Widow's Bay: Comedy-Horror About a Cursed Wannabe Tourist Town is Tense and Fun
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B+
Comedy meets horror—or is it horror meets comedy?—in Apple TV’s new series Widow’s Bay. The answer will depend your fondness for ghost stories with an edge to them.
The 10-part series starts off by leaning into the comedy, through the quirkiness of the characters of this small seafaring town just off the New England coast. But that balance changes as the series progresses.
The series was created and executive produced by writer Katie Dippold (Parks and Recreation) and co-executive producer Hiro Murai (who directed five episodes). While managing to feel original, it riffs on supernatural legends and ghostly stories that come naturally to old seafaring towns, as well as references to classic sea horror like The Fog, and Jaws, and nod or two at the master of New England based ghost stories, Stephen King.
Matthew Rhys (left) and Stephen Root (right) in Widow’s Bay.
Amid the supernatural tension and jeopardy, it's also a lot of fun.
That’s thanks to well written characters and a fantastic cast led by Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root, who are worth watching no matter what they’re in.
Rhys is Tom Loftis, the mayor of Widow’s Bay. The town, which is on a small island, about 40 miles from the mainland, has charm, but desperately needs an economic boost.
Loftis is a widower who is motivated to think about the future in bigger terms, partially because he’s concerned about the prospects for his restless teenage son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick), who is about to hit his university years. He’s bored with island life and is in danger of running amok with his pals.
Loftis's grand plan is to turn the picturesque Widow’s Bay into a tourist destination. It's not a bad thought.
To that end, he’s enticed the New York Times to send a travel writer, hoping that a positive write up will put Widow’s Bay on the map as a summer family destination. But the night before the reporter comes, a series of things happen: A fog envelopes a small boat and the captain goes missing. And the town is shaken by an earthquake, the first in 20 years, that knocks out the electricity.
Given that the island has no cell service and inconsistent wi-fi, the timing is terrible for Loftis who wants to put on the best face for the writer.
But a temporary loss of power is the least of his worries. While Loftis is meeting with his staff about the outage and other issues, local Wyck Crawford (Stephen Root) interrupts. He wants Loftis to stop his pitch to tourists and shut things down. He says the Island, which is cursed, is awakening and everyone is in danger.
The island, it seems, wakes up every so often, bad things happen, evil creatures awake, and people die.
The townspeople seem divided between people who roll their eyes at the whole thing, and those who, like the owner of the newly restored inn, welcome the thought of a robust tourist industry and all the business it will bring. Wyck says the Inn is haunted and tries to shut it down. But no one seems to take Wyck seriously,
There are other superstitions as well. including one that affects Loftis directly. According to lore, people born on the island can never leave and his restless son Evan was born there.
The series does a good job spreading the characters and stories as they interact,, with the ostensible curse hanging over their heads. It rushes from one crisis to another, with Loftis and his oddball staff. They include his number one, the focused, dependable, organized, no nonsense, Patricia, (Kate O’Flynn), loose cannon Rosemary (Dale Dickey), Jeff Hiller, and Loftis’s elderly assistant Ruth (K Callan), who keeps her own hours and is more of a fixture than an asset.
Trying half-heartedly to keep order is the local sheriff (Kevin Carroll), who is fed up with everything and is planning to quit and get his pregnant wife off the island asap.
Widow’s Bay wraps nicely in 10 episodes, there's enough supernatural carnage and mayhem to convince Loftis, and those of us watching, that there's something wrong with the island. The series leaves things mostly tied up, but with some unanswered questions, including the likelihood of a season 2.
Widow's Bay debuts on Apple TV April 29, 2026 with two episodes, followed by a new episode every Wednesday for the next eight weeks.
Widow’s Bay, created by Katie Dippold, directed by Hiro Murai, Sam Donovan,Ti West, Andre DeYoung, starring Matthew Rhys, Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn, Dale Dickey, Jeff Hiller, K. Callan.