One  great thing about WE's new series "Staten Island Cakes"  is that the family profiled is Italian-American, and, yet, they are allowed to be smart, creative, well-dressed and even well-coifed. For once,  they are not ignorant TV cafoni  who embarrass and insult every normal Italian-American. 

Layer 'Cake'
Staten Island's new baking phenom
New York Post ;  Linda Stasi; June 21, 2011  

There are two great things about WE's new series "Staten Island Cakes." 

One is that the family profiled is Italian-American, and, yet, they are allowed to be smart, creative, well-dressed and even well-coifed. For once, they are not ignorant TV cafoni  who embarrass and insult every normal Italian-American. 

The second great thing is that the 21-year-old man who is featured, Vinny Buzzetta, a cake-baking genius, is gay and, yet, is not forced to act like a Stepin Fetchit queeny clown for the amusement of straight people. Vinny is a smart, young, ambitious businessman who happens to be gay. 

That being said, there's nothing much else going for this show. Unfortunately, "Staten Island Cakes" is not much more than a clone of "Cake Boss." 

That's not to say that watching Vinny make spectacular cakes isn't interesting. It is -- or would be if you were watching Food Network. 

In addition to Vinny, the show stars his mom, Cammy, a beauty with fashion flair, who unfortunately isn't very interesting, but nonetheless shows up in every scene trying unsuccessfully to spur on the action. Vinny's sister, Kristin, is ditto in the "let's pretend something is going to happen" role. 

Grandpa, "Crazy Joe," a Staten Island institution, is apparently a financial whiz who speaks in what sounds like tongues -- no explanation given; cousin Joe is called Vinny's "mentoring force" and stepdad Rob is a former cop who mostly gets overlooked. 

Finally, there's Spiro, who is listed as Vinny's boyfriend/life partner -- quite a leap considering that Vinny is 21 and Spiro is just as young. 

Whatever happened to unglamorous bakeries manned by grouchy bakery ladies with nets on their heads? 

Unless you like watching other people go to work, you probably won't want to watch Vinny go to work, either.

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/
tv/layer_cake_JHLgtrrbbF9A0rc1xWasuM
 
 

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