‘The Valley’: Luke Broderick Thinks It’s ‘Dangerous’ for Jax Taylor to Be on TV
Jax Taylor will not return for the third season of Bravo’s The Valley, much to the relief of some of his castmates. Throughout the second season, Taylor’s behavior became a point of concern to many fans. A number of people called for his removal from the show. Luke Broderick, one of Taylor’s former castmates, thinks it’s good that Taylor will no longer be on the series.
Jax Taylor will not appear on the third season of ‘The Valley’
The second season of The Valley followed Taylor through his divorce from Brittany Cartwright and stint in rehab. Fans of the show are overwhelmingly against him. After the revelation that he threw furniture at Cartwright in a rage, many people have pushed for him to be fired. Just ahead of the finale, Taylor announced that he would not return for the third season.
“After an incredibly challenging year and many honest conversations with my team and producers, I’ll be stepping away from the next season of The Valley,” he said in a statement (per Bravo’s Daily Dish). “Right now, my focus needs to be on my sobriety, my mental health, and coparenting. Taking this time is necessary for me to become the best version of myself — especially for our son, Cruz.”
Many fans celebrated the announcement.
Luke Broderick does not think Jax Taylor should be on ‘The Valley’
Fans of the show are not the only ones who think Taylor’s exit is a good thing. Broderick, Kristen Doute’s fiancé, said that if he could fire one person from the show, it would be Taylor.
“I think it’s dangerous to give a person like [Jax] the platform that he has because there will always be apologists,” he said on The Viall Files. “Look, Jax is entertaining. Maybe there is some sort of a show for him.”
The episode appears to have been taped before Taylor exited the series. Still, he seems to believe Taylor is capable of change. Broderick said that after he called out Taylor for his behavior, the latter became more interested in hanging out with him.
“I have had those moments and have called Jax out. Oddly enough — after I called Jax out — he wanted to hang out more. He’d text me three to four times a week wanting to go golfing or wanting to go do something,” he said. “I said, ‘You’re not a good person.’ He didn’t refute it and didn’t even really respond to it. But I saw it hit him.”
The show’s producer responded to concerns about platforming him
Finding the right way to depict Taylor’s behavior was a challenge for producers of The Valley. Alex Baskin, the executive producer, admitted they were showing some frightening behavior.
“We’re all trying to figure out how to tell the story responsibly and fairly, in a way that is entertaining and real,” he told Variety. “But that doesn’t put a gloss on what is really happening. This subject matter is dark!”
Baskin believed that it wouldn’t have been fair to Cartwright to cover up Taylor’s behavior
“Our job is to tell the full story,” he said. “If we didn’t tell the story in its completeness, then we would be covering up something that really happened, and denying Brittany the chance to share what she had been through. I don’t think that’s really ‘platforming an abuser’ as much as that is platforming the story — which includes Brittany’s experience as well as Jax’s.”
