Apple TV, once again, has proven why that R125/m subscription hasn’t gone to waste. Widow’s Bay is just the latest excuse to spend a weekend binging some damn good television. We’re a little late to the Widow’s Bay party, which launched at the end of April. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise for us, and presumably, you.
Widow’s Bay is a small-town mystery done right. Series creator Katie Dippold certainly knows how to keep viewers coming back for more of the horror-comedy drama, and we can’t imagine how excruciating the week-long wait for episodes must’ve been. Heck, the series only recently just wrapped up its tenth and final episode in June.
Not quite Severance, but good in its own right
We can’t quite figure out how to sell Widow’s Bay. Except for the fact that it replicates Dark’s mystery trappings exceedingly well, particularly in the early episodes. We even caught a whiff of Flanagan’s brilliant The Haunting of Hill House, even though Widow’s Bay never really had us sold on its ensemble cast, bar a character or two.
That’s not to say Apple TV’s newest horror does bad by its characters. Easily the best of the lot is Matthew Rhys, who stars as Widow’s Bay‘s sceptical but good-natured mayor as he attempts to turn the tiny New England town into the next Martha’s Vineyard. Stephen Root steps into the role of a cynical fisherman looking to put an end to the threat that is Widow’s Bay. Chaos, obviously, ensues as more and more horrific things begin happening.
The series kicks off how many good horror mysteries do. An uncanny fog and the disappearance of one of Widow’s Bay’s fishermen, with no real leads on where they might’ve gone. Tom, the mayor, brushes it off against his better judgment so that he can go and meet a reporter from the New York Times, hoping for a good review.
Widow’s Bay slowly fills us in on the town’s checkered past. Whisperings of a curse, clown killers from the 50s, and plenty else besides. None of this ever feels like the series is dumping exposition for the sake of it, but rather allowing the series to unfold naturally. That’s a mark of good writing, even if it tends to feel a bit rigid at points.
What2Watch: Fallout
It’s not ’til Tom gets a taste of what Widow’s Bay has in store for him that he starts to take things seriously. We’ll leave it at that, for now. As great as the mystery narrative is, helped along by a sometimes genuinely scary something that we couldn’t put our finger on, Widow’s Bay is surprisingly funny. It’s certainly got some funny words, but Widow’s Bay definitely got the biggest chuckles from us when it lets the cameramen breathe.
Still, the laughs never overstay their welcome. Much of that is down to the cast, who can switch between comedy and horror at the flip of a switch. Matthew Rhys is perhaps the best at this. Good thing, then, that he’s the star of the show. Others, like Kevin Carroll, still manage to find it inside them, despite the lack of screentime.
Everything from the pacing to the eerie soundtrack all play a part in making Widow’s Bay worth a watch. Every round of credits will have you wondering whether you can squeeze in another episode before bedtime (you can). It’s not the greatest series of all time, as some hyperbolic Twitter users put it, but it’s good. Real good.
As if you needed any more excuses to start binging Widow’s Bay, episodes rarely ever cross the forty-minute mark, usually hovering around a solid half-hour. It never feels like Apple is trying to eke out a few more minutes out of your sub. We have our issues with the news of a Widow’s Bay season 2, but that’s a topic for another day…
