The first episode leans heavily into the nostalgia of the first two "The Santa Clause" movies (and let us never speak of the dreadful third one) with an extended cameo by a star of the original 1994 movie, and plenty of mentions of how Tim Allen's Santa Claus has been in the business for twenty-eight years, and it seems that he may be losing his powers. (Side note, hard to believe it's been THAT long since the first movie. Quite shocking, really).
Elizabeth Mitchell returns as Carol, there are a few amusing scenes but, for mine, a lot of the jokes fell flat. Some were downright cringey.
A sneaky mention from high-profile conservative Allen about how it isn't okay to say "Merry Christmas" (I'm paraphrasing) brought politics unnecessarily into things. (One of the things that wrecked "Last Man Standing", for mine).
As noted above, nostalgia carried the first episode but that'll wear off soon, naturally, and the question is can "The Santa Clauses" stand on it's own two feet?
