can be very hit or miss, but one of the big surprises of “O C’mon All Ye Faithful,” is how well used Brown is. Not only is he a good enough voice actor (he never sounds like just another celebrity doing the self-promotion rounds), but his character fits within the world of the show as just another out-of-town weirdo trying to capitalize on the established characters’ goodwill. Brown is not a distracting presence, and if you have no idea who he is, you’d be excused for thinking he’s just another Lyle Lanley trying to trick the town with a rather elaborate con.
Though The Simpsons has done two-part episodes in the past, Disney is advertising “O C’mon All Ye Faithful” as the series’ first double episode. That in itself is a bit of a ruse: This is 43 minutes of The Simpsons neatly divided into two parts. The first is all about Brown accidentally making Homer believe he’s Santa. It’s a clever, funny, and heartfelt story where Homer actually brings joy to Springfield before things quickly spiral out of control and the town turns the holiday into a nightmarish, cultish tribute to jolly old Father Christmas.
It’s just the kind of silly and cartoony scenario The Simpsons continues to do well, one that never loses sight of an essential truth: Homer may be an idiot, but he’s a well-meaning idiot who genuinely loves his family. He (surprisingly) doesn’t go mad with power once the town is convinced he’s Santa, because all he wants is just to bring joy to people and to give almost magically thoughtful gifts. The special’s best gag involves Homer giving Smithers a thimble, which he then gives to an overenthusiastic Mr. Burns who is so ecstatic over the gift that his Grinch heart grows three sizes… and sends him to the ER for an emergency cardiac reduction.
The second half of the special involves Ned Flanders connecting the dots between cults and his own beliefs and giving up on religion. This is the real meat of the story, which is less of a comical series of Springfield shenanigans and more of a classic American Christmas story about finding the meaning (both the secular and religious one) of the holidays. Flanders has had crises of faith before, but not like this, because this time he doesn’t just stop believing in God – he stops believing in hell and eternal punishment, too. This throws him over the edge, destroying his identity as well as those of his sons, Rod and Todd. Overnight, Flanders goes from keeping a bible in his medicine cabinet to actually using the space for its intended purpose (keep your eyes out for “Better Than Prayer” Aspirin), while the kids quickly go from not wanting toys for Christmas to trading threats like “I’ll Cain-and-Abel you in your sleep.”
Flanders’ crisis of faith comes from a poignant place: the loss of his two wives, Maude and Edna. It’s part of the nature of this show and its floating timeline that the past doesn’t really exist for the characters; The Simpsons rarely references things that happened prior to the current episode, because that’d mean time marches forward – and the show can’t. When we do get these types of references, it’s usually part of a joke – like Homer recounting past jobs or international incidents involving the family – rather than an acknowledgement of dead characters. When Flanders starts talking about how he keeps putting on Post-it notes in the bathroom because Maude liked that, or how he still sends silly text messages to Edna, it comes across as one of the most emotional things The Simpsons has attempted in years. It works in no small part due to Harry Shearer’s performance. After 35 years of The Simpsons, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of the performances aren’t as good as they used to be. Actors age, or they become less enthusiastic about the job. Here, however, we get the rawest Flanders has been since his snap in season 8’s “Hurricane Neddy,” a breakdown not of anger, but of the soul, a story of pure heartbreak that Shearer captures beautifully.
During Flanders’ crisis, it’s not Reverend Lovejoy – the spokesman for corporate, mindless faith – who comes to help, but rather Professor Frink, bringing with him an appreciation for the underwater world (and a great joke about the danger of deep-diving submarines). Though there’s no doubt that Flanders will eventually rekindle his faith, it’s nevertheless nice to see that the writers remembered Lisa’s Buddhist beliefs and has them come into play in the special, whose message is ultimately about appreciating the beauty of a world defined by randomness.
Verdict:
Score: 8
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