Review: Victor and Valentino “The Cupcake Man”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Victor’s selfish behavior gets him kicked out of the house and put under the tutelage of the fabled Cupcake Man, who teaches Victor that his ways will eventually isolate him from those he loves. Also they bake cupcakes.

OUR TAKE

Week two of the Victor and Valention-athon concludes with this episode. We’re taking a bit of a break from the supernatural stuff this time in order to put more focus on character stuff, specifically more of Victor learning to be a functional human being instead of a bratty kid. In Karate Kid fashion, Victor learns life lessons through seemingly menial tasks, though instead of random chores teaching him martial arts, it’s baking cupcakes as a means to learning hard work and integrity. Plus the Cupcake Man (voiced by Danny Trejo) himself is an interesting character in his own right. There’s obviously the juxtaposition of having a typically intimidating design like his running a bakery . But his is also a cautionary tale of growing up an unruly person who eventually found a way to center himself. I can’t imagine he’ll have much involvement in the show beyond these sorts of ironic gags, but he’s still a really solid character who is a welcome addition to the cast. Also using his flashback to just have Victor be kicked around by cats was really funny so points for that.

But yeah, that wraps the second week of four for new Victor and Valentino episodes. Of the four, I would probably say Starry Night is probably my pick for the favorite, mostly due to its great shock value and possible foreshadowing of things to come. After that, Folk Art Friends takes second, being a solid sequel to the very first proper episodes of the series and also setting the stage for future plots. This one, The Cupcake Man, would just barely take third place for its character focus and excellent gags, while Fueygo Fest takes if only because its only real edge is that it’s commenting on a recent event for a rather broad message. Not a bad one in the bunch, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that some clearly have more going for them than others. Though even without the rankings, the show continues to go strong with its spree of episodes, even leaping over the halfway point for the season, assuming it has 39 episodes like the first one did. Next week starts week three with a crossover, old people, poachers, and so much more. Guess we’ll see what that all means when we get back on Monday.