Virgin River's Bad Pacing Has a Surprising Benefit

Summary

• The audience expects a time jump in Season 6 of Virgin River.
• Pacing has been the show's main problem since the first season.
• From a different perspective, this feature makes VR very amusing.

As Virgin River fans anticipate Season 6 of the beloved Netflix show, they are expecting a major time jump from the holiday season depicted in the Christmas specials of the fifth installment. Given how eventful the episodes have been, it is no wonder that people are excited to see what will become of their favorite characters and their storylines. In particular, many viewers are curious to see how Mel's relationship with her newfound biological father will develop, and how Lizzie and Denny's family will turn out.

This time jump is even more welcome for another reason. So far, Virgin River has been notoriously slow. Since its inception in 2019, and over the course of its run, the Netflix show has spanned just one year, story-wise. Perhaps the most noticeable sign of this is Charmaine's five-season-long pregnancy. Of course, many fans have mocked VR for this over the past few years. But apparently, the bad pacing is working for the show in a rather unexpected way.

Source of Amusement

If you think about it, Virgin River's absurd pacing actually makes the story more fun to watch. In fact, the show is quite funny in that sense. Consider the main storyline.

Jack fell in love with Mel after a short acquaintance, renovated her house, got another woman pregnant, broke up with her and started dating Mel, got her pregnant too, got a new house that burned down soon after, accidentally started a business that turned out to be a cover for drug dealing, got kidnapped by drug dealers, had his property confiscated by the police, found out that Charmaine's twins weren't his and Mel had a miscarriage, and his parents got divorced. Quite a year for one person, isn't it?

The same could be said for every other major (and even minor) character on the show. For example, Jack's best friend John Middleton, aka Preacher, got involved with Paige, fell in love with her, found out she was hiding from her abusive husband who she later accidentally killed, helped her dispose of the body, took in her son while she was on the run, lost the boy to the dead husband's evil twin, started another relationship, and ended it when Paige died, started another relationship and ended it when Paige came back, they found her son and had his uncle arrested, she left Preacher for good, he met a firefighter with attachment issues, started a passionate romance with her, broke it off when he found out she was married, they reconciled, she found out about the hidden body. And that's all in a little over a year.

Hopefully there's no need to explain how ridiculous this is. But it does make Virgin River very amusing to watch.