The following article contains spoilers for Virgin River season seven.
Virgin River season seven has dropped on Netflix all at once, and true to form, the season has packed in a raft of cliffhangers, twists, and melodramatic reveals.
After all these years of drama, it’s safe to say viewers have become attached to the long-term cast members, so news of their departure always comes as a surprise. And season seven says goodbye to not one but two long-term characters.
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Over the last seven seasons, the cast has remained mostly stable with only a handful of changes. Speaking to Deadline, showrunner Patrick Sean Smith said he didn’t plan to use cast shake-ups as a means of keeping the show fresh.
“For me, I’m just trying to look to the longevity of the show and making sure that the characters that we’re keeping have enough story engine in them to keep going,” he said.
“So I can’t say there are any specific cast shakeups planned, but I think we will have to start to – as characters run their course – make some decisions and bring in some new blood.”
However, for season eight, we’re saying goodbye to detective Mike Valenzuela (played by Marco Grazzini) and Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley). The former has been a series regular since season three, while Hammersley has been a staple since day one.
But you don’t have to bust out the tissues just yet. “I love Marco and could see his character coming back in a more substantive role if the creative is right,” Smith told Deadline.
As for Charmaine, Smith added: “No plans for Charmaine to be back in Season 8 but that’s not to say, when the right time comes, I’d love to bring the character back for something other than more cliffhangers and more lies on pregnancies.”
Speaking of cliffhangers – season seven has debuted to some divisive reviews.
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ScreenRant called it “underwhelming” and “half-baked”, but Tech Radar gave it four and a half stars, specifically citing its set-up of season eight – which has already been confirmed – as a positive.
They wrote: “The best way to describe it is eating an undercooked steak when you ordered it well done. You know that the potential to have exactly what you want is right there, but it’s not fully materialised. While that’s less than satisfying for season 7, I think it’s a tactical decision — meaning that Virgin River season 8 is going to be explosive.”
Virgin River is now available to watch on Netflix.
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