Santa Inc.

Santa Inc.
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Alexandra Rushfield
Directed by	Harry Chaskin
Voices of	Sarah Silverman Seth Rogen
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer(s)	Alexandra Rushfield Sarah Silverman Seth Rogen Evan Goldberg James Weaver Joshua Fagen Seth Green Matthew Senreich John Harvatine IV Eric Towner Chris Waters Amy Zvi Rosa Tran
Production company(s)	Lionsgate Television Point Grey Pictures Stoopid Buddy Stoodios
Distributor	WarnerMedia Direct
Release
Original network	HBO Max
Original release	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)
External links
Website

Santa Inc. is an American adult animated comedy miniseries created by Alexandra Rushfield that premiered on December 2, 2021 on HBO Max. The stop motion animation is produced by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. All episodes are directed by Harry Chaskin.

Premise

The story follows Candy Smalls, a female elf who's currently working as a second-in-command of North Pole, goes for her ultimate goal to become a successor as the first female Santa.

Cast and characters

• Seth Rogen as Santa Claus, known as Saint Nick (his real name), a jolly, overweight, middle-aged man who distrusts her for becoming a successor.
• Sarah Silverman as Candy Smalls, the highest-ranking female elf and Santa's second in command, who wants to become the next Santa.
• Leslie Grossman as Cookie, a gingerbread woman.
• Gabourey Sidibe as Goldie, a bisexual reindeer and member of the B-team.
• Craig Robinson as Junior, the leader of the all-male reindeer A-team.
• Nicholas Braun as Devin the intern.
• Maria Bamford as Mrs. Claus and Big Candy.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Where The Hell is Brent?"	Harry Chaskin	Alexandra Rushfield	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)
2	"Faces of Meth"	Harry Chaskin	Lisa Goldberg	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)
3	"Spring Awakening"	Harry Chaskin	Rachna Fruchbom	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)
4	"The South Pole"	Harry Chaskin	Guy Endore-Kaiser	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)
5	"Santa’s Birthday"	Harry Chaskin	Rochée Jeffrey	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)
6	"The Announcement"	Harry Chaskin	Ryan Shiraki	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)
7	"Cracks in the Peppermint Ceiling Part 1"	Harry Chaskin	Dave King & Paul Rust	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)
8	"Cracks in the Peppermint Ceiling Part 2"	Harry Chaskin	Andrew Gurland	December 2, 2021 (2021-12-02)

Reception

Daniel D'Addario of Variety wrote that the series' reliance on raunchy humor led to it "feeling dour and heavy, a televised lump of coal". He felt that jokes about reindeer being methamphetamine addicts and Mrs Claus being a stripper "doesn’t say anything, really; it just suggests a readiness to provoke". He was more approving of plot elements about a female character seeking to rise in a hostile workplace.

Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg praised the parody of corporate culture, but called the sexual jokes "repetitive and self-satisfied". He also did not find the humor to have good shock value, unlike a recent Christmas special of Big Mouth.

Mira Fox of The Forward gave a negative review, criticizing the massive amount of raunchy humor and Holocaust jokes, poor plot, lazy stereotypes of Jews, and ultimately poor message of the show, saying "You might think that this Christmas series made by two famous Jews would have some greater message about antisemitism or Christianity’s hegemony in the U.S. But instead Silverman, too, has reduced Jewishness to a handful of hackneyed stereotypes in “Santa, Inc.”

Controversy

According to The Daily Dot, the trailer for the series received backlash in the comments section and over 200k dislikes on YouTube, with various antisemitic and holocaust-denial jokes. However, HBO Max defended the trailer and disabled the comments due to its controversies. Rogen claimed that the series was being review bombed by tens of thousands of "white supremacists".

External links

• Santa Inc. at IMDb
• Santa Inc. on HBO Max