OUR REVIEW:

For the past few days I've been trying to organize my feelings since consuming Disney+'s latest mouse trap for nostalgia money, The Santa Clauses. As a lifelong fan of The Santa Clause franchise, it meant the world to me that we were getting a six episode show with most of the original cast. Of course, I was also weary at the same time. 

I grew up watching the 1994 movie with my dad and his brother. My uncle knew the whole movie word for word and he would put it on for me when I visited, no matter the time of year. My dad took me to see the sequel multiple times because it's all I wanted to do for a month, even when it hit the dollar theater months later. He was cool with it since it meant he got to take a nap in the middle of the day. Now that both my dad and uncle have passed, I felt like I should watch the new show in their memory. Damn it! The trap worked. 

About 15 years after the events of Jack Frost's antics in Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Santa (Scott), Mrs. Claus (Carol), and their two teenagers Cal and Sandra decide they want to leave the North Pole to be normal citizens in Chicago. They pick out a single dad who works all day as their chosen candidate to replace Scott, based on the fact his daughter very much still believes in the magic of Santa. The dad and daughter take over the Pole, while the Calvins become acquainted with acting like regular humans. But it doesn't last very long once new Santa basically turns the Pole into Amazon and the magic of Christmas is put in some serious danger. 

Baby, this is what you came for: I... did not hate this. I will say it leans more on the jokes than the quality of the story rather than the other way around like in the movies. It’s definitely not as outlandish as I expected either, despite some weird interactions in the first episode. One that comes to mind is with Santa and an elf arguing about the political correctness of calling kids  “naughty” and how Santa doesn't understand wokeness. 

Another thing that needed more feathering out was Carol. I always wondered how raising a baby in the North Pole turned out. All we get is a matured laid back mom of two spoiled teens who apparently doesn't think about anything else except the misogyny behind the Mrs. Claus character. I think it was funny the first time she joked about it, but it felt like they didn't know what else to do with her. 

I was especially excited to see Tim Allen going back to when he was bearable enough to watch instead of just sitting on a recliner angry at everything. And like I said earlier, Tim's feelings about some things do make an appearance for some cringe moments. Thankfully not enough to kill the whole thing for me. There was also something very surface level about the look of the show, compared to the warm magic glow the movies had. 

I think my final verdict would be yes, check it out if you love the films or are just curious. You'll get a good chuckle for sure and kids will definitely like this better than a lot of the other mediocre Christmas content from recent years. 

With Season 2 already greenlit, all six episodes of Season 1 of The Santa Clauses are on Disney Plus now!