Review: Victor and Valentino “Starry Night”

OVERVIEW

The boys are excited to go to a campout with their friends, but disappointingly find out that has been made a “safe” campout without even real fire! Luckily adventure comes, though in this case as the arrival of some fabled mystical creatures who possess their friends after they look up at the stars and then grill the two for information on Chata. They’re able to get rid of the spirits by faking sunlight, which the spirits fear, though it’s hard to explain to the parents how they got out in the woods.

OUR TAKE

Week two of the Victor and Valentino month long marathon begins with an episode that once again knows how to really push the creep factor. While this one doesn’t seem to have much connection to the Van Gogh painting it shares a name with as some might expect, it does show the return of a previous creature from Season 1, the Tzitzimime, which previously possessed Don last season. Now we have several taking over several of the kids, as well as showing a clear malicious motive against Chata, likely showing there’s more to her spiritual wisdom (as well as Huitzi’s own abilities) than what we’ve been led to believe so far. This season did seem to start with the boys getting more exposure to the bigger supernatural scope of their town, which leads me to think we’ll likely be getting a version of the original pilot eventually, specifically the ending which showed Chata to be some sort of spirit who was about to reveal more about the town to Victor and Valentino. Going through that first season, it did seem strange to me that this was never touched on or recreated, though it may have been using that time to establish more of a status quo before things got more serious, similar to how Amphibia handled its more episodic first season before becoming more serialized in its second.

Also worth mentioning is, again, how this show can get so spooky so easily, which is fitting for this time of year. To compare this to another Disney show, Gravity Falls also knew how to balance its comedic and creepy sides, often showing a clear distinction when scenes were meant to be goofy and fun and when they were serious and dark. And while I wish they would get on developing a storyline or a story-specific mythos that it could expand on, this week by week deep dive into Mexican and Mayan folklore and mythology is both informative and very entertaining, which is only enhanced by its expansive cast of memorable characters. And while this might be the only really creepy episode we get to cover this week, it’s notable that this is an atmosphere that this series can enter whenever it likes and more than likely will return to many more times over the course of its run. But tomorrow gives us something more fun, specifically a very on the nose reference to a failed music festival!