Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Santa Inc.’ On HBO Max, A Stop-Action Animated Holiday Miniseries That’s More Raunchy Than Merry

While the Rankin-Bass stop-action holiday animated specials are classics, we’ve never been fans of them. We were always more partial to A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Grinch because of how dark they went. But the R-B shows were also pretty dark — the Island of Misfit Toys, anyone? — and that darkness is funnier coming out of seemingly wholesome-looking figurines’ mouths. That’s the thought behind the R-B-style animated miniseries Santa Inc., only the darkness — and the raunchiness — is amped up to 11.

SANTA INC.: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: As we push through the gates of Santa Inc., we see the assembly line of gifts being loaded up on Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve.

The Gist: Candy Smalls (Sarah Silverman) is the head elf and she’s got Santa’s operation down to a science. She even manages to catch a dead lizard before it gets on the sleigh before “Tiffany Chen from Tallahassee loses her shit.”

Her boss Brent (Tim Meadows) more or less runs the joint on behalf of Santa (Seth Rogen), and he does everything, including firing up the reindeer. Even Junior (Craig Robinson), the arrogant son of Rudolph, gets pumped up at the fact that the rest are going to “smell my ass tonight.”

The night goes off without a hitch, and after a morning where she has to contend with her uncaring mother and stupid older brother, Candy goes to work. She hears from her buddy Goldie (Gabourey Sidibe), a reindeer on the all-female B-team, about her highly sexual night, and gets complaints from her other friend Cookie (Leslie Grossman) about how tired taking care of her little gingerbread baby makes her.

At work, prickly chief of staff Jingle Jim (Joel Kim Booster) calls an all-hands meeting, and Santa gives them the bad news: On his run around the world the night before, Brent got hired away from Santa Inc. by none other than Jeff Bezos. Seeing that Brent was poised to be the new Santa after the current one retires, the loss is a big one, like “getting fucked dry,” as Santa says.

Candy thinks she can take that job, but there has never been a female Santa Claus. A visit from her grandfather (Paul Rust) convinces her to at least ask — right before he’s blown away by a stiff breeze and implores his granddaughter to hide his porn. She meets with Santa and he feels he’s just progressive enough to pull it off. But when she sees her boss’ bro-tastic Boxing Day party in progress, it makes her even more determined to be the new Santa.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? While one show uses Rankin-Bass-style stop-action animation and the other uses puppets, we can’t help but relate Santa Inc. to Ultra City Smiths. Perhaps it’s all the cursing.

Our Take: We would have thought that Santa Inc. was just gratuitously dirty if we didn’t think there was an actual story that was worth watching. Created by Alexandra Rushfield (Shrill), with Rogen and Silverman among the team of executive producers, the show tries to make the whole North Pole operation into something edgy, making Santa and elves and gingerbread people and reindeer swear and talk about sex. But in a lot of ways, the show is a workplace comedy with a lot of gender politics mixed in.

If you look at it like that, and appreciate Silverman’s performance as Candy for the low-key seethe it is, Santa Inc. becomes enjoyable. Candy is determined to break the glass ceiling at Big Santa, and her view of the boys’ club Boxing Day shenanigans makes her even more determined. We like that story and are looking forward to seeing her face one roadblock after another as she tries to curry favor with the supposedly woke Santa.

The rest of it we can take or leave. Rushfield seems to lean on the notion that seeing Santa and the rest of the North Pole curse like Teamsters is funny all by itself. But most of those gags are superfluous and not all that funny. She’s done a nice job of building up characters like Candy and even Santa, and the funny stuff that comes out of those characterizations is much funnier than just seeing everyone curse.

We’ve said many times that we’re not prudes. But we also appreciate it when humor doesn’t go blue for going blue’s sake. The first episode goes blue quite a bit, and we wish that it had done that a little less.

Sex and Skin: Lots of talk about reindeer threesomes, and things like that.

Parting Shot: After leaving the bro party, Candy says “Fuck those douches; someday I will be the first woman Santa. Period!”

Sleeper Star: Gabby Sidibe made us laugh when her character Goldie sang that “No one was complaining!” during her threesome. Maria Bamford is also her usual funny self as a very on-edge Mrs. Claus.

Most Pilot-y Line: Mrs. Claus says to Santa that the doctor says one more cupcake will give him the “diabeetus.” “Fine, then get me some donuts! We’re all out! I’m not picky!” he responds.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Sure, Santa Inc. isn’t afraid to get raunchy, and it feels like it lays that raunchiness on a bit thick. But there is a fun story at its center, backed by funny performances from Silverman, Rogen and the rest of the cast.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Watch Santa Inc. on HBO Max