Widow’s Bay is amazing. 

I could just let that be my entire review of the series. It won’t be, but it really could be. 

More importantly, this is not hyperbole. I am not a shill for Apple TV (+ if ya nasty), but I am happy to recommend the service. It is one of the few I am happy to do so with, but in the few months I have elected to pay for it I have found a lot to love in their offerings. 

Widow’s Bay is the best of these offerings. So I have a theory, a sort of unifying theory of television and film, if someone who was involved with Parks and Rec is involved with a project, then the show or film will be worth my time. So when I saw that Katie Dippold was the creator, I immediately had some high expectations. After finishing the first season, I am happy to report that I could have set those expectations as high as I wanted to and this show would have easily exceeded them. 

For those not yet in the know, Widow’s Bay is the “next Martha’s Vineyard and definitely not cursed.” Just ask Google if you don’t believe me! Go ahead, google Widow’s Bay and see what Google then suggests! Fun, reality-based, Easter egg aside, Widow’s Bay is a small island community off the coast of New England. The opening episode introduces us to a mayor who very much wants to level up his community and is willfully ignorant of the many, many red flags that the town and island are waving in the face of his attempts. From an unnatural fog bank, to haunted hotels, to generational curses, Widow’s Bay has it all and even more is hinted at. This town is the town that Stephen King writes over and over, but even more so. Matters are made even worse when the mayor’s attempts to increase tourism come to fruition, putting even more people at risk. 

I enjoyed the series immensely and I cannot wait for season two. Dippold and crew weave a fascinating tapestry of terrors, some immediate and some ancestral, to make up the town’s history and more importantly they keep us guessing at all times as to the true nature of the town’s reality. Is it a cursed bloodline? Is it a demonic presence? What is it? All I can say for sure is that it feels to me that there is a truly mind melting cosmic horror heading our way next season, though what that will look like through the lens of Widow’s Bay is anyone’s guess. The show spent its run building up the current story while matter-of-factly establishing the horrors that make up the island’s history, and every paving stone on main street seems to have a tale of terror attached. As do the lakes, trees, and caves of the island. Everywhere you step, the town and island can tell you of tragedy. This gives Dippold and co. an infinite amount of threads to pull on storywise and I am thrilled. We can do eras and decades in Widow’s Bay, there can be spinoff shows, and there will always be interest by viewers to check out the history of the town even as we spend time with Tom, Whit, Patricia, Evan and Ruth.   

I won’t say more about the show now, so please go and check it out. If you don’t have Apple TV available to you, there is always the free trial! (Or find it wherever you stream your shows in a way that is almost illegal.) 

I’ll give you a few weeks and then, perhaps, I will return to break down the ten episodes on offer and give you the reader’s digest highlights of each episode (SPOILERS!!!!). In the meantime, please come back tomorrow for the next installments in Found Footage Friday. (An aside, I didn’t realize until yesterday that last week’s posts did not go up as I scheduled them to. Not sure what I did wrong but tomorrow will bring two separate posts to make up for it for those who have been reading along.)

Anyway, watch Widow’s Bay. It’s one of the best shows out this year.