Desperate Measures: Could a Time Jump Be the Key to Saving Virgin River?
The Virgin River story just doesn't seem to be moving forward.
Martin Henderson, who portrays Jack Sheridan in the Netflix romantic drama series Virgin River, recently revealed that fans can expect Season 5 to be released in July 2023, exactly one year after the premiere of the previous season.
While this is great news, fans of the show are hoping that the creators will fix the main problem that Virgin River seems to have.
The story of Mel Monroe, a midwife who moves to a small town to start her life over is based on Robyn Carr's romance novels of the same name.
There are more than two dozen novels in this series, and the pacing of the books is quite slow. Although the show has changed many aspects of the books, it seems to have inherited this pacing, and fans are concerned that the story in the show is moving too slowly.
Each season so far seems to cover only a few weeks in Virgin River time, and while that may be fine for the books, it could become a problem for the show, which takes a year to produce each season.
After all, the actors are not getting any younger.
In fact, fans feel that the slow pacing has already become the problem that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. With Charmaine and Mel's pregnancy storylines going on for several seasons, fans are starting to lose interest.
The Season 5 teaser posts released by the stars and official accounts prove that at the end of filming, Charmaine still has not given birth, and Mel is not even showing yet.
Does this mean that the creators are saving the birth of Mel's child and Jack and Mel's wedding for the final season? Or are they planning to show those events at all?
"I don't think we will ever see Mel's baby. The series will end long before she gives birth," one of the fans commented in frustration.
And other fans agree. The story doesn't seem to be progressing at all, so why wait for another season?
Fans feel that the best way to solve this problem would be to speed up the plot timeline and use the time jump in the next season to let the story continue.
There's no telling if the creators will heed these complaints, but dedicated fans are not giving up hope.