Virgin River is So Popular, There's Even an Academic Paper About It
Virgin River is a hugely popular TV series that has at times been one of the most streamed programmes on Netflix.
In fact, between 30th November and 6th December 2020, when the second series was released, it racked up 1.793 billion minutes of viewing hours in a week.
Following the story of Mel Monroe (played by Alexandra Breckenridge, who moves to Virgin River, a remote town in Northern California, the romantic drama is based on the book series of the same name written by author Robyn Carr.
Expecting life in a small town to help her start afresh and leave behind her painful past, Mel soon discovers that things are not quite as quaint and straightforward as she had hoped and expected.
Robyn Carr’s book series was also popular, selling a combined 13 million copies to date. It even spawned an academic paper written jointly by a professor of U.S. history and popular culture at SUNY Plattsburgh, N.Y. Dr. Jessamyn Neuhas, and John Neuhaus, who has a Ph.D. in sociology from Western Michigan University.
The paper, entitled “Sometimes it feels more like a commune than a town: Envisioning Utopian Possibilities in Robyn Carr’s Virgin River Romance Novels", suggests the fictional town of Virgin River shows that “utopian principles are alive and well”.
It notes that Carr’s books “subtly denounce contemporary socio economic relationships'' through the creation of a fictional small town with a population of just 600 that “suggests a communal mode of living that contrasts in some important ways with the rampant individualism” of modern America.
While the TV show is not entirely authentic to the books, for example, its timeline is shorter than that of its literary counterpart, its small-town charm is considered one of its key elements.
And while this does somewhat juxtapose the narrative of the show (and indeed the books) it’s fair to say that both the author and the showrunners have achieved a balance between the two that really works.
There is still no confirmed date for the release of Virgin River season 5, but we do know it’s now in post-production. The show's official Instagram account released a video on 21st November 2022 with the caption “That’s a WRAP on Season 5! 😉” that showed cast members dancing to celebrate. And the rumour is that we can expect it to be released around July 2023.
The first two seasons of the show originally aired in winter, with season 1 landing in November 2019 and season 2 in December 2020 respectively. Seasons 3 and 4, though, were released in July of 2021 and 2022 respectively. So, there may not be too much longer for fans of the show to wait for their taste of utopia.