Virgin River Season 4 review: Martin Henderson and Alexandra Breckenridge show is still as soppy as it gets

2/5

Story: Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson) are back together. She’s pregnant, but doesn’t know if Jack’s the father or her late husband Mark is. Hope (Annette O’Toole) is still struggling with the fallout of her accident that’s caused brain trauma; Dr Mullins has an unexpected visitor – a grandson and Preacher (Colin Lawrence) gets a lead on Christopher’s (Chase Petriw) whereabouts.

Review: When I began watching Virgin River, after it came highly recommended, for some strange reason, I expected it to be like the British comedy medical drama Doc Martin. Of course, it is nothing like the latter, which is a much better watch, truth be told, but nevertheless, I persevered and continued watching. I am still not entirely sure why, because it is not a series that I took a fancy to or, for that matter, looking forward to a new season. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I’d seen Alexandra Breckenridge on This is Us (as Sophie) and found her rather likeable.

But then, I guess it has a loyal and dedicated following, which has allowed the showrunners to get it to a fourth season and this time with 12 episodes, as against 10 each in the earlier three. Virgin River is about Mel Monroe (Alexandra), a nurse practitioner, who moves to a remote North California town, with a job at the local General Physician, Dr Mullins (Tim Matheson), in the hope of dealing with the loss of her husband better. Over the course of the show, Mel meets and falls in love with local bar owner Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson), a former marine with PTSD.

While the show has its fair share of medical drama, it is not anything like a Grey’s Anatomy, House or The Resident. Virgin River is more about the close-knit people in that quaint little town and their relationships. And much of the drama on the show comes from what happens to each of them and how they, as a community, overcome any trouble. In that sense, it is more of a melodramatic soap than romantic drama. And since there are so many characters, there’s a lot happening in this season of Virgin River.

So, Season 4 picks up right where it left off in Season 3. Jack and Mel have reconciled after their brief separation, but during their time apart, she underwent a round of IVF with the frozen embryos she had with her late husband, Mark. Despite her earlier troubles with infertility, after having had a stillborn during her marriage with Mark, Mel does get pregnant, but she’s not sure if her old embryos latched on or if Jack’s the father after all. But then Jack is also expecting twins with Charmaine, who is now married to someone else, and still working out how to co-parent the kids.

Preacher (Colin Lawrence) is still trying to find Paige (Lexa Doig) and, more importantly, her son Christopher, who has been kidnapped by her ex, Vince (Steve Bacic). In his pursuit of Paige and Christopher, Vince had shot Jack and left him for dead, with the gun then making its way to Brady’s (Benjamin Hollingsworth) truck and landing him in jail.

Dr Mullins’ new hire, Dr Cameron (Mark Ghanime) takes a shine to Mel, and when he realizes that there’s nothing he can do about his feelings for her, decides to leave. But Mel knows that considering hers might be a high-risk pregnancy, she maybe off from work earlier and longer than expected, which will be too much of a burden for Dr Mullins, so she offers to quit, so that Cameron can stay on in the practice. Dr Mullins, after all, needs a lot of time with his wife Hope (Annette O’Toole), who is still in recovery after the accident she was in last season. There’s also the matter of the son Dr Mullins never knew he had with a former flame before he took off to pursue a medical education. That son had a son, Denny (Kai Bradbury), who has now come knocking on Dr Mullins’ door with a secret agenda.

There are a lot of other sub-plots, so, yeah, there’s quite a lot happening. And yet, you can’t help but feel that there are times when things are unnecessarily stretched out. 12 episodes of 45 minutes each, is a lot, which, even at 1.25 speed was quite tiresome to sit through.

This season does a better job of addressing Jack’s mental health problems – he’s finally seeking help, but at the end of it all, it doesn’t leave you with any particular emotion. Virgin River is not the show that you can feel emotionally invested in – at least I don’t see the appeal and still wonder how it made to four seasons.

Verdict: Season 4 ended on a whimper, with no notable plot development. There’s a new drug lord in town, who, as it turns out, is quite close to Jack’s new business partner. Would I want to know how that plays in Season 5? Honestly? No! But then, Season 5 is already in development, so I guess I will have to revisit the show at some point. Would I recommend this show to anyone? Nope.