Everyone has that one show that pops up in the “Top Picks” section of Netflix they know they’re going to watch eventually. In my case, it was Virgin River. After I’d revisited my other favourite shows for the third time, I gave in.
It’s easy to see the series’s appeal. It has a somewhat nostalgic Gilmore Girls quality to it—a young white woman takes refuge in a small town where the scenery is beautiful and the local characters are familiar and likable. But another, perhaps less obvious, trope I noticed was that of the lone Black character, a beloved and misunderstood sidekick. Virgin River’s John “Preacher” Middleton, played by Colin Lawrence, is the male lead’s quiet and dependable best friend. He’s an army veteran and a chef with an organic vegetable garden, but the first few seasons of the show don’t reveal much else about him.
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