3/11/2024 0 Comments Wheres virgin river castLiterally lost on a dark country road when she first arrives, she can’t initially access or see into this new world. On the other hand, as an outsider, Mel arrives in Virgin River as if at an opaque door. Only by escaping the bar-as many fans have noticed, once Mel enters the picture romantically he spends little time there-can Jack hope to gain new perspective, that is, to “see” the windows on his own bar. To enter into the bar is to banish the fresh perspectives on the world that windows can frame and make possible. Stuck in the tired rhythms of bar management, mild alcoholism, and the casual hedonism of his relationship with Charmaine, the Jack of the early seasons can’t see the light outside the bar. When outside the clinic, we see opaque doors which, from the inside, transform into windows of multi-colored stained glass.Īs “windows” into the respective worlds of Jack and Mel, these images could not be more iilluminating. When outside the bar, we see windows which vanish upon entry. We are again invited into a place that is at once emotionally resonant and architecturally paradoxical: a perfect mirror image of Jack’s Bar. We see a stained glass window projecting almost mystical color onto the hardwood floors and wall paneling. When Mel enters, we see something quite mysterious: From the outside we see a large, opaque red door: But this seeming paradox is actually perfectly consistent with another impossible architecture central to Virgin River: the clinic.Ĭonsider the very first moment Mel walks into the clinic. Taken alone, one could dismiss this apparent inconsistency as a mere production oversight, like the famous season 8 coffee cup in Game of Thrones. Where are the windows? The garage-style windows shown in the exterior establishing shot surely cannot be the same ones we see near the ceiling in the interior shot behind Hope and Jack. Now compare it with these also very typical shots of the inside of the bar: First, consider this utterly typical shot of the outside of the bar: But Jack’s Bar resists easy categorization, inviting us to consider the possibility that the normal laws of time and space may not apply in Virgin River. After all, it’s the sometimes home of Jack, Brie, and even Brady. The location of so many key events and community activities, from the gunshot Jack takes in the stomach to the sewing circle, Jack’s Bar should offer us, as viewers, a central point of continuity in the series. And as many fans know, the show is shot not in California, or even the US for that matter, but in British Columbia near Squamish, where the actual Jack’s Bar operates as “The Watershed Grill.” In drone-shot scene transitions throughout every episode, we’re treated to mountain range vistas that seem just a little too steep for Northern California. And yet, especially for those familiar with that region of the US, something is very wrong about this landscape. On the surface, the show seems convinced that it takes place in a sleepy Northern California town, not far from the border with Oregon. One of the earliest and most formative bonding moments between Mel and Jack happens on the bank of a river, as they watch bald eagles turn gentle circles in the sky.īut what is this place? Where is this place? What are its borders and boundaries? And as many viewers have wondered, noticing the perceived length of pregnancies in the town, how and at what pace does time flow in this land of undeniable natural beauty? Posts on this very board regularly gush over the landscape of pristine mountains and wide rivers, ponderosa pine and sitka spruce towering over stone-strewn banks, “clear” and “virgin” waters flowing by. Many fans of Virgin River, myself included, will tell you that they love the show for its setting.
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