Are we in the golden age of friend-group Bravo shows? After doing a major binge of established shows “Summer House,” “Vanderpump Rules,” and new addition “The Valley,” we think that answer is a resounding yes. So naturally, we had to get Gibson Johns of Gibsonoma back on the Rich Text pod to do a little state of the Bravo union.

All three of the aforementioned shows track the semi-glitzy, semi-depressing, utterly entertaining lives of 20, 30 and 40-somethings in Los Angeles and New York City. (“Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard” and “Southern Charm” do something similar in Massachusetts and Charleston.) And when you watch them all in quick succession, some themes emerge: men in perpetual arrested development, the dissolution of longterm romantic partnerships, and a meta-commentary on what living your early adult life on television does to the shape it ultimately takes.

“Vanderpump Rules” has a post-Scandoval hangover, but is muddling its way through this season before the cast gets a well-deserved pause in filming. And “Summer House” is having what is possibly its best season ever, mining not just the slow collapse of Lindsay Hubbard and Carl Radke’s engagement, but conflict between married couple Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula, and a budding romance between Ciara Miller and newcomer West. (West, a 28-year-old, blonde, recently-laid-off journalist, is a truly unlikely new Bravo heartthrob.)

And then there’s “The Valley.”

We have to admit that when “The Valley” was first announced, we didn’t have high hopes. It was framed as a “VPR” spinoff that followed “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.” But… did anyone really want Jax Taylor back on their screens?

And yet, seven episodes in, we are hooked. (Brian Moylan even wrote a whole mea culpa over on Vulture.) Kristen Doute is spreading chaos, a very pregnant newbie Janet is planting little gossip seeds all over Valley Village, and Jesse Lally is a bad enough partner that his bad vibes rival even Jax’s. What more could the dark corners of our reality-TV-loving hearts desire?

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