'Vanderpump' Spinoff 'The Valley' Exposes Marital Troubles in Premiere
Jax Taylor
Jax Taylor is back, whether the world is ready for him or not. After a brief stint on E!'s House of Villains, he's joined fellow former Vanderpump Rules stars Kristen Doute and Brittany Cartwright (his wife, for now) on Bravo's The Valley. The three of them were all fired from Vanderpump in 2020, alongside Stassi Schroeder, for past racist actions towards fellow cast member Faith Stowers. Jax and wife Brittany had just gotten married and were pregnant with their first child at the time, and so The Valley is their chance to show off how much they've grown since they were last on TV. Or so they thought.
The new show follows five couples as they attempt to get better at "adulting." Jax and Brittany star alongside Kristen and boyfriend Luke Broderick, Danny and Nia Booko, Janet and Jason Caperna, and Jesse and Michelle Lally. In the months since filming, Jax and Brittany have separated, and Michelle has filed for divorce from Jesse. Apparently "adulting" is not going so well for those particular couples, but that's not a huge surprise based on the premiere.
Related: Everything to Know About the 'Vanderpump' OG's Spinoff
What happened in the season premiere of The Valley?
The central storyline so far is that Kristen, the oldest woman of the group at 40, desperately wants to get pregnant. While Brittany threw a fair-themed birthday party for expecting friend Janet, Jax decided to concern himself with how Kristen wasn't "ready" to have a kid, in his opinion. Right after a loud argument about that topic, Jax turned to Danny and pulled down his friend's pants, exposing the fact that he was not wearing underwear. Danny's wife, Nia, was driven to tears from the incident, because what kind of adult man pantses another?
Meanwhile, the Lallys were pretty open about the troubles in their relationship. Michelle gave a few hints that Jesse was not exactly the most attentive dad, and Jesse told Jax that while they weren't planning to separate, conversations had been had, and Michelle had been the one to bring them up. Later, Jesse jokingly referred to guest Lala Kent as his "mistress" and "sidepiece," and pinched Kristen's boob. "I just put up with Jesse because he's Michelle's husband, and that's what you have to do sometimes," the latter said in a confessional.
Related: Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright Address Status of Their Separation Ahead of 'The Valley' Premiere
Jax's behavior also didn't go ignored. Danny acknowledged knowing Jax as "a douchebag," and there were flashbacks to some of his worst moments, like when Brittany found out he had cheated on her many years ago. (They briefly split then, but she took him back fairly quickly.)
None of the storylines were quite enough to explain why this show exists, especially when two of its central couples have already split up, but as Vanderpump Rules meanders further and further away from being a show about young people working at bars, it's probably worth finding out if settled-down millennial parents could also be worthy of the limelight.