The first season of Bravo‘s “Vanderpump Rules” spinoff “The Valley” was one of the great unscripted shows of 2024, a series that delivered all of the pleasures we’ve come to expect from the Bravoverse while also providing a few new ones. By following “Vanderpump” alums Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright and their friends as they try to navigate the complexities of adulthood — having children, building marriages and business, buying property — “The Valley” asked the question of whether people whose lives were built on televised chaos in their twenties and thirties could settle down in their forties.
The answer: not so much.
On Season 1, grown-up responsibilities didn’t necessarily make the cast grow up, as they engaged in much of the same partying, flirting, and insanely intense arguments audiences came to know and love on “Vanderpump.” Yet, as Season 2 begins with a drama-packed opening episode, the weight of real problems finally seems to be coming down on the characters with a vengeance.
In the hiatus between seasons, Jax and Brittany separated under extremely volatile circumstances, while fellow cast members Jesse and Michelle Lally are also getting a divorce — meaning that two of the families in this series about young family life are no longer intact.
For series creator Alex Baskin, who is also responsible for “Vanderpump,” “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” and many of Bravo’s other unscripted hits, rolling with the changes is all part of the job.
“We take reality as it comes,” Baskin told IndieWire. “A credit to Jax and Brittany is that they’re open to telling their story in a raw and real way, so we had an immediate story to propel the season.” Indeed, the strength of the Season 2 premiere is how immediately it thrusts the viewer into intense drama, to the point that one wonders if Baskin feels he missed out by not turning the cameras on during the hiatus. “Over the years I’ve gotten over regretting that we missed something, because with this group there’s always something to cover,” he said.
Baskin added that, whenever the cameras are on, the cast naturally seems to heighten the drama of their lives. “I think that production is an intensifier,” he said. “Just being in production draws out the story, so we take it as it comes and pick up on whatever is going on at the time.” For “The Valley,” that time has been the summer on each of the first two seasons, and Baskin says that if the show is picked up for a third season that will likely continue.
That’s good, because the summer setting is another one of the show’s pleasures and sources of interesting tension, as “The Valley” has gotten a lot of mileage out of contrasting the breezy, relaxing surfaces of L.A. in the summer with the cast’s roiling inner tension.
Season 2 is even better than the first season, thanks to the fact that the cast is more at ease on camera; while Jax, Brittany, and Kristen Doute were seasoned pros from their years on “Vanderpump,” several of their friends were newcomers to the world of unscripted television.
The fact that the cast is more comfortable and open means Season 2 of “The Valley” is even better on every level than the already extremely entertaining Season 1 — funnier, more suspenseful, and more painful in the self-destructive depths to which certain cast members (namely Jax) succumb. “I would say that the cast had their sea legs,” Baskin said. “The newcomers are used to this and now they pull their own weight — they completely know what they’ve signed up for, and they’re really game to let us into their lives.”
Although the series has expanded and deepened its focus in Season 2, the core guiding principles remain, as the show follows a close group of friends that’s willing — for better and for worse — to call each other out. “I think covering the image versus the reality of married life is also part of it,” Baskin said. “Also the struggle with being in this period of their lives where you’re an adult but you don’t have all the answers; when I pitched ‘The Valley’ in the first place I framed it as the period between being on ‘Vanderpump Rules‘ and ‘Real Housewives.’”
Baskin notes that on “Vanderpump” the cast was initially in their twenties and could do stupid things without consequences. Now, even minor missteps have consequences, particularly when for most of the cast there are now children involved. “I think covering these stories with a tight-knit group that is determined to be truthful and hold each other accountable is a winning formula,” Baskin said, adding that what’s unique about “The Valley” is the way some of the friendships shift — fans will be surprised, for example, to see on the season premiere that the formerly antagonistic Jesse and Kristen are now friends.
“There also a few fractured friendships that are surprising,” Baskin said. “I think it just goes to show that there aren’t the alliances you associate with some shows where the relationships are predetermined. There are new friendships that emerge and then cracks between people who have been close. Because it’s all real.”
Season 2 of “The Valley” premieres on Tuesday, April 15 on Bravo and begins streaming the following day on Peacock.
