TV Review: The Santa Clauses Episode 4
The Christmas spirit is year-round now thanks to new Santa Simon’s business venture to make it “Christmas Every Day.” The elves are now delivering gifts every day but it’s a little confusing with how it works. Simon’s “Everything Now” business is still running but doing less than before since the Christmas delivery service is cutting into their sales, which he seems to be ok with. The Christmas service is currently free of charge but Simon wants to change that soon since he’s apparently turning greedy. I thought maybe he was using the Christmas service for his “Everything Now” business but they seem separate so I’m not sure how he’s running both. I’m also not sure how the gifts are getting delivered with the Christmas service since he’s not doing the deliveries himself and I don’t think the reindeer are either.
Santa Simon is clearly starting to turn evil and I don’t like the progression. I can understand his urge to turn Christmas into something like a new business venture because that’s his background, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he would be evil by doing so. He interfered in someone’s marriage, fired Head Elf Betty, and doesn’t care that elves are literally disappearing into thin air. But that level of bad seems a bit extreme even for a businessman. I would be fine with him being misguided, but I don’t really like how they’re turning him into a villain.
The Calvins are adjusting to normal life, with Scott having the most difficulty no longer being head honcho and center stage. I’m very happy to see Carol thriving in a new principal post since she really felt like a side-show as Mrs. Clause, so I really hope that whatever plan they have to restore Christmas doesn’t take her away from that. Cal and Sandra are learning how to be normal teenagers and it seems to be a huge benefit to them since they’re less eccentric now. Sandra’s ability to hear animals speak has continued, which must mean that she retains some Christmas magic. I would love to see her become the new Santa and invalidate the “Mrs” clause since it’s so problematic.
The last scene of this episode involves Betty contacting “Him” and this “Him” visiting the Calvins in Chicago. I’m pretty sure this mysterious person who will help save Christmas is Bernard, former Head Elf. I’m guessing that Bernard knows the most about Christmas lore and rules, etc., so he should be able to figure out why the coat rejected Simon and how to restore the true Christmas spirit. David Krumholtz’s return as Bernard has been teased since the show came out, to the delight of original The Santa Clause fans. I think a lot of people were disappointed when he wasn’t there for the third movie, probably because he looked too much like a full-grown man at 28 years old to be a convincing elf, but he’s such a fan favorite that none of us care how old he looks. He was probably my favorite character in the first movie, so I’m happy to have him back to save the day. In fact, he may actually be the new Santa since we can see a gloved hand with fur at the wrist that looks suspiciously like what Scott used to wear. I would be totally ok with Santa Bernard! I wonder if we could postulate so far as to say that Bernard may be the original Saint Nicolas who decided to become an elf after wanting to retire from being Santa…
It still feels off to me to have the (probably) first ever non-white Santa be rejected by the magical coat and turn evil in an effort to make Christmas a business. This creative choice will invite racist audience members to say something like, Well he certainly doesn’t look like Santa so I’m not surprised he’s evil… ugh. The creators obviously wanted to make the cast more diverse, but they should have thought about the implications a bit more. They did a better job of making the elves more diverse, so they should have just left it there. At this point, we can only hope that they don’t make it any worse in the final two episodes. Bernard to the rescue!
