Ransom Canyon’s Yancy copies unhinged Virgin River character in the best possible way

If you’re binging Ransom Canyon and thinking bad boy Yancy Grey is familiar, you’d be right – and you only need to look to another Netflix series for answers.

Arriving as a handsome stranger in town during Episode 1, Yancy becomes one of the new TV show’s most important characters by the end of the season. While he might come across as slippery with questionable intentions, Yancy has a heart of gold underneath.

By Episode 5, Yancy’s proved he can turn his hand to anything. Winning $20,000 in a rodeo contest to pay off cronies from his prison stretch – while secretly working with police to get them arrested – seemed like his turning point, but Yancy’s traumatic past soon caught up with him.

If you’re reading this and feeling as though Yancy is a character you’ve seen somewhere before, you’d be right. All it takes is revisiting Virgin River to see where the similarities lie… and it’s not all coincidental. 

Ransom Canyon’s Yancy is the cowboy version of Virgin River’s Brady 

While Ransom Canyon is based on the book series by Jodi Thomas, Yancy is basically Virgin River’s Brady in a cowboy hat. Both bad boys gone good, their terrible decision-making continuously gets them into trouble, despite their hearts being in the right place.

Netflix

Honestly, none of this is too surprising. When the binge-worthy TV show was first announced, Netflix billed it as “Virgin River meets Yellowstone,” clearly knowing the existing fanbase would get a lot out of a familiar storyline. 

While Brady has a complicated love with Brie, Yancy finds his with Ellie… but it all could end well at some point down the line.

“I’m just as curious as the fans will be! I don’t get to know the full thing,” Schumacher said in an interview. “I think that there is a real love and a real connection there. Like in life, drama and love are complicated. It’s not an easy thing to navigate. And I think that that will be true for these two.”

Clearly, neither Brady nor Yancy knows what they’re doing with their feelings. Brady blurted out his undying love for Brie at Mel and Jack’s wedding, not knowing Mike would ask Brie to marry him even after finding out she’s cheated. Arguably, Yancy has done something even worse… he’s got a secret wife he’s kept on the down low.

It’s this level of love-locked drama that’s going to have Virgin River fans racing through Ransom Canyon’s 10-episode run. But there’s still one difference to keep in mind, and it’s got everything to do with Yancy. 

“It’s definitely got some darker elements and a lot more drama than Virgin River,” Schumacher continued. “The show is fantastic, but I think we exist in our own world.”

Ransom Canyon is streaming on Netflix now. For more, check out shows to watch like Virgin River, new TV shows streaming this month, the best TV shows of the year so far, and anticipated 2025 releases you cannot miss.