Virgin River is Netflix‘s biggest wonder. With six seasons in (and the seventh on the way), it’s the longest-running drama on Netflix, which is commendable, considering they tend to cancel shows after three seasons – and more recently, even one season. Virgin River is the best Netflix drama at the moment for multiple reasons, but it has also had its ups and downs since it started airing in 2019.

Six years and six seasons later, and the show has made numerous new fans and loyal viewers; it also has a neverending inspiration for plots, new events, and the potential for introducing new characters (and even a prequel) into an already amusing small town, Virgin River. While the showrunners develop the relationship between nurse Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and bar owner Jack (Martin Henderson), they also focus on other characters, which often are the heart of the show. Throughout six seasons, they laughed, cried, made monumental life decisions, and endured some life-changing situations; but it’s fair to say some seasons were better than others.

6. Season 3 (2021)

The One Where Mel and Jack Break Up

Image via Netflix

Season 3 develops the relationship between Mel and Jack in a maybe non-favorable way for many of the fans. It’s the beginning of their romance, and represents its first rocky aspects. Jack dives deeper into alcohol to escape and refuses the advice of his friends and family to seek out a therapist for his post-war PTSD; Mel is unsure if she can let go of her ex-husband and feels bad about moving on, with his family contributing to her growing guilt. With Jack being overwhelmed by life and Mel facing uncertainty of her own, Jack decides to leave Mel, and she goes back to Los Angeles, heartbroken.

While this is resolved within the next episode and things become peachy once again, the frustrating moment of trying to explain to each other leads Mel and Jack to a crossroads. For fans, this was a disappointing development, but nevertheless, a dramatic one. Though it fits the mold of a melodrama, Virgin River showed its characters’ most realistic sides here; veterans do struggle with PTSD, and losing a partner is devastating, and seeing Mel and Jack work on their problems individually while trying to be together is a realistic side of relationships that the show tries to depict. This is why fans stuck around even after season 3 – the story shows the characters’ human side, both in good and bad ways, which is why people love Virgin River so much.

5. Season 4 (2022)

The One Where Jack Can’t Handle His Past

Image via Netflix

Since season 3 continues with Mel and Jack getting back together, season 4 follows the progress of their relationship and how they’re willing to work on themselves to stay together. Jack lets Mel down a couple of times, as she notices him continuously drinking alcohol whenever he becomes stressed out. The season also follows the aftermath of mayor Hope’s (Annette O’Toole) concussion symptoms and her husband, Vernon “Doc” Mullins (Tim Matheson) handling his own health problems while battling with Hope to get her to hire help.

This season also gives more attention and love to one of its most wholesome characters, Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale), who goes from being spoiled and rebellious to finding her strengths and purpose. Though she shows up at her aunt Connie’s – one of Hope’s friends – around season two, she doesn’t plan on staying for too long and seems to be an episodic character. But, as it turns out, Lizzie feels more at home when she becomes Hope’s carer and assistant and falls in love with Doc’s grandson, Denny (Kai Bradbury). Virgin River‘s season four is all about its characters overcoming health problems, as they’re the most dominant topic throughout; whether it’s mental or physical health (or often both), the show emphasizes how people like Hope and Jack don’t want to, but ultimately have to rely on others to get help for their health.

4. Season 2 (2020)

The One Where Mel Needs to Decide What’s Next

Image via Netflix

After the story becomes established in season one, it’s time for the protagonist, nurse and midwife Mel to decide what’s next for her. In season one, she’s given a position at Virgin River’s local clinic where Doc Mullins has been working alone for at least two decades. The arrival of a new doctor makes Doc very nervous, since he has established and runs the clinic. While Mel is unsure whether she wants to stay in Virgin River for good or whether her tenure as a nurse there will have an end, season two gives her several challenges that could help her make a definitive decision. Though the moment Mel and Jack lay eyes on each other shows they’ll end up together, their relationship starts off with a friendship.

With Mel unready to move on and still trying to face her fears, she also has to, navigate her feelings towards Jack while he visits her with his on-and-off girlfriend Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley), who’s pregnant with twins. Season two mainly focuses on Mel becoming established in Virgin River and getting used to the dynamics of the locals; she’s still considered an outsider to many of them, though they accepted her with open arms from day one. Finding her footing and deciding whether this is home or just another stop before the next one helps Mel face her past, as well as her fears. With Mel having struggled with fertility and pregnancy, seeing the girlfriend of the man she likes carrying twins is pure melodrama territory, but it’s also meant to represent a challenge where she has to understand life doesn’t stop for anyone, and moving through is the only way forward.

3. Season 5 (2023)

The One With All the Action

Season five has so far been the most exciting season, showcasing how Mother Nature can be treacherous even in a beautiful place like Virgin River. Wildfires roar through the territory, catching Virgin River at one point, too. The entire town gets in on the action, evacuating to Jack’s Bar, while Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth) shows off his firefighting skills, and a new fire chief, Kaia (Kandyse McClure), comes to help all while seducing Preacher (Colin Lawrence), who’s arguably Virgin River‘s most likable character. Lizzie and Denny get in on the rescue mission, while Mel, Doc, and doctor Cameron (Mark Ghanimé) navigate their strained dynamic while working to help those harmed in the fires.

This season is also full of new romances and even endings of some favorite ones; Jack’s sister Brie (Zibby Allen) faces her assaulter in court, and a romantic triangle between her, Brady, and police officer Mike (Marco Grazzini) develops. The best romance of the entire season also happens, and it’s between Hope’s inner circle friend Muriel (Teryl Rothery) and doctor Cameron, who is younger than her but is smitten by her wonderful personality and charm. Finally, season five also offers more insight into the dangerous investigation Mike is following together with Brady, with a tense gunfight taking place in one of the season’s last episodes. With the season five finale being one of the best episodes of Virgin River, it wraps up an incredible series of events that make the show even more exciting than when it first started.

2. Season 1 (2019)

The One Where Mel Arrives in Virgin River

The beginning of season 1, episode 1, “Carry On” has one of the best needle drops of the entire show – the series opens with Mel driving her red BMW towards Virgin River, a small town in Northern California where she’s headed to work as a nurse after the death of her husband Mark. The song that plays is “The World Spins Madly On” and it defines Mel’s journey throughout most of the seasons, but especially the first and second. When Mel leaves busy Los Angeles and experiences the natural beauty and friendliness of Virgin River, her already upturned life gets some new turbulence. What she didn’t expect was to meet a handsome bar owner, Jack, and begin a brand-new life chapter.

Since this is how season one started, it’s great because of the story it desires to establish. The trope of a big city girl moving to a small town and meeting the love of her life feels like a Hallmark movie, which is why the show is so popular in the first place. Season one gives Virgin River that essential comfort-watch quality, something fans can get into at any moment and enjoy on both slow and fast days. Season one also establishes all the major characters, from Mel, Jack, Doc and Hope to Preacher, Brady, and the “Sewing Circle” ladies Connie, Jo Ellen, Lydia, and Muriel (besides Hope). The season shows off the dynamics between the characters, and viewers step into the Virgin River world from Mel’s perspective, which in later seasons shifts from time to time to more of an ensemble series, giving the other characters a lot more airtime, too.

1. Season 6 (2024)

The One When Mel and Jack Get Married

The most recent (not to call it ‘final’) season of Virgin River, season 6, premiered in December 2024, and it very quickly broke viewership records. This makes sense, as the fans were waiting for about a year to finally see Mel and Jack plan out their wedding and get married. The wedding happens in the season finale, where Mel is the one to get cold feet moments before, but her and Jack take a lovely solo moment to make sure their decision to marry is the right one. This season is all about love, resolving interpersonal issues, and realizing what all the characters truly desire. It also gives Muriel a scary health situation (which fans won’t forgive easily), but shows her resilience in the face of a crisis.

Also on the docket: Doc’s clinic may be in trouble, Lizzie and Denny are expecting a baby (and handling it as well as people in their early 20s could), Brie and Brady may be back on again (yay?!) but Mike proposes to Brie, and Charmaine goes missing? Finally, the season also establishes the appearance of Mel’s biological father, Everett (John Allen Nelson), and takes viewers through flashbacks of him meeting Mel’s mom Sarah (Jessica Rothe) right there, in Virgin River, sometime in the 1970s. The flashbacks also show some of the current Virgin River residents (like Connie as a young woman and Burt the mechanic as a child), giving viewers a teaser of a potential prequel about Everett and Sarah. Though fans know how their story ends, Everett’s flashbacks to the time he met Sarah are as romantic as Mel and Jack’s story. Overall, season 6 did have some plot holes, but it was beautifully shot, and gave viewers a lot more to expect when the seventh season finally comes.