10 Reasons to Watch Widow’s Bay

If you ask someone what the best new TV show of 2026 is so far, it’s good money they’ll answer Widow’s Bay. An unexpected slam dunk from former Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold, Widow’s Bay is familiar yet also so different from that famed sitcom.

Set on the titular, fictional New England island, Widow’s Bay stars Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) as he tries to make the town into a vacation hub rivaling Martha’s Vineyard. In this effort, Tom does not heed superstitions the town is haunted, and soon the haunting is real enough he can’t deny it.

Tom’s misfortune could be your entertainment, though. Here are top 10 reasons to watch Widow’s Bay.

1. Refreshing episodic horror

One of the most common criticisms of made-for-streaming TV shows is they don’t actually feel structured like TV shows.

Rather than true episodes, they feel like chopped up pieces of movies. You’re compelled to click the next episode, but may not savor the one you just watched.

Widow’s Bay aired weekly, though, and that aside it does not have this problem. There’s an overarching narrative about the curse, yes, but that curse manifests in different terrors.

Each episode of Widow’s Bay tends to focus on a different haunting or monster, like the best version of a short story horror collection brought to the screen.

2. A perfect mix of comedy and horror

Widow’s Bay features some genuinely creepy monsters, like the Sea Hag that stalks Tom on Season 1 Episode 3 “The Inaugural Swim.” The show will have you laughing as much as covering your eyes, though.

Horror and comedy are sometimes compared as genres closer together then they seem, at least in mechanics. Both bank on provoking extreme reactions, both utilize build-up and punchline structure, etc.

The fact the genres overlap enough that “horror comedy” is its own genre is testimony to that. Widow’s Bay shows how to navigate the tones right by being genuinely funny and genuinely scary.

The tones don’t undermine each other, it just makes the world and the characters feel truer to life; if you’re in terrifying situations, a laugh can defuse the tension without shooing off the danger.

3. Matthew Rhys shows off his comedy chops

Be grateful that Widow’s Bay has brought Matthew Rhys back to our TV screens. The Welsh actor is best known for his lead role on FX spy thriller The Americans.

Rhys starred as “Philip Jennings,” who with his wife Elizabeth (Keri Russell) were actually Soviet spies undercover as a couple in 1980s Washington D.C. The Americans could be funny, and Philip was very sympathetic, but he was still a trained killer unafraid of lethal action to protect himself and his family.

Tom Loftis is… a bit different. A mayor who admittedly ran unopposed, he’s a self-conscious leader, and one who is way out of his league fighting the supernatural.

But that’s exactly the lead that a story with this tone needs. Rhys plays it to perfection, making Tom’s often pitiable befuddlement endearing and without a hint of the ice-filled veins Philip Jennings could have.

4. Patricia is this TV season’s breakout character

As great as Matthew Rhys is on Widow’s Bay, he’s arguably had the spotlight stolen by an even greater supporting performance. Kate O’Flynn playing Patricia Moyer, Tom’s assistant who feels disrespected by him… as well as everyone else in town.

It’d be tempting to make Patricia a more one-note character; the mega-competent assistant and straight man next to her more neurotic boss. While she’s often more proactive than Tom, Patricia has plenty of foibles all her own.

The biggest one is social awkwardness. She’s capable of trying to stand up for herself but the attempts always sputter out. The longer she keeps talking, the less seriously anyone takes her.

Perhaps the Widow’s Bay team sensed the breakout they had on their hands, because Patricia gets not one but two spotlight episodes this first season (out of a 10 episode season).

5. Stephen Root is an excellent addition

Stephen Root is one of the most reliably great character actors around. There’s basically no character archetype he can’t play convincingly, and Widow’s Bay is another notch on his belt.

Take one of his more recent roles on another dark comedy; HBO’s Barry, where he played self-pitying and despicable criminal Monroe Fuches who pushes Barry (Bill Hader) down the path of his worst instincts.

On Widow’s Bay, Root’s character Wyck Crawford is a near polar opposite. A honest fisherman, Wyck is a firm believer in the town’s curses. He’s the show’s Cassandra, the superstitious believer who turns out to be right all along.

While Wyck butts heads with Tom, recognizing his plans to make Widow’s Bay a vacation hub is a bad idea, he still helps him out. All-in-all, Wyck is the most capable character on the show, carrying a wisdom all from Root’s performance.

6. Episode 4 is the best the show has to offer

Widow’s Bay Season 1 hits a high batting average episode to episode. Even with that high quality bar, some episodes stand head and shoulders above.

After two episodes in a row of Tom facing a monster, Widow’s Bay Season 1 Episode 4 “Beach Reads” pivots to Patricia. She decides to throw a party, hoping to make the people on the island like her.

It’s an incredible reel of how funny Kate O’Flynn is at playing someone so awkward. But the self-help book Patricia uses for planning isn’t what it appears; it’s a disguised grimoire clouding Patricia’s vision and pushing her to perform ritualistic sacrifice. 

The episode allows the audience to see something is wrong before Patricia pieces it together, and boy is it dread-inducing. “Beach Reads” revealed who Patricia is outside of work and it made her the show’s fan-favorite.

7. Episode 6 is a mini period horror movie

Another stand-out episode in Widow’s Bay Season 1 is an episode that could pass as one from a different show altogether. Widow’s Bay Season 1 Episode 6 “Our History,” directed by horror filmmaker Ti West, goes back to the island centuries prior.

“Our History” leaves out the main cast almost entirely. Instead, it focuses on Sarah Westcott Warren (Betti Gilpin), who arrives on Widow’s Bay in 1702 to marry community leader Richard Warren (Hamish Linklater).

Linklater as Warren calls to mind his part in Netflix’s 2021 horror series Midnight Mass as an island community’s enigmatic priest. The secret he was hiding there was vampires, while here it’s human sacrifice.

The episode might be the scariest one of all Widow’s Bay Season 1. Sarah knows almost from the beginning she’s trapped with a dangerous man. Combine that dread with the eerier 1700s setting and “Our History” winds up feeling like a great short horror film all its own.

8. Episode 8 is the slasher movie of the year

A key part of Patricia’s backstory is that during her high school years, several of her students were murdered by a serial killer called “the Boogeyman.” Patricia claims she survived an attack, but her classmates think she’s lying, hence her unpopularity.

In Widow’s Bay Season 1 Episode 8 “Your Baggage,” the show detours from folk horror into a more modern type of scary story: the slasher. The Boogeyman returns and chases Patricia across the island.

The episode largely reads as a riff on John Carpenter’s classic film Halloween. The Boogeyman shambles slowly like Michael Myers does, and Myers has even been called “the Boogeyman” by characters.

Like in Halloween, “Your Baggage” is able to frame a chase sequence that’s still scary even though the slasher is moving slowly. Patricia with a shotgun is also one of the greatest TV bits of the year.

9. Influences for the show range from Jaws to Parks and Recreation

At the risk of reducing Widow’s Bay to merely it’s influences, the show scratches a lot of different itches. As a contemporary horror story set in New England, it attracts undeniable comparison to Stephen King.

The more instructive comparison given Katie Dippold’s background, though, is Parks and Recreation. The main characters work in local government and serve an deeply ungrateful public. Only the government workers of Pawnee never have to deal with ancient curses or serial killer ghosts.

Dippold’s favorite movie is Jaws and the show shares its share of overlap there, too (though no killer sharks, yet). It’s become a recurring observation that Tom is like a more sympathetic Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton). Both are island town mayors pushing ahead with welcoming vactioners and refusing to heed signs of danger.

Stephen Root’s aforementioned performance as Wyck carries an aura of Robert Shaw’s grizzler shark hunting Quint, as well. Widow’s Bay Season 1 Episode 7 “Seasickness,” also takes Wyck and Tom out to sea together in a Jaws-like set-up.

10. Season 2 is already confirmed

Watching Widow’s Bay Season 1, it felt like a show that could go both ways on renewal. On one hand, more time spent with Tom, Patricia, and Wyck handling manifestations of the curse sounds like a great jaunt.

On the other, the storyline of ending the curse once and for all appeared as if could only go on for so long. The question was answered when Widow’s Bay Season 2 was confirmed in June 2026.

Without getting into spoilers, Widow’s Bay Season 1 Episode 10 “We Hope You Enjoyed Your Stay,” reveals that ending the curse won’t be an easy ask for Tom. The ending is a satisfying place to pause the story but definitely invites more.

That ending suggests Widow’s Bay is not a show destined for a sophomore slump because its creators never planned for Season 2. There’s no better time to catch up on Season 1 now, as Season 2 draws closer by the day.

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Widow’s Bay is streaming on Apple TV. 

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