TV Review: The Santa Clauses Episodes 1 & 2
I grew up with The Santa Clause as a well-made, solid addition to the Christmas family movie repertoire. With The Santa Clause in 1994 and The Santa Clause 2 in 2002, I was hooked- though admittedly grown out of it by 2006 when The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause came out. So when I heard that they were making a new TV series for Disney+, The Santa Clauses, my nostalgia-filled self was cautiously optimistic.
Tim Allen is back- with some odd-looking makeup that makes him look almost as eerily plastic as the toy Santa in the second movie, along with Elizabeth Mitchell in the role of Mrs. Clause. The pregnancy of Mrs. Clause was a major plot point in the third movie, so in this new show we see that they ended up having two children, Buddy/Cal and Sandra. Buddy was given his name at the end of the third movie but they have only called him Cal so far in the show, so I’m assuming that he doesn’t like his given name and is going by a shortened version of Calvin. Eric Lloyd does return as grown-up Charlie in Episode 2, but only to explain why he’s unfortunately not going to be a part of the larger plot of the show. (It really is too bad that he’s not a major character because he was my favorite part of the first two movies.) Matilda Lawler plays new Head Elf Betty, and it’s not yet clear how they may bring back previous Head Elf Bernard as they’ve teased in the promo.
The Santa Clause movies as a whole are intentionally very corny and silly, purely family-friendly fare, but the first episode of this new show really laid that corniness on thick. The introductory episode was doing so many things- welcoming back Santa and Mrs. Claus, introducing their two children, introducing an entire new cast of elves, introducing a father/daughter duo that may end up being the solution to Santa losing his magic, keeping the naughty/nice list relevant for modern preferences- that the silliness seemed unusually over the top and therefore a bit irritating. I think what really got to me the most was the characterizations of Cal and Sandra as extremely cloistered and therefore void of almost any personality.
The reception by Santa of one elf’s criticism of the naughty and nice list seemed to me to be on the side of right-wing politicians and media making fun of the “woke” culture they perceive the left to have, so the tone was upsetting. Considering Tim Allen’s history with conservative ideals and misogynistic portrayals, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was given too much creative control in this scene. The creators seem to really understand that they need diversity since they have more elves played by POC, and yet the dialogue pokes fun at being respectful. It was wise to drop two episodes to start with because I don’t think I would have been very compelled to keep watching after the first episode otherwise.
Fortunately, I think the show is starting to find its feet in Episode 2. Cal and Sandra have some personality after all! And we get to know some of the prominent elves better, Mrs. Claus is retaking creative control over her own personhood, and the father/daughter (Simon and Grace) thread is beginning to take proper shape. Since Simon and Grace were taken to the North Pole in the last scene of Episode 2, it seems that Simon may be trained as a replacement to Santa, which would also help Simon’s struggling shipping business. But even though their collaboration may be a temporary fix, I don’t think that Simon will end up becoming Santa fully, or at least not permanently. When we finally got a peek of Cal’s real personality in this episode, as well as a couple instances of him having magical Santa tendencies, I think the season will end with Cal taking on the helm. The show is currently billed as a limited series, so they probably won’t decide on a Season 2 until they see how this first season does, which makes me think that if Cal as Santa is endgame, they may implement that in the final episode of this season and then a potential second season could cover his new reign as Santa.
I remain cautiously optimistic for the rest of the season. I’m not so sure about Tim Allen’s leadership, but the other actors are pretty good, so hopefully they’ll balance him out. If they do essentially end up relaunching the series with Cal as the new Santa, then that change may be for the better. So far, the second and third movies have ridden on the success of the first movie, which is arguably the best one. But that model can’t hold up forever if they want to continue this franchise, so a fresh face is vital. We have four more episodes to go in this season, concluding on December 14, so we won’t have long to wait to see how it all ends.