Spoilers follow for Widow’s Bay Season 1, which is now available to stream on Apple TV.
Now that the first season of Widow’s Bay has ended, let’s dive deeper into the passionate conversation that’s been growing exponentially with each new episode. Is it really the best new TV show of the summer? On the whole, I think the answer is a resounding yes. The Apple TV series, created by Katie Dippold, has pulled off a minor miracle in effectively balancing its blend of horror and comedy and its deep bench of inspirations — Stephen King’s multitude of spooky New England hauntings and happenings, Twin Peaks, John Carpenter, Jaws, the list goes on — without getting pulled too far in any one direction. There’s simply nothing like it on TV right now.
Widow’s Bay is about a tiny, insular island off the coast of New England that’s basically stuck in a past era. It’s accessible only via unreliable ferry, cell service is practically nonexistent, and the economy has long been sustained by fishing and whaling. The only person desperate to revitalize the place is Mayor Tom Loftis (an outstanding Matthew Rhys), and everyone hates him and his plan to turn Widow’s Bay into the “next Martha’s Vineyard” tourist destination — primarily because the born-and-raised islanders believe their home has been super-haunted since its founding.
Part of what makes the paranoia funny is how its characters weather their superstitions. There’s the middle-of-the-road hushed terror of the townie priest (Toby Huss), but also the extremes in the ranting and raving sea dog Wyck Crawford (an always great Stephen Root) and the matter-of-fact acceptance of chainsmoking mayoral office worker Rosemary (Dale Dickey, who gets her moment to shine in tracing the generational lineage of the island’s curse in Episode 9, “Emergency Shelter”). What ties them all together, though, is their certainty of the unavoidable force that grips the island, and Tom is a dangerous idiot for trying to pretend otherwise.
That gets to the heart of what Widow’s Bay is really about. For the show being chapterized like a monster-of-the-week takedown in its horror specialty of choice — IT, Carrie/Wicker Man, Michael Myers, etc. — its overarching question lies in how a population makes peace with the very land it resides on. How do they deal with the burden of the sordid legacy of a place laden with hundreds of years of history that includes human sacrifice, cannibalism, and other strife? For Tom, specifically: How does someone be a good custodian of a place they don’t — or even really want to — understand?
Early in the season, Tom, who was born off-island and became mayor by default (he ran uncontested), brushes off as lunatic whispers the claims that the island has “awakened.” By Episode 2, “The Lodgings,” he starts to buy into the ghost stories after spending a night at the Breakwater, the charming yet creepy local inn. He finally accepts the malevolence at the heart of Widow’s Bay in Episode 5, “What to Expect on Your Trip” — which closes out with a hilarious 311 needle drop — when he takes diabolical-looking mushrooms that are meant to connect him to the island’s source. The practical, process-oriented Tom then must decide: Is it time to attempt to tame or bargain with the supernatural? From what we learn about the island’s history in Episodes 6 and 7, what Tom at first considers to be an optional negotiation turns out to be mandatory for the town's leaders.
As thematically interesting as it is, Widow’s Bay would not be as successful without all of the involved talent, both in front of and behind the camera. There’s not a stinker in the cast, down to the townie randos who make entire meals out of scraps of dialogue — like the dour white-hair who shows up late in the season to yarn about island history during the impending generational storm, or even the janitor who asks if a trash can had enough to eat. Then there’s the regulars: Kingston Rumi Southwick (Presumed Innocent) as Tom’s socially pliable teenage son, Evan; Kevin Carroll (The Leftovers) as local “I can’t believe this shit” cop Bechir; the hilarious Jeff Hiller (Somebody Somewhere) as mayor’s office employee Dale; K Callan (Knives Out) as Tom’s elderly secretary Ruth who takes off around 3pm; Christian Clemenson as the oddball town doctor; and so on. Dippold, who was a writer on Parks and Recreation, knows how to flesh out a backwoods town. Hell, she even sneaks in a very Parks and Rec-ian town hall with locals braying contradictory pleas at Tom while he’s tripping balls. Even the guest stars — Tim Balz (The Righteous Gemstones), Chris Fleming, Betty Gilpin (GLOW), Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass) — are here, albeit briefly, giving inspired performances.
But the cast is held down by its big three characters. It’s hardly a surprise that Rhys (The Americans, The Beast in Me) is fantastic as Tom — a man who is a pathetic try-hard to most around him, but is ultimately caught up in his own grief. Root, similarly, stands out as Wyck, who refuses to let Tom allow the island to fall to calamity. Last but certainly not least is Kate O’Flynn’s Patricia, the breakout fan favorite of Widow’s Bay. If there’s one ding I can make at the series, it’s that its first three episodes don’t fully lock in until the Patricia-forward episode, “Beach Reads,” which is probably one of the best episodes of TV for the year, full stop. (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Episode 5 gets some worthy competition!) O’Flynn makes incredible choices with Patricia’s dichotomous unflagging self-assurance and deep insecurities throughout the season, but it’s that episode in particular, wherein she accidentally does witchcraft on the town — and again in the slasher episode “Your Baggage” — that she gets to shine most.
The DNA from the episodes’ directors also seeps through to make the tone of Widow’s Bay so successful. Hiro Murai, who directed most of Atlanta as well as several episodes of Barry, helmed five episodes. Andrew DeYoung — a Tim Robinson collaborator who directed the 2024 film Friendship and five episodes of The Chair Company, as well as other revered comedy series like Pen15 and The Other Two — and Sam Donovan (Severance, The Crown) get two episodes apiece. And X/Pearl/MaXXXine auteur Ti West took the one-off flashback episode. Nothing to scoff at!
By the season finale, it’s certain the island is governed by an ancient and unseen eldritch, blood-thirsty entity. The question of how Tom and the other islanders will deal with it remains. I cannot wait to see what they’ll do in Season 2.
