{"id":120419,"date":"2026-05-01T10:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T13:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/widows-bay-review-matthew-rhys-intoxicating-comedy-horror-is-an-absolute-blast-television-radio\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T10:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T13:36:12","slug":"widows-bay-review-matthew-rhys-intoxicating-comedy-horror-is-an-absolute-blast-television-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/widows-bay-review-matthew-rhys-intoxicating-comedy-horror-is-an-absolute-blast-television-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Widow\u2019s Bay review \u2013 Matthew Rhys\u2019 intoxicating comedy-horror is an absolute blast | Television & radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

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W<\/span>hat do you do if you want your charming little island off the coast of New England to become the next Martha\u2019s Vineyard, but it\u2019s full of legends about local cannibalism, sea hags, clown killers, poison fog and boogeymen who slaughter teenage girls in their beds? And what if it is<\/em> full of sea hags, poisoned fog and clown killers, which doesn\u2019t bode well for the mythical status of the cannibalism and boogeyman tales?<\/p>\n

Such is the dilemma posed by Widow\u2019s Bay for its mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), in a 10-part series that in the very best way defies categorisation. Horror may be its most obvious element, but it is so much more than that. Still, for fans of that genre, the writer-creator Katie Dippold and Hiro Murai, the director of the first five episodes, which set the tone, deliver the goods, lovingly covering most of the tropes.<\/p>\n

An alcoholic fisherman, Wyck (Stephen Root), plays the Cassandra figure: his warnings about the island\u2019s curse are initially ignored by Tom, a longtime sceptic. There is a dark alley full of horrors. There is a hotel room in which time passes differently, outside the door of which screams of terror cannot be heard. There is no wifi and spotty phone reception, but flickering lights aplenty and power failures at all the right (which is to say, for the beleaguered islanders, wrong) moments. There are scratches that won\u2019t stop bleeding, coma patients who turn into zombies, chained church bells tolling and \u2013 uh-oh \u2013 more fog rolling in! Jump scares and gore are measured out beautifully, too.<\/p>\n

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But Widow\u2019s Bay is also a comedy, somewhere between workplace and family. Tom must deal with assorted local eccentrics, plus the incompetents who form his mayoral team. The fact that Kate O\u2019Flynn has been cast as Tom\u2019s chief assistant, Patricia, in a part that perfectly fits her talents \u2013 a glorious combination of deadpan expression with a borderline unhinged aura that always delivers great things \u2013 is the sign that we are in the presence of people who know what they are doing, that they are about to do it really well and that the result will be original and offbeat.<\/p>\n

The casting directors need further praise for their choice of Rhys. He is known for his sterling work in dramatic TV roles, from his turn as the Soviet spy Philip Jennings deep undercover in The Americans to his unforgettable sleaze-predator in an infamous episode of Lena Dunham\u2019s Girls, as well as his recent outing as the mesmerising wife-murder suspect in The Beast in Me<\/a>; he\u2019s always exceptional. But here he pivots with gorgeous ease from terror to comedy (and there are actual laugh-out-loud moments in Widow\u2019s Bay) to \u201creal\u201d stuff \u2013 grief-tinted scenes about losing his wife, heartfelt scenes with Tom\u2019s recalcitrant teenage son.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>\u2018Glorious\u2019 \u2026 Kate O\u2019Flynn as chief assistant, Patricia in Apple TV\u2019s Widow\u2019s Bay.<\/span> Photograph: Apple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(Must there always be a recalcitrant teen? It\u2019s my only criticism and it\u2019s not even that \u2013 it\u2019s a whiny complaint. But in a show as intoxicatingly fresh as this, a puff of stale air coming in is noticeable.)<\/p>\n

There are great, psychologically astute moments between Tom and other characters, too, especially Wyck. It\u2019s is Wyck who remembers the mayor best as the boy who came to visit his islander dad every summer after Tom\u2019s parents divorced. He\u2019s also the only one who knows that Tom just pretended to ring people\u2019s doorbells during games of what I would call Knock Down Ginger. He has Tom pegged as a coward. Their deepening relationship as the question of whether the child is father of the man comes to the fore is worth the price of admission alone.<\/p>\n

To horror and comedy, then, we must add small-town drama. The local eccentrics and the useless employees are not there for colour: they are full-blooded characters and they are the community. They have their troubles and their joys as well as their oddities and idiosyncrasies. Patricia is a study in awkwardness and loneliness, both of which are made worse by her ostracism over the years by the girls \u2013 now women \u2013 she went to high school with. They think she lied for attention about being approached by the man who killed several of their friends. There are many ways, Widow\u2019s Bay suggests, to be haunted \u2013 and many ways for evil to creep through a community. Like the best horror, it suggests that the supernatural may be the least of it.<\/p>\n

In short, Widow\u2019s Bay is rich and wonderful. Grownup, funny, scary, true \u2013 Mare of Easttown<\/a> meets Schitt\u2019s Creek<\/a>, but with something else that makes it singular. Come on in. The water\u2019s infested with sea hags, but lovely.<\/p>\n