Netflix missed out on Hallmark’s biggest TV show that’s perfect for Virgin River fans

Virgin River Season 7 won’t be with us for yonks… so now what? Fans should move over to Hallmark for the hit TV show that should have been on Netflix.

In spite of a few twee Christmas movies, Netflix and Hallmark is probably not the streaming service crossover you expected. While one delivers hard-hitting drama and unhinged twists, the other, ahem, doesn’t.

Until now. Since 2019, Virgin River has been one of Netflix’s most successful shows, with Season 7 making it the longest-running original series of the bunch. As we said in our Season 6 review, what makes it so brilliant is its focus on day-to-day drama.

But how does this link to Hallmark? Now-fired content executive Lisa Hamilton Daly was at Netflix when Hallmark’s biggest hit came along, originally developed for the mainstream platform. That never happened, but fans can still catch the hype for themselves.

Virgin River fans will love Hallmark’s The Way Home

Daly originally developed The Way Home at Netflix before she became executive vice president of programming at Hallmark in 2021. When she left, she took the show with her, and the rest is history.

Hallmark

Full disclosure – The Way Home isn’t exactly the same kind of small-town drama as Virgin River. This time around, we’re focusing on three generations of women in the Landry family through Alice, Kat, and Del (played by Four Weddings and a Funeral star Andie MacDowell). But that’s not all; thanks to a magic time-traveling pond on their land, they can also access multiple timelines.

Thanks to Alice’s accidental discovery, the family connect to their past in the 1990s, 1800s, and now the 1970s. If you think that sounds ridiculously confusing, you’d be right. If you’ve ever been part of a Virgin River group online, imagine the same thing, only the lore is 100 times more intense.

Fans are currently up to Season 3, with mysteries including an abandoned baby, an unidentified couple who seemingly left it behind, and a son who got stuck in 1790 after falling in the pond while chasing his dog. Oh, and Alice’s dead grandad is now time-traveling as a teenager, and nobody knows how.

It’s a binge-worthy TV show that puts your brain to work, but the payoff is more than satisfying. Imagine the romance of Mel and Jack’s wedding, the jeopardy of Charmaine’s disappearance, and the lengthy grudge held between Doc and Everett, and make it more unhinged.

If The Way Home is taking your fancy, Seasons 1-2 are already on Hallmark+, with Season 3 streaming weekly on the Hallmark Channel.

Virgin River Season 6 is on Netflix now. Check out our series recap and ending explained, the verdict of Preacher’s trial, and what Everett had to tell Mel.