Widow’s Bay is what happens when you let someone’s creativity run wild to create something terrifying, intimate, and hilarious. Because on the surface, this show is giving horror. From the residents to the cannibalism, it all screams spooky. But this is a show grounded in laughing in the face of darkness. And it feeds that dark humor funny bone that I have in a way that no show ever has.
Think of this post as part review and part reasons why you should watch. Because you shouldn’t just watch because of the people in front of the camera. (Matthew Rhys really is great though.) You should also watch because of the creator Katie Dippold and the rich storytelling that doesn’t feel like unwashed and recycled Hollywood garbage.
MORE: Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen Review: New Marriage Fears Unlocked
One Second I’m Crying, Then I’m Laughing
When it comes to Widow’s Bay Season 1, it does feel like a lot of genres coming together. You’ve got the horror aspect of what keeps these people terrified about what goes bump in the night. And then you have the comedy aspect that is born of Dippold’s background as a writer on Parks and Recreation that is clearly seen in the town’s folk way of being. And then you have the action sequences wrapped up with sci-fi that hint at a greater darkness.
What makes this show different is that other shows would’ve drowned under all those genres. They wouldn’t know the difference between their ass and their elbow or whatever the saying is. Widow’s Bay knows that terror is seeped into the bones of this island. But it also knows that like a lot of us, dark humor gets us by. The show knows that the world isn’t set in stone and that people don’t fit into a nice little box.
It also takes the things that it has, like Tom’s confidence, Patricia’s worry, or Wyck’s annoyance, and beautifully blends it together to not just tell a story about horror. This is a story about humanity and what happens when it’s stripped away to keep something alive. But it’s also about how this world sucks. It’s always sucked and it will continue to suck. So what do we do from here on out? Do we let it destroy us? Or do we find the good within the darkness and continue fighting without losing ourselves?
That’s why the title of this section is “One Second I’m Crying, Then I’m Laughing.” Because Widow’s Bay has managed to tear me apart when it comes to the lengths a father is willing to go not just to protect his child but to make sure their child has a fulfilling life. And then the next second I’m laughing because Tom is so obvious in how he wants to sleep with the tourist on the island and Patricia clocks him in the same way that The Office’s Pam would clock Michael Scott.
MORE: NEON’s Queer Horror Film Leviticus Drops Official Trailer
World Building that Any Show Would Be Jealous Of
Widow’s Bay is cohesive, engaging, and it knows who it is. It’s funny and weird enough on its own outside the lore to keep going for seasons. And the lore that we have so far is a delightful tapestry that begs for a Season 2. So let’s talk about it.
What’s happening on this island is real. This isn’t going to be like Yellowjackets, sorry to whoever likes that show, where you don’t know if it’s supernatural or not for a bit. Or even in its current season. The spooky things on this island are real. And Tom, our lovely mayor, is doing his best to bring new people on to the island in hopes of saving it but also making sure that his son isn’t just existing on that island.
Any other show would have made it that Tom never sees the spooky things. Hell, they would even make it that the viewers doubt if there are spooky things and the islanders are just crazy. But the show doesn’t shy away from Tom experiencing the horrors of this island, coming to understand them, and still deciding to be like the mayor from Jaws. And this is only achievable because of the creeping lore that we are discovering alongside Tom in Widow’s Bay Season 1.
The only other show that I can compare the strength of this lore to is probably FROM. At its heart, that show is about the people. But the lore of it is so hauntingly woven into every breath of their existence, that it feels like another character. That’s what I feel when I watch Widow’s Bay. And by the time that the show ends, everything is not figured out. But you’re left with this raw hunger to know how these people survived and what kept them going in this hell hole that we’ve barely scratched the surface of.
Another show that the lore of Widow’s Bay reminds me of is Lost. That show is very controversial for a lot of reasons. But it excelled in that everything mattered. Something that had happened in Season 1 could come back or be explained in Season 3. It also built the kind of tapestry that you can sit down at home and try to piece together in your downtime because you want to figure it out. There was need in Lost and the same is present in this show.
Widow’s Bay also treats the horror on this island like a storybook. It’s built on legends that are grounded in truth. Just sometimes those legends are twisted up into something ugly decades down the line like a twisted game of telephone. But the monsters are real and so are the lives lost to it. And it just adds to the layering that is so juicy when it comes to this show.
MORE: INTERVIEW: Martín Mauregui on Working with the Iconic Carmen Maura in Crazy Old Lady
The Cast & Crew is a Thing of Beauty
When it comes to this show, absolutely come for Matthew Rhys’ Tom Loftis. He’s like if Ben from Parks and Recreation never met Leslie but was also the morose twin brother of Michael Scott from The Office. Let’s not forget the dash of the mayor from Jaws. And better yet, he doesn’t get stuck on this show being the guy we meet in Episode 1. He sees the things around him and he continues to grow, developing into this complex character that literally made me cry in the final episode.
Rhys isn’t the only reason why you should be watching the show when it comes to the cast and the crew.
Patricia, played by Kate O’Flynn is Tom’s foil. She clocks him at every turn and asks the kind of questions where I know he’s annoyed with her but she’s speaking truth so he can’t do anything. And yes she’s a little lonely. Also she’s a little weird in her desperation to be liked. But that’s human nature. People want to be seen and cared about. That’s what makes Patricia special. But also, there’s a scene with Patricia that sees her take on the final girl role in a way that was beautifully staged, from the music to the shotgun. When you see it ask yourself: why don’t we always do this in horror?
Then there’s that beautiful crew aka the creator and writer Katie Dippold. She wrote 31 episodes of Parks and Recreation and 54 episodes of Mad TV. She was also a co-producer on both shows. And you can see her fingerprints all over these characters but especially the townspeople. The ensemble is irrational half the time and then intense in their love for this island or their hate for Tom. And it just makes the horror better and the laughs louder.
While I can go on and on in this review, I’m going to have to check myself to spotlight this last essential part of Widow’s Bay: the look.
This show is atmospheric in the same way that Twin Peaks was. Every shot had a purpose, nothing was wasted, and scenes were made more intense because of the work done by the directors which included Hiro Murai, Andrew DeYoung, Samuel Donovan, and Ti West. Also shout out to Christian Sprenger the director of photography aka the cinematographer. That spooky intensity that was the spine of this show, the cinematography just elevated it all and made it to the masterpiece it was.
Widow’s Bay premieres April 29th on Apple TV.
