Why Seaside Town Horror Comedy Widow’s Bay is the Best Show on TV Right Now
Apple TV’s series about a cursed coastal town is a must-watch
by Alex Kaan 30 May 2026
Apple TV
Boasting the creepy yet quaint small-town charm that made Twin Peaks so irresistible, Widow’s Bay revives the dying art of the monster-of-the-week serial with a delightful blend of Stephen King and Parks and Recreation. Showrunner Katie Dippold, who was a writer on Parks and Rec, has merged her sensibilities for deadpan humour with a lifelong love of horror, and in the process, has given us genre television as we’ve never seen it before: a flawless mix of horror and comedy.
Unfolding over 10 episodes, Widow’s Bay centres on Tom Loftis, the mayor of the titular New England island town. Played with anxious type-A intensity by Matthew Rhys, the mayor is fixated on turning Widow’s Bay into a tourist hot spot, but none of his colleagues, from his eccentric assistant Patricia (Kate O’Flynn) to the disgruntled Rosemary (Dale Dickey), care remotely as much about that goal as he does. When he somehow manages to get a New York Times travel reporter (Bashir Salahuddin) to write an article on the town (“Fuck Cape Cod!” he tells him on record), his inept co-workers aren’t the only thing threatening to derail the opportunity: enter the curmudgeonly Wyck (Stephen Root), an older resident whom Tom can’t stop from literally sounding the alarm as he tries to warn everyone of a deadly fog. While the disaster is somehow averted and the journalist writes a puff piece that brings outsiders to the island, Tom has to face the reality that Widow’s Bay is irrefutably, comically cursed — plagued by everything from an evil self-help book to a sea hag that kills you by sitting on your face.
Apple TV
While horror comedy often favours humour over scares, Widow’s Bay is the rare genre mash-up where neither half of the hybrid formula is diminished. Apple TV’s streaming hit is as nail-bitingly frightening as it is laugh-out-loud hilarious. The series builds a moody ambience of dread, stylishly realised by Atlanta director Hiro Murai (who helms half the episodes) and DPs Christian Spregner and Cody Jacobs, that tells any seasoned viewer that they’re watching an undiluted horror series. And yet the comedy — like Tom’s cringeworthy outing at the mayor’s inaugural swim or Patricia’s go-for-broke dancing during Episode 4’s party sequence — still cuts through.
Along with the brooding atmosphere and flawless tonal blend, the not-so-secret key ingredient of Widow’s Bay is an outstanding lead turn from Matthew Rhys, who plays a mix of the greedy tourism-loving mayor from Jaws and Courage the Cowardly Dog (his performance has been repeatedly compared to the cartoon character in response to a viral gif of his physical comedy in Episode 7). Fresh off his terrifying role in Netflix psychological thriller The Beast in Me, the Welsh actor disappears into a polar opposite of a character who, each episode, has to overcome a hilarious amount of fear. Tom isn’t a fierce horror lead, and he’s more than a little selfish, but he’s a refreshingly relatable anchor to the supernatural events surrounding him.
Apple TV
While only 10 episodes, Widow’s Bay isn’t afraid to shake up its formula. After just three episodes following Tom, the series devotes an entire episode to Patricia and her ill-begotten attempts to throw an (ultimately haunted) party, grounded in the sensitive study of an outsider in a small community who is still shunned by the same women who excluded her in high school. Meanwhile, this week’s two-part event flashed back to the early 18th century in a tense period piece directed by Ti West (the X trilogy) before transporting the town’s founder (guest star Hamish Linklater) to the present day in a raucous fish-out-of-water episode. While rooted in the familiar rhythms of monster-of-the-week television, the miracle of the show is that every swing it takes somehow works, giving the story a jolt of energy rather than disrupting an already solid foundation.
Seamlessly intertwining horror and comedy, Widow’s Bay is a superlative genre-bending series that will charm casual viewers and hardcore horror heads alike. There’s nothing like it on TV right now, and frankly, there hasn't ever been before.