Chad Michael Murray and Morgan Kohan in Sullivan's Crossing. (Jessie Redmond/CW/Freemantle/Courtesy Everett Collection)A city girl relocates to a sleepy town to restart her life, reconnect with her family and turn over a new page.
It's not Cousins Beach, Massachusetts, Ransom Canyon, Texas or Serenity, South Carolina. And it's not Virgin River, California, either. But it's close. Welcome to Timberlake, the picturesque Canadian town at the center of Sullivan's Crossing - a leafy, idyllic setting that can feel like a welcomed respite from the crazed real world. Here, time slows down, people really talk to each other and you can tune in a little more to the finer details of life to figure out what matters most.
Adapted from the bestselling books by Virgin River author Robyn Carr, Sullivan's Crossing follows Boston neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan), whose perfectly planned life is upended after a professional crisis. She moves back to her hometown in rural Nova Scotia for a fresh start and to rebuild her relationship with her estranged father, Sully (Gilmore Girls' Scott Patterson), all the while unexpectedly falling in love with a ruggedly handsome handyman named Cal (One Tree Hill's Chad Michael Murray) and trying to save the family campground, The Crossing, from financial ruin and real estate vultures.
Chad Michael Murray in Sullivan's Crossing. (Jessie Redmond/CW/Freemantl /Courtesy Everett Collection)But Maggie's transition from the big city to small-town living is anything but smooth amid romantic turmoil, unexpected reunions and life-altering decisions. There are love triangles. Makeups and breakups. Family secrets unearthed and relationships mended. Pregnancies and miscarriages.
Medical mysteries and life-and-death crises. Births and deaths. Sullivan's Crossing has it all.
Canadian catnipThe series first originated in Canada, premiering March 19, 2023, on CTV, where it was the network's most-watched Canadian drama during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 broadcast seasons. It later aired stateside on the CW, where it is one of the network's most-watched shows for three seasons and counting.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt found a whole new audience when its first two seasons premiered on Netflix on July 8. The show was streaming catnip for American viewers - Season 1 was one of the top 10 most-watched shows in the U.S. for six consecutive weeks this summer. Season 2 followed, holding its own with three weeks in the top 10 in the U.S.
When Season 3 arrived on Netflix Aug. 11, Sullivan's Crossing reappeared alongside the streamer's most popular titles globally and in the U.S., proving its effect on audiences was not a fluke.
Chad Michael Murray and Morgan Kohan in Sullivan's Crossing. (Jessie Redmond/CW/Freemantle/ Courtesy Everett Collection)The steady growth in streaming interest and viewership has turned Sullivan's Crossing into a unique case study of what can go right when an older show grabs a new audience."It has been really nice in that it has been this slow build-out, whereas other shows will come in, Season 1 will be huge and then [it] dies off in Seasons 2 and 3," series star Kohan tells Yahoo. "This seems the opposite of that, which has been very affirming in how much people resonate with these stories."A relatable escape from realitySullivan's Crossing fans have cited the show's relatively low stakes, predictability of the storylines and relatable characters as main reasons why it's prime for binge-watching. It's also dependable, a signature of the cozy, comfort TV the show is often described as.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"Things can happen to [the characters], but you're pretty sure you're not going to get Game of Thrones or Ned Stark-ed," Megan Vick, freelance writer and Television Critics Association board member, tells Yahoo, referencing one of the biggest plot twists in recent TV history when the presumed Game of Thrones protagonist was dramatically killed off in Season 1, heightening the sense that no one was safe. Instead, you go into it with the mindset of, "'I'm going to spend 45 minutes with these people who are likable and are trying to do their best.' There is no politics. It's just, 'OK, how are we going to save this campground? How are we going to handle this next medical emergency?'"Steve Lund, Dakota Taylor, Chad Michael Murray and Morgan Kohan in Sullivan's Crossing. (Jessie Redmond/CW/Freemantle/Courtesy Everett Collection)Alexa LaMalfa became a fan of Sullivan's Crossing earlier this year. She was scrolling through Netflix, bored with what she had been watching, saw that the show was new, and quickly binge-watched the first two seasons in a few days. Desperate to know what happened in Season 3, LaMalfa - who admits she's an "absolute sucker for shows like this," listing Hart of Dixie and Virgin River as some of her favorites - downloaded the CW app and watched the rest of the episodes there."It represented family [and] community. I