Widow’s Bay closes first season with season 2 already set
The Apple TV horror-comedy has wrapped its first run after a finale built around the island’s curse and Mayor Tom’s worst choice yet.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay has finished its first season, and a second season has already been confirmed, The Verge reported. The finale matters for genre TV because The Verge’s Andrew Webster said the series has carved out a distinct place in a year crowded with horror releases.
According to The Verge, the show is set on a remote New England island where residents believe a grim local history has left the community cursed. The first episode introduces a frightening fog that signals the possible return of an old evil, a setup Webster said invites comparisons to Stephen King before the series establishes its own tone.
The Verge described Widow’s Bay as a horror-comedy centered on Tom, the island’s mayor, played by Matthew Rhys. Webster wrote that Tom wants to turn Widow’s Bay into a tourist draw that can compete with Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod, despite the town’s reputation and the supernatural warnings around him.
The first season uses Tom’s civic ambitions as a pressure point, according to The Verge. Webster cited early details including a visiting travel writer from The New York Times, a tour full of death and cannibalism stories, a strange calendar involving wolves and car crashes, and a ferry captain who warns that bad things happen on the island.
Each episode also draws from different horror traditions, The Verge reported. Webster pointed to a haunted hotel with a killer clown, a demonic party-planning book tied to a beach gathering, a slasher who hunts Tom’s assistant Patricia, played by Kate O’Flynn, and a drug-trip sequence built around abrupt jumps in time.
Creator and showrunner Katie Dippold told The Verge before the April premiere that blending horror and comedy can succeed or fail depending on execution. “It can be a great combo, but it can also be a bad combo,” Dippold said, adding that projects that pull off the mix are “few and far between.”
Dippold told The Verge that she wanted the characters to respond honestly to frightening events. “I never wanted to have a moment where something scary happens and the characters don’t react truthfully,” she said. “If you’re truthful, then eventually you’ll find the comedy. That was the very hard rule.”
The Verge said the show’s humor often comes from details that still fit the island’s menace. Webster cited a board game called Teeth that contains only pliers, Patricia keeping a shotgun aimed at a dead attacker through the aftermath, and the finale’s title, “We hope you enjoyed your time!”
The finale placed Tom in a dilemma over whether to kill his secretary Ruth, played by K Callan, to end the curse, The Verge reported. Webster wrote that the episode also traps residents and tourists in a shelter during a destructive storm while Tom faces another difficult task at Ruth’s house.
Guillermo del Toro recently praised the series on X, calling it “hands down one of the most mesmerizing acts of narrative prestidigitation in horror,” according to The Verge. The first season of Widow’s Bay is streaming on Apple TV, The Verge reported.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.