Fans are all waiting with bated breath for the next chapter of Jack and Mel’s story, but has Virgin River gone off the deep end?

Virgin River fans are blasting the Netflix show’s “soap opera” storylines ahead of the highly-anticipated release of its sixth season.

Based on the books by Robyn Carr, the series follows Mel Monroe (played by Alexandra Breckenridge) who moves to an idyllic small town in Northern California following a tragedy.

After settling into her new role as a nurse practitioner and falling for ex-Marine Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson), Mel soon realises living in the town won’t be as easy as she thought.

Mel and Jack’s story has drawn in a loyal fanbase with every season, who have been gripped by their personal dilemmas as well as plenty of twists and turns for the other residents.

But has Virgin River strayed off-course in recent years? Fans have been debating the dubious quality of some of the show’s latest storylines.

One viewer recently took to Reddit to fume: “The show is ruined now.”

Although they admitted they still “loved the show” and will be binge-watching the new season when it’s finally released, they had some huge issues with the changes it’s made to the original novels.

“I’m on the 5th book in the Virgin River book series, and holy c**p, the show completely ruined the books!!!!” the post continued.

“For anyone who’s read the books I think you can relate. I don’t get why they strayed from the book so much.

“There are 20+ books in the series with endless amounts of ways to create stories and the books do it so well.

“There are so many plots in the series on TV that are from the books but are from different characters in the books and put into characters in the show and it makes the show so overly dramatic like a soap opera.”

One storyline in particular from the latest season had this viewer pulling their hair out when Mel finally reunited with her biological father Everett Reid (John Allen Nelson).

“The final straw for me was in season five when Mel finds out her mother had an affair with a guy in Virgin River and that man still HAPPENS to be there and Mel HAPPENED to come to virgin river for her job,” they wrote.

“I mean like cmon, really? That’s making it soooo soap opera-y.”

Several more fans took to the comments to agree with the criticisms, though confessed they’ll still be seated when season six is finally released.

“Yeah the storyline about Mel’s dad is incredibly cheesy and unnecessary. I’ll still watch it tho lol,” one viewer said. “I’ll have to get my hands on some of the books.”

“Yeah, I love the books!” another said. “I binged after the first season so I was not loving how the show plotted out.

“However, I do love the characters and the actors who play them in the series (at least the ones through the first season) because I imagined that I was reading.”

Will you be checking out the next season or has Virgin River officially gone off the rails?

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