Terrible people often make compelling television, and with Bravo’s “The Valley,” I am watching some of the worst folks I’ve seen in years outperform the competition.
And they deserve all the praise for it. I can’t look away from this show, nor do I ever want to.
“The Valley,” which recently launched its second season, was initially billed as a show “following a group of close friends as they trade bottle service in West Hollywood for baby bottles in the Valley all while they navigate bustling businesses, rocky relationships and feisty friendships.”
The “bottle services to baby bottles” setup felt a bit corny at first, but do not be fooled by the modest description. “The Valley” is so much more than just a bunch of aging millennials navigating the washed stage of life.
The cast is led by “Vanderpump Rules” alums Kristen Doute, Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright along with newcomers including Jesse Lally and his estranged wife Michelle Saniei, Danny and Nia Booko, Janet and Jason Caperna, plus friends Jasmine Goode and Zack Wickham. If you’ve never watched an episode of “VPR” in your life, no worries. You don’t need that background to understand this show and the dynamics.
Some of the couples featured, for lack of a better phrase, hate each other with a passion so deep only a psychotherapist can help tame it — and trying to watch them navigate that dynamic makes for must-see TV.
Take, for instance, Jesse and Michelle, whose marriage seemed on the verge of going up in flames the very second we first met them on the show.
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They’re now formally on the path to divorce, and the two are nastier toward each other than ever while raising their young daughter. In one episode, Jesse purposely goads Michelle by teasing a move to Orange County with his new girlfriend, potentially setting up a fight over where their daughter goes to school. That is, until Jesse admits to a producer in a confessional that he only told Michelle that to rile her.
Michelle is not innocent, though. She not only brings her new boyfriend, whom Jesse suspects she cheated on him with during their marriage, to group events but also allows him to insert himself into Jesse and Michelle’s mess.
In the following episode, Michelle tells Jesse that the girlfriend he said he might move in with was allegedly telling the cast that she was actually dating “some guy from ‘Baywatch’” and then in real time calls a mutual friend (Scheana Shay of “VPR” fame) on speakerphone who confirms it on camera.
In sum, Michelle hates this man and revels in his misfortune — and Jesse knows it.
“I didn’t cheat on her. I didn’t lie to her,” he quipped at one point in another confessional. “Yeah, maybe I was a shitty husband, but I didn’t hurt her — so why is she actively trying to hurt me?”
Probably because he started a rumor in his 20-plus-member guy group chat (minus Jason, who uses an Android) about her having sex with a billionaire for money, allegedly to suss out a potential “mole” who spills secrets from the chat.
I don’t love that, but as bad as Jesse might sound — he’s been compared to Patrick Bateman in “American Psycho” — he is not the worst guy in the lot. (Fun fact: Anna Nicole Smith used to date him.)
Those honors would go to Jax, who has been treating people badly on TV since the Obama administration.
The one who gets it the worst is his wife, Brit, who, by the end of Season 1, had left him. But we find out at the start of Season 2, there was an incident in which Jax “flipped the coffee table and it hit my knee” after he spotted a text between her and his friend Julien, a member of the aforementioned guy group chat.
Jax later expressed that he “went full f**king unhinged rage” on Brittany, admitting that it was “the worst it’s ever gotten.”
Since the events of the episode, Jax, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, spent 30 days in an inpatient treatment facility for mental health and has also acknowledged he had “substance issues” with cocaine. He announced in March that he was 83 days sober from both cocaine and alcohol.
Speaking with People at the Season 2 premiere this month, Jax claimed that he was “dreading” how fans will see him on the latest iteration.
“The last thing in the world I want right now is for you guys to see what happened to me last year,” he explained. “But I gotta look at the silver lining, you know? I hope to help out somebody who’s going through what I’m going through. I think men’s mental health is kind of looked over. I want to share my story.”
I hope we can see that change on the show. I sincerely hope his behavior changes for the sake of himself and his son, who both parents shared was diagnosed with autism. In fairness to Jax, he is correct that men’s mental health is often overlooked, particularly in this reality show medium — so his scenes, while uncomfortable, are instructional.
On “The Valley,” the show is as much about the women as it is the men.
Yes, Nia will share her struggles with postpartum depression, but Danny also shares his anxieties about raising a family in California. It also appears that Danny may additionally face chatter about allegedly being too handsy with friends while inebriated.
Separately, Kristen, who has matured since her “VPR” days, and Luke are navigating trying to conceive children and deciding where to raise them.
The queer cast members, Jasmine and Zack, are sharing more in the new season. We finally meet Jasmine’s girlfriend, while Zack navigates dating a man he met off “the apps” who is apparently separated but legally married and facing deportation to Canada. Zack, too, juggles his ongoing beef with Janet, the formerly pregnant villain of the series.
The Bravo drought from last year is thankfully over, but for all the good programming to be found right now, what separates “The Valley” is simple: It is a real group of friends with genuine stories.
This cast beefs over everything from the mundane to the most serious, and it’s easy to glean that even if the camera crews weren’t around, they’d still be in a middle-aged mess.
Many reality shows that have been on for several years might still be entertaining, but when you think about them in their current iterations, they are now more about fame than friendship and their original premises. Some Real Housewives franchises and shows like “Married to Medicine” come to mind.
Co-workers beefing over nothing on TV is cool, but there is just nothing like watching reality TV at its most authentic.
“The Valley” and its cast of real friends willing to share their real lives and uglier sides is not only the perfect millennial-minded suburban soap opera, but the new supreme on Bravo.
“The Valley” airs at 9 p.m. ET Tuesdays on Bravo.
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