An Awkward ‘Christmas’ Sequel

OK, turkey day is over--bring on the Christmas programming!

Actually, the annual onslaught of holiday fare began even before Thanksgiving, but now it starts in earnest, beginning tonight with “Twice Upon a Christmas” (8 p.m. PAX).

And “earnest” is the word for this TV movie, a sequel to last year’s “Once Upon a Christmas,” with Kathy Ireland back as Santa’s daughter Kristin, who in the first film abandoned life at the North Pole to become a nanny for a widower named Bill (John Dye) with two children.

In doing so, however, she also gave up all memories--and that’s where this film begins. Bill proposes marriage, but Kristin won’t tie the knot until she can figure out who she is. More than a wedding is at stake, however: If she doesn’t overcome her amnesia, her sister Rudolfa (Mary Donnelly Haskell) may succeed in her renewed efforts to sabotage Christmas.

You wouldn’t think such a lighthearted premise could give rise to solemnity, but that’s the tack taken by writer Steve Berman and director Tibor Takacs. They have envisioned this as a parable about the importance of faith. In what? That’s left vague; fill in whatever is important to you: yourself, loved ones, Santa Claus, Christmas, religion.

The blandness of this message is strikingly out of sync with the fervor of its delivery. But the entire enterprise is off-kilter--languid performances, unexplained plot points and, most especially, the heavy-handed attempt to instill humor in Rudolfa’s efforts to ruin her father’s life work.

It’s an inauspicious start to television’s Christmas season--but, hey, there are still 32 days to go.