Five Years After Its Debut, Virgin River's Main Flaw Begins to Show

Summary

• Despite its five-year run, Virgin River has covered only one year of its characters' lives.
• The age gap between the actors and their characters has only increased drastically.
• The problems begin to affect the credibility of the cast's performances.

When it premiered in 2019, Virgin River quickly rose to the status of Netflix's flagship romance drama. Set in the fictional Northern California town, the show follows its residents as they go about their daily lives, focusing primarily on Melinda Monroe, a thirtysomething woman who has just lost her husband and moved to the town to start over. And of course, the VR revolves around the woman's on-again, off-again romance with the owner of the town's bar, Jack Sheridan.

One of Netflix's most popular projects, Virgin River has spanned five consecutive seasons, the latest of which premiered on November 30 with two Christmas specials - a feature the show hadn't used before. At the same time, little seems to have changed in VR since its inception, as the show's pacing is notoriously slow. So at this point, it's been a little over a year since Mel arrived in town. And while this was tolerable in the earlier seasons of Virgin River, it now seems to be a major problem for a very simple reason.

The Cast's Aging

It's been five years since Virgin River's first season began filming in December 2018, which means the show's cast has aged five years. Meanwhile, we've only witnessed one year in the lives of their characters.

Furthermore, while the characters' ages aren't specified in the show, they are in Robyn Carr's books, on which VR is based. For example, Mel is said to be thirty-two in Book 1 and Jack is forty, which means that Alexandra Breckenridge, who portrays Melinda on Virgin River, was four years older than her character in Season 1, and now she's eight years older. The same math applies to Jack Sheridan, who was four years younger than Martin Henderson in the first episode.

While there's nothing wrong with aging, the age differences between the main cast and their characters are noticeable at this point - and it's all because of Virgin River's slow pace.

An Unusual Manifestation

It's interesting how this conflict between the slow pacing and the aging of the actors manifests itself in the show. Virgin River has no child characters except for babies. The reason is obvious - child actors would have outgrown their roles in an instant, and unlike the older cast, their four-year age difference couldn't be glossed over.

Hopefully season 6 of Virgin River will have a decent time jump to fix this problem. But regardless, we still love the show and its incredible cast.