Adapting a popular series of novels, the Netflix series Sweet Magnolias has been a boon for those seeking heartfelt drama that's not too soapy. Featuring love, loss and the friendships in between, the series has been a hit with both viewers and critics. This has caused quite a bit of comparison to another very similar series: Virgin River.
Yet another romantic novel adaptation with somewhat similar themes, Virgin River is many times mentioned in the same sentence as Sweet Magnolias. They even feature towns with nice sounding, dreamy names (Virgin River and Serenity). Despite this, the shows really aren't that much alike, and there are key differences that separate them. Here's a look at what makes these dramas so great, as well as more different than people realize.
What Are Virgin River and Sweet Magnolias About?
Sweet Magnolias adapts the book series from Sherryl Woods, a prolific romance and mystery writer with over 100 books to her name. The series follows the eponymous Sweet Magnolias, a trio of women who've been friends for years. While going through a painful divorce, one of the women, Maddie, leans on her friends as they all deal with the various complexities of life. Premiering on Netflix in 2020, the successful show's second season just hit the streaming platform.
Virgin River is both another Netflix series and another novel adaptation, based off of the books from Robyn Carr. The protagonist is Melinda Monroe, a nurse practitioner who moves to the secluded Virgin River for a new start as a doctor's assistant. She brings with her several painful memories and a life that she's not quite put past her, all while finding out that her quaint new town is just as multifaceted. Virgin River's airing predates Sweet Magnolias by a few months, debuting on Netflix at the tail end of 2019. Since then, it's had two more seasons, with a fourth and fifth on the way. Thematically, there might be some overlap between the two shows, but there's certainly a lot less than people put on.
How Sweet Magnolias and Virgin River are Different
Outside of a somewhat similar tone, there's really not that many similarities in Sweet Magnolias or Virgin River. Perhaps the biggest connection might be the main women in both shows dealing with a painful loss, but even this is a fairly common plot that doesn't make the shows any more related than any other. The circumstances are different, however, and that makes for much different stories.
Virgin River is more of a true romance show, focusing on the relationship between Melinda and Jack Sheridan. On the other hand, Sweet Magnolias is much more of an ensemble group show, with each of the women and even their kids being focused on pretty evenly. Likewise, while neither show features much in the way of "mature" content common on other Netflix shows, Virgin River is perhaps the more "Hallmark Channel" in tone of the two series'. All in all, however, both Virgin River and Sweet Magnolias are feel-good, relatively uplifting and optimistic stories.
Of course, if a (very likely) trend of similar shows are made for mainstream streaming platforms, this could make people realize how different the "originators" already were. Given that they both hit their stride during the worst of the pandemic, the biggest connection may be that both of these shows allowed a gateway for people to experience a more positive and relatively cheerful situation, and all it took was turning on Netflix.