‘Widow’s Bay’ review: Horror comedy at its best

Parks and Recreation meets Stephen King in Apple TV’s latest hit, Widow’s Bay.

Apple TV boasts an impressive lineup of television shows, from Severance and Pluribus to The Studio and Shrinking. That said, its marketing efforts remain less than ideal, with many series coming and going amid a crowded release schedule. When Widow’s Bay premiered in April, with just over a month remaining before Emmy eligibility ended, Apple appeared to have only middling confidence in the series, focusing much of its attention on Shrinking and Margo’s Got Money Troubles in the comedy race. Now that the first season has completed its run, it seems that the real quality lay with Widow’s Bay all along.

The series follows Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), a New England mayor trying to boost tourism on the isolated coastal island he calls home. If you Google Widow’s Bay, “Did you mean: the next Martha’s Vineyard and definitely not cursed” appears at the top, perfectly capturing the show’s tone. Cut off from the mainland by an unreliable ferry and seemingly stuck in another era, Widow’s Bay offers little to the average outsider. Tom was born off the island and became mayor after running unopposed, though he initially remains skeptical of the born-and-raised islanders’ insistence that the land is haunted.

Among those islanders are Tom’s assistant Patricia Moyer (Kate O’Flynn); Wyck Crawford (Stephen Root), an outspoken believer in the town’s history; Sheriff Bechir Clemmons (Kevin Carroll); and Dale (Jeff Hiller) and Rosemary (Dale Dickey), employees in the mayor’s office. They may be wildly different, but they share the same conviction that Tom is offensively stupid for refusing to believe in the island’s curse. To the locals, sea hags and curses are facts of life, while Tom remains the only person foolish enough to argue with a history he later realizes he is entwined with.

A place haunted by its past.

Widow’s Bay moves at a surprisingly fast pace. In Episode 2, “The Lodgings,” Tom starts believing the stories after spending the night at a local inn. By the midpoint, “What to Expect on Your Trip” (an excellent double entendre), a mushroom induced vision finally forces him to accept the truth behind the island’s curse.

Episodes 6 and 7, “Our History” and “Seasickness,” explore the island’s origins. “Our History” takes place in 1702, when Sarah Westcott (Betty Gilpin) arrives in Widow’s Bay to marry founder Richard Warren (Hamish Linklater).

She soon witnesses Richard murder a local and learns that many islanders suspect him of killing his first wife. When the pastor and townspeople recruit Sarah to poison Richard, he discovers the plot, though they capture him before he can retaliate.

The mystery of Widow’s Bay deepens as they delve into the past.

The mystery deepens when the series reveals that a starving Richard Warren consumed the island’s mushrooms and struck a bargain with the force controlling Widow’s Bay. In exchange for the island’s survival – and an end to the cannibalism residents were led to out of hunger – he agreed to provide human sacrifices whenever the entity demanded them.

Protected by the necklace he wore containing the pact while buried alive, an exhumed Richard believes the curse can end only if the last surviving member of his bloodline dies beyond the island’s boundaries, though the finale reveals matters are far more complicated.

More importantly, the revelation transforms Widow’s Bay from a monster-of-the-week mystery into a story about legacy and grief. It is not until “We Hope You Enjoyed Your Time!” that the series reveals the identity of Richard’s final descendant. Rhys and K Callan turn the revelation into one of the season’s most heartbreaking moments, particularly once it becomes clear that Ruth is not who she seems and that Tom’s son Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick) will never be able to leave the island.

Ensemble comedy at its finest.

While many factors contribute to Widow’s Bay’s success, none feels more important than creator Katie Dippold’s understanding of ensemble comedy. Dippold worked as producer and writer on Parks and Recreation, a sitcom defined by its cast chemistry and sense of found family. She originally wrote Widow’s Bay as a spec script while interviewing for the series, and that influence is unmistakable in the best possible way. It’s easy to imagine similar situations happening to Leslie Knope, Ben Wyatt, and April Ludgate in Pawnee, just as naturally as they do to Tom, Patricia, and Wyck, among others, on the island.

Episodes typically run 30–45 minutes, yet Widow’s Bay makes every member of its ensemble feel essential to the story and to our understanding of the community. Even smaller roles leave a lasting impression, most notably Hiller’s Dale, whose deadpan observations frequently steal scenes.

Above all, however, it’s O’Flynn’s Patricia who emerges as one of the series’ standout characters. From the first episode, it’s clear Patricia is a government employee who does not hold back when it comes to the town or Tom, someone she is both fiercely loyal to but will also clash with when needs be. O’Flynn plays her reminiscent of Aubrey Plaza’s April from Parks and Recreation and Alison Brie’s Annie from Community, through Patricia’s focused episodes “Beach Reads” and “Your Baggage” delve into the character further.

Kate O’Flynn steals the show as Patricia.

Anyone active in online TV circles has likely encountered a Widow’s Bay scene of gif, with one standout moment featuring Patricia dancing to “Rhythm of the Night” at a party she throws. What begins as a hilarious sequence becomes increasingly unsettling once supernatural forces reveal themselves. Later, in “Your Baggage,” the series adopts an almost Halloween-esque tone when a villain known as the Boogeyman targets Patricia. She ultimately defeats him in an exquisite display of physical comedy and scream queen prowess, turning Patricia into the show’s star.

Dickey’s Rosemary is equally delightful, a woman who, in her own words, cannot do anything right. At a time when sitcom veterans insist audiences no longer embrace controversial comedy – Rainn Wilson’s insistence that The Office could not be made today, despite Peacock currently streaming a spinoff, being one example – Rosemary proves otherwise.

When it becomes clear that the island’s curse has not been broken and that Richard Warren still has one final living descendant in “Emergency Shelter,” Rosemary examines the Warren family genealogy to determine who that person may be. What follows ranks among the show’s funniest scenes. Presenting her findings on a projector, Rosemary traces the Warren family line back to the 1600s, matter-of-factly explaining why countless descendants could not continue the line: “dead baby, dead baby, lesbian…” Dickey delivers the line with exquisite timing, following up with a further controversial statement, transforming what could have been a throwaway bit into one of the season’s highlights.

Where comedy meets horror.

Widow’s Bay wears its influences proudly, but those inspirations never overshadow the show’s own identity, which embraces both horror and comedy and is not ashamed of either. Dippold blends the warmth and humor of Parks and Recreation with Stephen King’s New England tales, Twin Peaks, Jaws, Halloween, and The Wicker Man, among others.

The series contains multitudes, but it is at its most compelling when exploring how the islanders grapple with living on land whose history includes human sacrifice, cannibalism, and centuries of tragedy. That idea defines the series by its finale. As the town shelters beneath City Hall during a storm, Dale discovers a film reel that features a man urging viewers to “Be strong, honor the pact, and remember, their sacrifice is our survival.”

Every toll of the church bell signals another life owed, turning one of the town’s most familiar sounds into something deeply unsettling. After the bell initially rings nine times, custodian Kenneth (Michael Malvesti) becomes the first victim, sacrificed in the chamber beneath City Hall, bringing the storm to an end. However, the reprieve proves temporary. The season closes with eight more tolls echoing across the island, a chilling reminder that whatever lurks beneath Widow’s Bay has not finished collecting.

The bottom line.

Katie Dippold balances broad comedy, folk horror, and devastating emotional stakes to create a series that feels both familiar and wholly original. Widow’s Bay serves as a reminder that audiences will enthusiastically embrace original ideas when studios and streamers give them something worth rallying behind.

Widow’s Bay Season 1 is available now on Apple TV+.

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Images courtesy of Apple TV+.