Review: Victor and Valentino “Escaramuza; Los Perdidos”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The boys and Xochi observe Amabel in a Escaramuza (synchronized female horse-riding) event, but when Amabel gets injured, Val pushes Xochi to take her place to impress her. Xochi loses interest quickly, especially when Val suggests cheating, so Val disguises himself to fill the spot, only to summon the wrath of the ghosts of Mexican heroes who inspired the sport. He’s able to get rid of them by admitting to cheating though.

Later, Vic starts hanging out with some new skaters in town, who Val begins to suspect are vampires because of how much Vic is starting to hate the sun and lose color. Eventually it turns out that this is actually the new click of Javier, the guy who ran that kid cult early in the series. They chase him off, though.

OUR TAKE

Victor and Valentino wasn’t really a show I had a ton of interest in watching when it first came out, but I was at least aware on some level of how important it was culturally. Being able to blend Mexican culture, history, and mythology into a show like this for kids is already an admirable goal in and of itself, but going through my binge of this show’s first season, I found that it worked all of that into a way that was both informative and entertaining. I imagine a lot of non-Latinx kids learned quite a bit from watching it, hopefully inspiring them to dive deeper, while those who were already immersed in this culture hopefully felt more seen and included with things they recognized being utilized in the storytelling. If nothing else can be taken away from this sort of program, it’s that diversity in protagonists and the culture that is normalized in programming is important. I probably would never have known about things like Los Cadejos or, in this case, Escaramuza, without this series, and while that doesn’t hold a ton of significance for me, it could be the thing that makes someone feel more included or inspires others to learn more.

As for these episodes in particular, they play on this show’s unique ability to play up the creepy factor. The show has always had a prominent horror element present and is usually able to balance it well with its comedy, though it has definitely improved at that over time. In that sense, it feels like it has elements from both Adventure Time and Regular show in how certain plots can escalate so fast. Also worth highlighting how Xochi and her super obvious romantic feelings for Amabel have been bubbling since around last year’s batch of episodes, so it’s good to see even more diverse representation happening in these shows. That and Val’s increasing obsession with winning really end up adding to their episode. The other half, Los Perdidos, isn’t all that remarkable by comparison, with its main highlight being the brief return of Javier, who I only really remember for being voiced by Dante Bosco. But I guess vampire skaters do fit the mood of getting closer to Halloween, so it makes sense to start showing more episodes of this show now, I suppose. While these aren’t some of the show’s best, they are a clear sign of it becoming polished on all areas.