Virgin River 3: Good to Be Back!

The wife and I binged Virgin River 3, just up on Netflix.  We really enjoyed it, which is to say, we got totally caught up in the romance, the heartbreak, the roller-coaster ride of soap opera life in this fictional town on a river with sunsets at least as beautiful as Cape Cod Bay, where were for all of June.

Here are some bullet points of what I most liked, and didn't (well, just one), and of course these are spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't yet seen this third season [spoilers follow]:

• It was great to see Mel and Jack together for most of this season.   Because that's where they belong.   Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson did their customarily fine jobs in these roles, and it was a relief especially to see Henderson as Jack again after he played some weirdo bad guy in The Gloaming, which actually was weird across the board.
• Accordingly, I wasn't happy with Jack breaking up with Mel for her own good. It was necessary in terms of the ensuing narrative, but didn't make sense given how much he'd longed for her in the first two seasons.
• Tim Matheson as Doc Mullins was just outstanding, speaking truth to Jack and anyone who would listen at all the crucial moments.
• Hope was absent from this season, except for a Facetime call or two, because Annette O'Toole couldn't travel due to the pandemic.   The narrative did a good job of working around her absence.  There seemed several times when Hope might return from back East, but the pandemic said otherwise, and you could almost see the narrative being rewritten at those moments.
• The supporting characters and stories were all strong.  My favorite was Brie (Zibby Allen) and Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth), tipping at least a little into the criminal element of this narrative.
• Lilly's death was heart-rending, and was especially resonant with our world today, in which untimely death has been all too present.
• The very last words of this season were a letter-perfect soap ending, ending right in the middle of a conversation between Mel and Jack (my wife tells me such endings are hallmarks of soap operas).

There's a winning joy woven deep into Virgin River, and I'm up for season 4 as soon as it's on Netflix.

See also Virgin River: The Scenery, The Food, The Acting, and the Story

Cape Cod sunset 

 

Virgin River: The Scenery, the Food, The Acting, and the Story

So my wife and I just finished binge-watching the two seasons of Virgin River on Netflix.  What was I doing watching so much of a romantic drama that takes place in a beautiful town in the woods near the river of the title in northern California?   Well, it does have a big dollop or more of crime in it, and criminal fiction is my second favorite beat, after science fiction which is my first.  But that's not why I watched these two seasons.

The reason is I really liked this story of Mel, a nurse practitioner, who goes up to Virgin River, after her husband is killed in a car accident in Los Angeles.   There she finds Jack's Bar, which is actually a restaurant owned and run by Jack, and a cast of effervescent characters including the mayor, Hope, and her estranged husband, Doc, a doctor.  Hope is played by Annette O'Toole (great to see her on the screen again) and Doc Mullins by Tim Matheson.   They're not the only ones who put in a great job of memorably portraying idiosyncratic characters.   Jack is well played by Martin Henderson, whom my wife remembers and liked from Grey's Anatomy, and Mel by Alexandra Breckenridge, whom my wife likes in This Is Us.  I've never seen either before, but both are excellent in Virgin River, especially Breckenridge, who does a fine job with the conflicting emotions that Mel is confronting and juggling.

Why else did I like Virgin River so much?  The scenery is a real tonic after being locked down for almost three quarters of a year.  Even the food in Jack's restaurant looked really delicious, probably for the same reason.  I'd go out with my wife in a heartbeat to any restaurant where Preach was cooking, and he was well played, too, by Colin Lawrence.

So hey, if you miss cabins in the woods near a river on your summer vacation, or even just some great food in a restaurant that pops up on your trip, check out Virgin River.   And be prepared, as well, for a compelling story that will keep you in your seat at home for as many days as it takes.