After decades of Christmas themed episodes of “The Simpsons” and half a dozen original shorts on Disney+, this year, 20th Television is doing something a little different with an extended double episode length Christmas special, called “O C’mon All Ye Faithful”.

In this episode, things go awry when British mentalist Derren Brown comes to Springfield. Homer gets hypnotized and believes he is Santa Claus, setting off a cheery chain reaction through town, which you’d expect from the residents since they generally get carried away very quickly as they are all very easily swayed.

This also sets off a secondary storyline involving Ned Flanders, which is very interesting to see after all these years, with him questioning his faith but also how that impacts his children.  It’s also nice to see Bart trying his best to help, in his unorthodox way.

The special, released to mark the 35th anniversary of the original Christmas special, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” explores what it means to believe.

As you might expect, this feels like a typical Christmas episode of “The Simpsons,” but at over 40 minutes long, it has a little more time to explore the impact of the initial story. It certainly feels like this could have been two separate episodes originally, but I enjoyed having that little more time without it getting boring, but I do wonder if younger audiences might not be as interested in this storyline.

“O C’mon All Ye Faithful” marks an interesting step forward for “The Simpsons” into a new era of streaming and follows what we’ve seen from the recent “South Park” specials, which seemed to have found a loophole to get around long-standing agreements with traditional broadcasters. This is a fantastic move forward for Disney+; rather than offering two-minute shorts with no speech, this is more than a traditional episode, and I hope we see more of this in the future.

One aspect of the show I really enjoyed was the addition of the special guest, British illusionist Derren Brown. He was a perfect way to bridge the two stories, and as a fan of his shows, it was cool having the odd little British gag in there to entertain.  There were plenty of gags here and there through the special, but it certainly could have done with a few more.

Overall: “O C’mon All Ye Faithful” is a fun Christmas episode that delivers two different stories, with lots of input from all the different characters you know. If you haven’t watched “The Simpsons” in years (like myself), it is a great special to jump in on and get that typical “Simpsons” feeling.  After over seven hundred episodes of “The Simpsons”, it is always hard to do something new, but I think this could be an excellent format for Disney to explore more in the future, rather than just churning out season after season. 

Rating – 4 Out Of 5

“The Simpsons: O C’mon All Ye Faithful” is coming to Disney+ On December 17th 2024.

Are you looking forward to watching this new special episode of “The Simpsons”? Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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