SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Anyone feeling the Christmas blues? 😀 Well, here’s my quick review on Season 2 of ‘The Santa Clauses’, starring Tim Allen as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus. Yeah, I was hoping to review Season 2 of ‘The Santa Clauses’ in December last year, but sadly I wasn’t able to due to how incredibly busy 2023 was.
The irony is, I saw the first three episodes of Season 2 of ‘The Santa Clauses’ before Christmas last year and I saw the last three episodes after Christmas. I saw the sixth and final episode of Season 2 on New Year’s Day. I’m glad I’ve been able to see Season 2 before the Christmas holidays are over. 🙂
I’m also pleased when I returned to watch Season 2 of ‘The Santa Clauses’, the fourth episode had a recap of what went on before in the first three episodes. This doesn’t usually happen when checking out each episode of ‘The Santa Clauses’, but there’s quite a lot to take in when watching this series.
Season 2 has been an enjoyable ‘Santa Clauses’ season on Disney+. It continues where the series left off in Season 1 with Scott Calvin and his family, including Elizabeth Mitchell as his wife Carol, Austin Kane as his son Cal and Elizabeth Allen-Dick as his daughter Sandra, enjoying life at the North Pole. 🙂
However, new challenges await the Calvin/Claus family at the North Pole. Cal is expected to be the new Santa Claus and undergoes some training by his dad whilst Sandra discovers she may have witch-like powers. She gets help from Laura San Giacomo as La Befana to improve on her witch skills.
Whilst that’s going on, a new threat arises in the form of a returning bad mad Santa Claus – Eric Stonestreet as Magnus Antas. He and his gnome sidekick – Marta Kessler as Olga – plan to return to the North Pole with vengeance – with the help of Gabriel ‘Fluffy’ Iglesias as Kris Moreno/Kris Kringle.
Kris happens to be the head of a failing theme park called Santapolis. He finds Magnus Antas trapped as a Nutcracker and frees him, not realising that he’s a bad mad Santa. It’s intriguing how Kris’ story was developed in Season 2 and how he gradually came to realise Magnus wasn’t all that he seemed.
By the time we got to the sixth and final episode, I liked the callbacks made to the first ‘Santa Clause’ movie and the revelation that Scott’s cocoa cup was once Magnus’ amulet. It also turns out Kris saw Scott as Santa deliver his canoe boat present once on Christmas Eve in the first ‘Santa Clause’ movie.
Matilda Lawler returns as Betty and Devin Bright returns as Noel, Betty’s husband. Noel becomes the new Chief of Staff at the North Pole whilst Betty is made to go on something connected to the Kribble Krabble Clause, I believe. Meaning that Betty is absent for a few of the Season 2 episodes. 😐
Thankfully, Betty does return to the North Pole to reunite with Noel, Scott and Carol, as she explains the history of the elves working for and betraying Magnus Antas as the mad Santa. I enjoyed how that backstory was unveiled in the series, especially in depicting how Christmas under Magnus’ reign wasn’t great.
Ruby Jay returns as Riley, who becomes Cal’s girlfriend. At first, Riley is keen about Cal becoming the next Santa Claus when she spends some time with him at the North Pole. By the end of the third episode, she can’t seem to take it anymore when Cal stops spending time with her during his training. 😐
I was anxious about whether there would be any reconciliation between Cal and Riley, as Cal becomes depressed about losing his girlfriend in the next episode. Thankfully, Scott manages to get Cal and Riley back together by the end of the series when they have a prom dance at the North Pole.
I did wonder whether the series was going to go in a direction where instead of Cal becoming the next Santa Claus, it would be Sandra who becomes the next Santa Claus. I know that sounds very much like the plot of ‘Noelle’, but it would have been interesting to see that in ‘The Santa Clauses’. 🙂
Sadly, that didn’t happen, which is a shame. In Season 2, we have the return of Kevin Pollak as Cupid and Michael Dorn (Worf from ‘Star Trek’) as Sandman, who’ve appeared in the second and third ‘Santa Clause’ movies. It was nice to see these two again and how they met up with Scott in the series.
The Easter Bunny makes an appearance in Season 2 of ‘The Santa Clauses’, but instead of Jay Thomas playing him as in the second and third film, it’s Tracy Morgan playing him. Unfortunately, the Easter Bunny gets turned into a real rabbit and later into a lemon via some transformation spells.
This is a result of Sandra’s training to be a witch by La Befana. Incidentally, whilst it’s good to see Cupid and Sandman from the previous ‘Santa Clause’ movies, I’m still saddened Wendy Crewson, Judge Reinhold and Liliana Mumy didn’t return to play Laura, Neil and Lucy in ‘The Santa Clauses’. 😦
Not even Eric Lloyd and David Krumholtz returned to play Charlie and Bernard, although they were in Season 1. If a Season 3 of ‘The Santa Clauses’ is on its way to Disney+, perhaps it’ll be an ideal opportunity to get as many ‘Santa Clause’ characters back for say a possible final showdown. 🙂
You know, like how the ‘Star Trek: Picard’ TV series was handled with many of ‘The Next Generation’ characters returning in Season 3. Who knows? Despite that, I enjoyed checking out Season 2 of ‘The Santa Clauses’ on Disney+ and I’m very glad I got to see it over Christmas and the New Year recently.
I don’t know if a Season 3 is going to happen, although it’s bound to happen, even if it seems like characters like Betty and Noel are on their way out. But should it ever come to Disney+, I’m looking forward to seeing it. Hopefully, I’ll get to see Season 3 of ‘The Santa Clauses’ before Christmas 2024.
I’m pleased Curtis (who was played by Spencer Breslin in the second and third ‘Santa Clause’ movies) got mentioned in the sixth and final episode of Season 2 of ‘The Santa Clauses’ as well as Bernard. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
And yes, I have changed my ‘Bradley’s Basement’ wallpaper. I put together a new one for 2024 on New Year’s Day and I’m happy to share it today. Please feel free to check out the full photo version of my brand-new ‘Bradley’s Basement’ wallpaper for 2024 below.
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
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