4 reasons why I don’t love Virgin River

Is it just me? Or is Netflix’s Virgin River, really really bad*?

At first I enjoyed this take on the usual fish-out-of-water story, as the reasons for Mel’s trauma and her journey to build a new life in a small rural town unfolded. But then I hit a point, and started to really have niggling doubts about what I was watching.

I think it was when Mel’s compulsion to have a baby, despite Jack’s obvious stress over expecting twins with his ex, his PSTD and his untreated drinking problem, and her accompanying behavior toward him, which seemed coercive, that I really started to question why I was still watching, and why I don’t love the show. So I dug a little deeper.

And here’s what I worked out. It’s just my personal opinion*, but it may help explain why you’re feeling a little iffy about the show too.

The characters are unsympathetic/badly drawn

Mel is so headstrong, yet so sensitive. She’s just expressing her needs as she gets something wrong every episode, but learns and is forgiven, so it’s okay, okay? Usually it’s a fault of judgey-ness on her part, but then she learns to let go, or not relate everything back to a personal trauma she’s experienced, and wow, things tend to work out around her.

Other characters also get things wrong, but that’s because they’re denying their feelings or coming from ‘a place of fear’, instead of love. Jack learns that Mel doesn’t need to be protected, just supported. In other words, she…