‘Santa Clauses’ a fun, if over-long, holiday series

When I heard Disney was bringing Tim Allen back to reprise his role as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus in a limited series that sequelizes his “The Santa Clause” franchise, I was convinced it would be terrible. After sitting through its six-episode first season, I can report that although it’s not prize-winning television, it works better than I thought it would.

“The Santa Clauses” picks up nearly 30 years after Scott picked up the mantle of Santa Claus, and things aren’t going too well for him. The children of the world are believing less and less in Santa, and his magic keeps failing him at inopportune moments. He decides that, after nearly three decades, it’s time for him to retire.

Scott chooses Simon Choksi (Kal Penn) to replace him and moves with his wife, Carol (Elizabeth Mitchell), and son, Cal (Austin Kane), and daughter, Sandra (Elizabeth Allen-Dick) to Chicago. While they struggle to adapt to life as regular folks, Simon commandeers the magic of the North Pole to chase his own personal ambitions, putting Christmas at risk of being destroyed. It’s up to Scott and his family to figure out how to save stop Simon and save Christmas.

I have to admit, this works a lot better than I thought it would. Big props have to go to Allen for slipping back into the role of Scott Calvin and being as charming and fun to watch as he was in the original movies.

Mitchell’s story arc finds Carol feeling useless, unnoticed and tired of being stuck in her husband’s shadow. The way she begins to blossom as she finds purpose in the real world is satisfying, although the resolution to her conflict is a little too convenient to be believable.

Allen and Mitchell get great supporting work from Penn, who plays a man who loses sight of what’s really important while chasing after his own goals. The kids, both the ones playing elves and the ones playing actual kids, are also solid, with a special shout-out going to Devin Bright, who plays Scott’s elfin sidekick, Noel. That character is a hoot.

The actors have a lot on their plates to keep you invested during the dull early episodes. “Santa Clauses” gets a lot better as it unspools and we get to the meat of the story. The conflict between Simon, who can’t see that too much Christmas is a bad thing, and Scott, who doesn’t feel needed in the real world, is what really makes this show work.

The jokes help too. “The Santa Clauses” isn’t consistently funny, but there are some pretty great laugh-out-loud moments. I don’t want to ruin any of them, but I will say that the humor works better in the later episodes.

This brings me to my biggest gripe: This series is too long. In fact, it feels a lot like someone had an idea for a third “Santa Clause,” Disney decided it wanted a mini-series, so the idea was stretched out to fill a six-episode run. In the end, “Santa Clauses” comes in with a run time of about three hours, but that’s still at least an hour longer than it needs to be to get its point across.

Still, you can watch “The Santa Clauses” in one or two sittings without too much trouble, and it does get much more fun with every episode. If you’ve watched “The Santa Clause” trilogy and still want more, you’ll probably enjoy this mini-series.

All six episodes of “The Santa Clauses” are currently available to stream on Disney+.