I started writing for this site way back in 2013, which may as well have been when dinosaurs were alive in internet terms. It's been one of those rare things in life that is just good, and I've gotten to (virtually, at least) meet some absolutely incredible, talented, and just plain good people over those years. It does my overactive imposter syndrome absolutely no good to share my frequently sarcastic ramblings with people who are actually talented and know what the hell they're talking about.
Not least among these is the guy at the top of the masthead, Arturo Serrano. Go read anything he's written, and then come back here for something not anywhere near as good (that Encanto review is probably my favorite thing that's ever appeared on this site. I'm so sorry for everything you have to read now). So when I watched and loved Widow's Bay, and pitched writing this piece, his response was that he wasn't really 'vibing' with it, because it's billed as a horror/comedy, and, well, it's not that funny, my immediate reaction was 'wait, why do I like it? He knows way more than me!". Therefore, I watched the rest of the show with a more critical eye. I might be wrong, but I still like it (he will probably edit this piece to say something like "I drink cold hot dog water" or something, but I stand by it).
But I get why - like I said, it's not really funny. Fear and laughter are two sides of the same coin - misunderstanding, or a lack of understanding, is the key to both. Much of horror depends upon the impossible - the killer with the slow, plodding, methodical walk still catching up or appearing around every corner. Charles Schulz said that misunderstanding is the key to comedy (or words to that effect). Like horror, we see something we don't understand (or the protagonist doesn't), but here our caveman brains decide it's not a threat, and humor results.
Marrying these two is a hard task to do well. If it's not threatening enough, it's just a comedy (see: any number of Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright films), if it's too threatening, it's not funny. For my money, Widow's Bay strikes this balance very, very well - it just doesn't do it with jokes. Before I get to how, let's set the stage:
The titular Widow's Bay is an old New England island that was a home port for whalers. It's cursed by some ancient evil, and this first season takes us on a tour de force of not just the manifold manifestations of the curse, but the commitment the curse has to making sure it checks off every horror movie genre. Haunted by an ancient creepy woman? Check. Teenagers were murdered in slasher fashion and now the killer is back? Check. Creepy puritan family historical horror? Also check. Each episode is a different flavor, which is mostly fun, but makes for a weird tonal shift sometimes, and it feels like threads are abandoned in order to jump to the next genre. It makes you wonder exactly what the Lovecraftian horror lurking is up to, exactly. But there is a season two coming, so maybe all that ties together.
Our protagonist is mayor Tom Loftis, played brilliantly by Matthew Rhys, following his equally brilliant role in 2025's The Beast in Me. This role is a complete 180, where in The Beast in Me, he was charismatic and sinister, he is now unassuming, insecure and tries to do the right thing, but does so in that way which is borne of needing everyone to like him. He is a widower, has a son in his late teens, Evan, who is doing boy-in-his-late-teens things like getting high and going places he shouldn't. Normal teenage rebellion is exacerbated by the fact that he lives on a cursed island he can't leave, only he doesn't know any of that, just that he hasn't ever left the island and his dad is pretty absent despite, ya know, being trapped on an island.
Alongside them - calling them 'supporting characters' would be an injustice - are the wizened old sailor, Wyck (Stephen Root), and his awkward assistant Patricia (Kate O'Flynn), and the cranky, chain-smoking old lady Rosemary (Dale Dickey). The character dynamics of all of these (plus a few others who are in truly supporting roles) lend to a lot of the comedy. Wyck is gruff, self-assured, well-versed in island lore and prone to believing in curses and superstitions - which, in this case, is a good thing. Patricia is awkward, and an outcast, even on an island with a trapped population, and she and Wyck end up being a great odd-couple pairing (not romantically). Meanwhile, Rosemary finds ways to be offended by literally everything they do, while still hanging around all the time. A good chunk of the comedy comes from simply letting them bounce off each other.
As I mentioned, the comedy doesn't lessen the horror - and while there are slasher elements, or, more accurately, one slasher-adjacent episode, most of it is a slow burn and creepy. The fourth episode, Beach Reads, may be one of my favorite episodes of TV in recent memory. It's representative of so much of the show, where the ostensibly innocent has the unshakable feeling that something is off - like I said, misunderstanding, or lack thereof, creates a feeling of dread. I won't spoil it, or say too much, except that they did an amazing job of making an innocent-seeming book seem creepy, and the payoff is immaculate, littered with just enough clues and brilliant camerawork that makes you sit upright, and nervous about what is coming next.
Widow's Bay uses this against us, though, to set up the humor, and this is where I fully embrace it, and others might not enjoy it as much. I grew up on M*A*S*H, which means my humor and martinis are both very, very dry. Jump scares in Widow's Bay are all innocent, right when you think something bad is about to happen. Moments of tension are interrupted, not by knee-slappers, but by someone being intensely awkward. All of this dovetails together to make you not trust anything, so when (small spoilers) we spend a whole bunch of time (KINDA/SORTA SPOILER ALERT) with what seems like a sweet old lady, it feels like something is deeply wrong and is about to be revealed, but it turns out, she is, in fact, a sweet old lady. Instead of humor and horror working against each other, Widow's Bay uses them to compliment each other and work in concert, deepen the creep factor, ramp up tension and the fear of the unknown. Sometimes the tension is relived because it's funny, sometimes it's relieved because it's very much not.
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The Math:
Highlights:
- Perfectly blends horror and comedy in a way few things have
- A great cast of characters, beyond the ones I've highlighted. They're delightful, and quirky, and the acting is great (I also love that Stephen Root and Dale Dickey were both side characters in Justified, which is always a way into my heart)
- Fun exploration of different genres. This is another thing I won't fault someone for not enjoying, but I didn't mind it.
- If you're looking for a hide-behind-your-pillow, scare-you-senseless type show, this ain't it. The creep factor, and a feeling of foreboding are well-done, but it won't scare your socks off (and I'm a weenie)
- The same goes for jokes. It's not Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright that will make you ROFL or whatever the kids say these days. The comedy is dry, and dark.
