A year after season 3 aired, how are things looking for the TV adaptation of the Robyn Carr novels?
As Netflix announce the listings update for its popular show, Virgin River, to start next month, there’s online gossip with regards to whether it will make it through to season 5. Timing is everything – or perhaps not: bad timing is the basic plot for the show.
SPOILER ALERT: The show has developed from our leading lady nurse Mel finding herself in a place to heal in the grief of losing both a husband and a child. She then meets a local bar owner– Jack (played by Greys anatomy’s Martin Henderson), who, despite being her love interest in later episodes, has managed to impregnate another woman.
When we last saw the two, they had accepted that they should be together, by reuniting after breaking up (again!). Mel is now pregnant – either with her dead husband’s seed from previous IVF attempts, or with Jack’s baby.
So, season 4 isn’t just a matter of ‘will they / won’t they stay together’, but more to do with how to do handle the offspring from the many women in his life, because as much as it could be her Mel’s story, Jack is just as intertwined in the narrative.
However, as season 4 will hopefully provide the answers, Netflix suggests filming is undergoing planning for season 5. With the current trend of shows getting axed, though, will Virgin River join Netflix’s own “Gentified” or the likes of Amazon Primes’ “I know what you did last summer”? Somewhere out there, someone is wielding a large axe, aiming to finish off a drama or two.
It’s not that we think the show isn’t successful; the problem is that there’s been a track record of hiccups previously. Anette O’Toole’s character Hope was filmed at a distance, often with the plot of her elsewhere to look after elder family members. Her character was on video calls in the show as well as being on video call throughout the production during the unique COVIDrestrictions that where in place during season 3.
With the platforms moving heaven and earth to provide the world with a constant stream of entertainment, where do all the cancelled programmes go? Should we be saying a little prayer? Are the cast of every show performing satanic rituals to keep theirs alive for the next run?
Some programmes have been revived before, so this is not a new thing either. “Due South” was taken off air and then taken over by other channels till it saw its end date. Recently, “Lucifer” was taken from one channel and reincarnated on Netflix.
But what of Virgin River? Alexandra Breckenridge, who plays Mel, is rumoured to be in a new film, “In Limbo”, currently in production. This can’t be helpful to the season five schedulers and that’s just one cast members current activities. Perhaps Alexandra won’t be the only one leaving the company in limbo.
And what for season four? No spoilers here yet. We are assuming all those that sailed with us last time will be with us this tim; perhaps Annette / Hope will be there in person.
Then again, until the end of season 4, we will not know who hassurvived Virgin River to be in season 5. Cast and crew better get dancing, praying, and hoping to survive the chop.
Fantastic article.
I hope they don’t axe the show, as it has me hooked.