Guillermo Del Toro has joined the chorus of critics heaping praise on the new Apple TV+ horror comedy series Widow’s Bay.
The Oscar-winning The Shape of Water director gave a glowing review to the 10-episode show, which 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.
Writing on X, Del Toro said: “If I may- in my estimation- #WidowsBay may very well be the best streaming series in a long time… and hands down one of the most mesmerizing acts of narrative prestidigitation in Horror.”
“Prestidigitation” refers to the performance of close-up magic, often known as “sleight of hand.”
Del Toro subsequently retweeted another user who also praised the show by writing: “This show is so perfect. I love the comedy horror balance and the characters are fascinating. I’m on the flashback episode and it’s like stumbling upon a great horror movie! There’s so many SECRETS I can’t wait to find out what’s going on with this island.”
Del Toro is not alone in loving the new show, which earned a coveted 100 percent score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes soon after making its debut.
Reviewers 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.”
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.”
The first seven episodes of Widow’s Bay are streaming now on Apple TV+, with new episodes released every Wednesday through June 17.
