Apple TV+ has yet another must-watch hit on its hands with its new horror-comedy series Widow’s Bay, which critics have hailed as “singular” and “refreshing.”
The limited 10-episode series stars Matthew Rhys as a small-town New England mayor desperate to boost tourism on his struggling island that locals are convinced is cursed. Dale Dickey, Kevin Carroll, Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn and Kingston Rumi Southwick also feature.
After premiering its first two episodes Wednesday, the show has already earned a coveted 100 percent score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Reviewers have singled out Rhys’s “top-notch physical comedy” as one of the show’s greatest strengths, while also struggling to categorize the show within a specific genre, instead labeling it “singular.”
Lucy Mangan of The Guardian found that “horror may be its most obvious element, but it is so much more than that.” Lauding it as “intoxicating” in a five-star review, Mangan likened it to Mare of Easttown meets Schitt’s Creek, “but with something else that makes it singular.”
The London Times’s James Jackson agreed that “it’s more creepy than comical,” adding, “I don’t think comedy is a helpful word in setting expectations.”
“Such tonal shifts make Katie Dippold’s show one peculiar barrel of fish, much in the way that Atlanta or Barry were uncategorizable,” Jackson said in a four-star review.
Acknowledging that “comedy-horror might be a genre that’s tricky to get right,” RadioTimes’s Louise Griffin applauded Widow’s Bay as a “neat, off-beat offering” that “gets that balance just right.”
In her four-star review, Griffin praised the show’s “twists, reveals and outright surreal moments.” “In a sea of TV series competing to be the most cinematic production on the small screen, it’s refreshing to see Apple TV invest in a small-town comedy that scales things right back,” she continued.
Similarly, Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter commended Rhys for “anchoring” the “intriguingly creepy, oddly cozy [and] unevenly effective horror-comedy.”
“At its best, Widow’s Bay highlights the blurry line between comedy and horror,” Han added. “But if Widow’s Bay excels at setting a tone of pervasive oddness ... it’s less reliable at converting that tension into catharsis.”
Writing for Rolling Stone, David Fear said: “The show scratches the itch that both Castle Rock and Welcome to Derry couldn’t seem to reach, yet Widow’s Bay isn’t interested in I.P. fan fiction.
“There’s a glorious eccentricity that hovers over its blend of deadpan sitcom and spooky-tale dread, and a willingness to f*** with your head that harkens back to a different, less safe era of programming.”
The first two episodes of Widow’s Bay are streaming now on Apple TV+, with new episodes released every Wednesday through June 17, including a special two-episode drop on May 27.
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