Matthew Rhys performs Mayor Tom Loftis within the Apple TV collection Widow’s Bay.
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When folks ask me to call the scariest film I ever noticed, I all the time inform them Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, a 1948 romp I noticed on TV as a child.
It is a barely embarrassing reply, however in latest days I’ve had two different folks inform me the identical factor — one a 30-year-old girl, the opposite an 82-year-old man. All of us agreed that what makes it so terrifying is that you simply suppose you are safely watching a dumb comedy, then — Boo! You are really in a horror film.
Juggling laughter and fright is the technique of Widow’s Bay, a brand new Apple TV collection that has rolled out about half of its 10 episodes. Created by Katie Dippold — who wrote the Ghostbusters remake and numerous episodes of Parks and Recreation — this amusing, typically nerve-wracking present has a soothingly retro really feel. Wanting again to horror tales of the ’70s and ’80s, it is like a Stranger Issues meant for grown-ups.
Matthew Rhys stars as Tom Loftis, a widower who’s the mayor of Widow’s Bay, a small, cozy-seeming island off the New England coast. He is obtained the sort of quirky, exasperating workers you discover in TV comedies, most significantly his lonely, awkward #2, Patricia — that is great Kate O’Flynn — who hits him with aggrieved zingers.
It is Tom’s dream to show this sleepy island into one other Martha’s Winery crawling with vacationers who drink cappuccino, learn The New York Instances, and make the place “taking place.” However the townsfolk have their doubts about his plans, partly as a result of they do not like ponying up for espresso machines, partly as a result of Tom cannot even appear to handle his teenage son, who smokes weed and will get into hassle.
These superstitious locals additionally know one thing Tom works laborious to disclaim. Widow’s Bay is, um, cursed. It has a centuries-long historical past of plagues, ruinous typhoons, killer clowns — discuss mixing comedy and horror — to not point out all method of supernatural visitations. Each few years, the island goes violently loopy.
When a journey author pens a glowing newspaper article on Widow’s Bay, the vacationers begin coming — and dangerous issues begin to occur. Devouring mists roll in, church bells inexplicably toll, folks catch sight of spectral figures.
Tom finds himself badgered by a grizzled boat captain named Wyck — performed by the always-great Stephen Root — who tells him to lift an alarm and cease the ferry from bringing extra guests. However just like the mayor in Jaws who will not shut the seaside regardless of the shark assaults, Tom refuses.
A mistake. Quickly, Tom, Patricia and Wyck are combating to save lots of the lives of the islanders and their guests — an effort that requires, as ever, confronting what’s buried prior to now.
Now, the benchmark for TV comedy-horror is David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, whose interlacing of goofiness and disturbing drama made it some of the influential reveals in tv historical past. Widow’s Bay is far lighter. The place Lynch explored our scariest psychic murk, Dippold faucets into our popular culture previous. We preserve bumping into photos and concepts that reference films like Jaws, Halloween, The Fog and The Wicker Man amongst others, to not point out the work of Stephen King, whose titles seem prominently within the bookmobile Patricia drives round city.
That mentioned, Widow’s Bay provides you the pleasures you discover in a handsomely-tooled collection with top-notch expertise, from administrators like Hiro Murai, who’s greatest identified for Atlanta, to deft outdated character actors like Dale Dickey and Okay Callan.
All three leads are terrific, with O’Flynn teasing out the heroism within the forlorn Patricia and Root capturing the pathos beneath Wyck’s pushed exasperation. As for Rhys, who focuses on uncomfortable heroes, he is not often been this good. His beleaguered Tom is a person whose face all the time begins off trying cocky then melts into nervousness.
Like almost all collection as of late, Widow’s Bay does not actually finish — Dippold leaves doorways open for a second season, which I’d cheerfully watch. However she does construct to a climax crammed with emotion and with suspense that is not merely suspenseful. The story confronts Tom — and us — with an ethical conundrum that philosophers name the Trolley Drawback. For all its comedy, Widow’s Bay winds up asking a thorny query. Simply how far would you go — and who would you sacrifice — to save lots of these round you from hurt?
