Summary
As soon as you put down Season 2, you will be wanting Season 3.
This review of Netflix’s Virgin River season 2 contains no spoilers. The romantic drama series will be released on the platform on November 27, 2020.
Virgin River is a guilty pleasure that easily sways audiences during the cold seasons. Its main selling point is its homely, peaceful feeling. It’s easy to imagine packing your suitcase and veering off to a log cabin next to the lake and finally feeling content with your life, breathing in the fresh air and smelling the pine cones. It’s a realistic concept that we watch and feel it’s otherworldly. But in reality, it’s a community many would love to live by. Families visit these villages as holiday destinations, but why not just live there? Virgin River teases you to dream and encourages audiences to pour a mug of hot chocolate and take in the sweet drama.
The first season of Virgin River brought all the twists and turns as Mel Monroe decided she needed to leave the hustle and bustle of the city and start a temporary new life after the untimely tragic death of her husband. The series left it with Mel leaving Virgin River with the anticipation of never coming back. Virgin River highlights a lesson that we can all drink; often, mental scars can take a long time to heal, no matter where you place yourself or what you do. That’s certainly a key theme in the second chapter of this story.
There’s this overbearing spirituality in the second season of Virgin River. All the characters seem to have this yearning for a specific fate; it oozes in this game of destiny that will arrive and grace them with a comfortable life. Everyone wants to be in love, but not be in pain — the story is basked in the mission for happiness.
Mel does return to Virgin River in season 2, but there’s more riding on her personal life. If there are hope and belief that the character will establish a simple, loving relationship with Jack, then those chances are extinguished with the complexities of their inner circle. Mel represents escapism; fleeing from trauma and attempting to escape the past. In season 2, the trauma catches up to her, and the true test of the character is how she deals with it.
Virgin River season 2 is the definition of complicated; the community is so incestuous that every romantic relationship has a third person listening in. The characters do not appear to be able to get a dignified break, with drug gangs looming and a family planning storyline becoming a hindrance to a possible future. There’s plenty to chew here, and it will leave audiences satisfied. The series situates itself in such a way that the audience feels like the gossiper, resembling Hope in the true form as the characters bamboozle around each other with secrets and love.
But all in all, the Netflix series continues to have this warmth to the story; regardless of the dangerous subplots, themes of PTSD, and conspiracies, Virgin River always goes full circle in a matter of seconds and reminds the audience of the gentle nature the story intends to direct. It’s not designed to bring a dark undertaking of depressive themes; it’s a story of hope and togetherness. And I believe this is why this little gem is addictive — sometimes it’s relaxing to sit back and watch a TV series where characters figure out their lives and face the traumas; it’s a soft reminder that we are all human. While many critics will give it that “Hallmark” vibe, the writers prove them wrong with a taste for longevity. As soon as you put down Season 2, you will be wanting Season 3.
