Season Review: The Pole Season One

Having a show set in the North Pole on Syfy, a network that usually focuses on just that…sci-fi, has to be a bit of a misnomer. For starters, the built-in audience may not be privy for a series like The Pole which may have been a premise more suited for FOX, but as we head into what seems to be the network’s twilight endeavor for adult animation with it’s TZGZ experiment, we can’t help but think that there have been more than a few examples of franchises that may have worked better elsewhere.

Such is the case with the Matthew Bass and Theodore Bressman original series The Pole being produced by Yeti Farms. While pitched to most as an animated comedy (not much pitching as I have yet to see a commercial on either Syfy or any of the NBC Universal-affiliated networks for the show), the first season of The Pole actually finds it’s true form near the second half of the show as more of a serialized dramedy that just happens to take place in the North Pole and features cheek-pinching cute characters like the elves, Penguin, and whatever “Harry” (voiced by SungWon Cho) is.

The Pole is an animated dramedy based in the North Pole that features Santa Claus aka “Nick”(voiced by Bobby Moynihan) as the head of a company that is required to provide free gifts once–a-year to a half a billion people on Christmas Eve. To do such an unenviable task, the North Pole, with an accompanying toy factory, needs to be set up like a corporation. In this case, Nick’s family is a series of personalities jockeying for position to be the main beneficiaries of a North Pole when Nick is no longer around. Enter Mrs. Claus (voiced by Jillian Bell), Jack (voiced by Timothy Simons), and a litany of elves who have more of a political bent on things than anything else. These factory elves include Nick’s head elf Matilda (Nicole Byer) and political activist Helenor (Sasheer Zamata).

Shit hits the fan when Nick’s son Jack leaks pictures of Father Christmas’ jingle balls which causes a riff in the North Pole. Political espionage, a corrupt media outlet (led by Colin Jost’s “Cocoa”), and even attempted murder all comes to a head as we almost see some sort of reconciliation between father and son only for a political election to come down with controversial votes thereby setting up a cliff hanger for whatever comes for the show’s second season.

Whether or not that happens, I’m not sure. But, The Pole works well when it focuses less on the comedy (the comedic dialogue needs a lot of help here) and more on the dramatic flair that certainly shows more of a likeness to that of say Succession or The Sopranos than anything holly jolly. The constant sight gags attributing to classic Christmas lore is a riot, from Jack’s “Grinch”-like smile, to constant talk about cookies and sweets, there’s enough Christmas here for the die-hard fans of the holiday, but the gooey center featuring the hot mess that is the North Pole is what I come here for. How the producers managed to pull off what is typically seen in hour-long HBO episodes into that of weekly quarter-hours is, in itself, an astonishing feat. Whether or not we’ll get to see more is anyone’s guess, but count us in for more.