Listen, you guys seriously need to check out Widow’s Bay on Apple TV because it is easily one of my favorite new shows this year! Imagine Stephen King writing Parks & Recreation with a splash of Twin Peaks — that's the vibe before I can even explain how wild it gets. The creator Katie Dippold was actually an alum writer on Parks, and she says this whole thing started as a spec script for that show (she admits her earlier version was much more jokey). But now we get a horror series where the island is literally waking up under a mysterious fog while everyone tries to ignore it. Matthew Rhys plays Tom Loftis — a widower mayor of Widow's Bay who desperately wants to brand his seaside town as a tourist destination, and Bashir Salahuddin is the NYT travel writer whose glowing review makes the whole thing worse.
I can already tell you some stuff without spoiling too much because the payoff is worth it. Tom hosts an event at a haunted hotel overnight (not cool), encounters the Sea Hag during a mayor's inaugural beach swim, and his assistant Patricia — played by Kate O’Flynn — has her own horrifying experience while trying to throw sunset cocktails for the tourists. Meanwhile there's Wyck played by Stephen Root who keeps warning Tom about the fog being an omen of something awakening and Evan is Tom's son caught in a local legend that no one born on the island can ever leave it! The history of the town goes back to its founder Richard Warren (Hamish Linklater) whose past still haunts everyone, and honestly — I want more. This show has me wanting to drive my own car out to this fictional island just so I could wander all the corners myself.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/review-widows-bay-is-a-boldly-original-take-on-comedic-horror/
I can already tell you some stuff without spoiling too much because the payoff is worth it. Tom hosts an event at a haunted hotel overnight (not cool), encounters the Sea Hag during a mayor's inaugural beach swim, and his assistant Patricia — played by Kate O’Flynn — has her own horrifying experience while trying to throw sunset cocktails for the tourists. Meanwhile there's Wyck played by Stephen Root who keeps warning Tom about the fog being an omen of something awakening and Evan is Tom's son caught in a local legend that no one born on the island can ever leave it! The history of the town goes back to its founder Richard Warren (Hamish Linklater) whose past still haunts everyone, and honestly — I want more. This show has me wanting to drive my own car out to this fictional island just so I could wander all the corners myself.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/review-widows-bay-is-a-boldly-original-take-on-comedic-horror/