Virgin River’s Bizarre Timeline Is What Makes The Show Great

Through all the chaos the past five years have wrought, Virgin River has been an ever-reliable balm — and a streaming anomaly.

One season has aired every year since 2019. With the sixth season’s arrival on Dec. 19, the romantic drama has churned out 64 episodes (including a two-part Christmas special), with at least 10 more to come in a green-lit seventh season. Deadline notes that will make Virgin River Netflix’s longest-running current scripted series and its longest English-language drama ever.

But despite its staggering longevity for a Netflix series, not much time has passed on Virgin River. For the dramatic pregnancies, wildfire, hiding a body, and identifying a mystery shooter — to name a few of the twistiest occurrences in this otherwise idyllic small town — the show’s timeline is nowhere near the five years that have come and gone in real life.

Maybe... that’s not such a bad thing?

The Virgin River Timeline, Explained

The best (and most-memed) signifier of time on Virgin River is Charmaine’s never-ending pregnancy. The show itself is in on the joke, with the character declaring in Season 5’s Christmas special: “I feel like I’ve been pregnant for years.”

Indeed, Charmaine was early into her pregnancy in Season 1 and finally gave birth on Christmas Eve — meaning that less than nine months had elapsed on the show thus far. So even though Mel and Jack went through a lot during that time frame, they’ve only known each other for less than a year. (For reference: We’ll be waiting for the Wicked sequel longer than Mel and Jack’s entire relationship history through Season 5.)

Season 6 picks up several months later as Mel and Jack plan their spring wedding — seemingly demonstrating the show’s desire to move along at a slightly brisker pace.

Why The Slow Passage Of Time Is A Good Thing

I, too, have long been puzzled by the laws of time on Virgin River. But it took me five years to realize the town’s unique temporal crawl is a feature — not a bug.

The show isn’t just cozy because of its woodsy backdrop and a flannel budget that would make Luke Danes jealous. No matter how much or how little your life has changed over a given year, Virgin River provides a grounding effect, a retreat to a place where huge stuff happens, but an unhurried pace helps everything feel calmer and more digestible.

As showrunner Patrick Sean Smith once told Glamour of Charmaine’s seasons-long pregnancy, “In wanting it all to feel seamless, I felt like if there was a time jump, then it could just inherently feel like a reset button, and I never wanted anybody to come away with that feeling.”

Indeed, when the time between seasons on other streaming series can be upwards of one, two, or three years, it’s refreshing to return to Virgin River every year and find your favorite characters more or less where you left them. Granted, stretching a nine-month pregnancy for five seasons is maybe a bit too leisurely — but the show’s streaming success suggests that fans resonate with the slower pace.