--- title: 'Widow's Bay' Is a Horror Pastiche in Search of a Point description: Matthew Rhys leads a great cast in an island-set horror comedy that never synthesizes its collection of genre references into a meaningful story. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/04/23/widows-bay-review/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-04-29T11:17:24.058Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-12T07:05:39.186Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Widow's Bay' Is a Horror Pastiche in Search of a Point og:description: Matthew Rhys leads a great cast in an island-set horror comedy that never synthesizes its collection of genre references into a meaningful story. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/04/23/widows-bay-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcbd6c20779549d43/69ea256c3022bdf12c756c1c/Widows_Bay_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Widows_Bay_Photo_010201.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Widow's Bay' Is a Horror Pastiche in Search of a Point twitter:description: Matthew Rhys leads a great cast in an island-set horror comedy that never synthesizes its collection of genre references into a meaningful story. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcbd6c20779549d43/69ea256c3022bdf12c756c1c/Widows_Bay_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Matthew Rhys' _Widow's Bay_ Is a Collection of Horror References in Search of a Point > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Apr 29, 2026 11:17 AM UTC  Matthew Rhys, left, and Stephen Root in Widow's Bay Matthew Rhys, left, and Stephen Root in Widow's BayApple TV  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Apr 29, 2026 11:17 AM UTC Matthew Rhys must love a challenge. Since [earning an Emmy](https://time.com/5399402/keri-russell-emmys-2018-meme/) for his performance in [_The Americans_](https://time.com/archive/6643294/wed-menace/), in which he played a conflicted Russian spy whose work required him to inhabit multiple false identities, he has [reinvented the iconic TV lawyer Perry Mason](https://time.com/5850877/perry-mason-hbo-detective-shows/) and, in _Saturday Night_, portrayed the inimitable [George Carlin](https://time.com/4949766/george-carlin-joke-system/). Last year’s Netflix thriller [_The Beast in Me_](https://time.com/7333316/the-beast-in-me-review/)cast him as a real estate mogul and rumored murderer in the mold of [Robert Durst](https://time.com/3740950/the-jinx-robert-durst-hbo/); in its most memorable scene, he gobbles up a rotisserie chicken with all the rapacity of a starving wolf. Five months later, Rhys is back as the lead in _Widow’s Bay_, whose first two episodes will arrive April 29 on Apple TV. The comedy-laced horror show is set on the eponymous fictional island 40 miles off the New England coast, whose residents believe it’s cursed. Rhys’ character is another tough one—a beleaguered mayor, Tom Loftis, whose desperation to transform the unmistakably eerie Widow’s Bay into the next Martha’s Vineyard sends him on a harrowing new misadventure in just about every episode. Rhys, who also serves as an executive producer, is great. The series can be pretty entertaining, too, with its funny supporting cast and clever horror homages. It just never synthesizes its references into anything that feels meaningful on its own merits.  Kate O'Flynn in Widow's Bay Apple TV “Does anyone on this island _work_?” Tom demands in the premiere, as his constituents idly mill around the town hall during a power outage. The travel writer he’s spent years courting is finally about to arrive, in advance of a crucial summer season for the island’s depressed tourism industry, and no one seems to share his sense of urgency around making the place hospitable. Tom’s staff is not especially helpful. Nor does creator Kate Dippold ([_Parks and Recreation_](https://time.com/5829960/parks-and-recreation-reunion-2020-review-recap/)) give these eccentric townies the attention that the master character actors who play them, including Jeff Hiller and Dale Dickey, deserve. (It’s especially disheartening to see Hiller in the kind of one-note role he was often relegated to before his Emmy-winning [_Somebody Somewhere_](https://time.com/7096025/bridget-everett-interview-somebody-somewhere-final-season/)run.) Only [Kate O’Flynn](https://time.com/6324680/everyone-else-burns-review/)’s skittish, socially awkward girl Friday, Patricia, gets a substantive storyline. Adding to the mayor’s worries is the overnight disappearance of a local boat captain. Tom’s biggest hater, Wyck (a wild-eyed Stephen Root), insists the man was taken by a fog of supernatural origin. “The island has lain dormant, but she’s wakin’ up,” he warns. Wyck looks deranged, but he’s right. As the season unfolds, he and Tom become mutually wary partners in fighting evil forces straight out of islanders’ yarns—and, as genre buffs will instantly recognize, such classics as [_Halloween_](https://time.com/5419481/michael-myers-halloween-movies-ranking/), [_Jaws_](https://time.com/7294556/how-jaws-wreaked-havoc-on-marine-conservation/), and, yes, _The Fog_. That tiara on Patricia’s head in a fun episode where a self-help book inspires her to throw a wild party? Probably a [_Carrie_](https://time.com/archive/6852285/cinema-a-movable-feast/)callback; Stephen King looms large over Widow's Bay.  Matthew Rhys in Widow's Bay Apple TV From a technical standpoint, it all works beautifully. Executive producer [Hiro Murai](https://time.com/6180758/hiro-murai-interview-atlanta/), who directed several episodes, brings the same hyperreal sensibility to _Widow’s Bay_ that he honed in [_Atlanta_](https://time.com/6159592/atlanta-season-3-review/)and _Station Eleven_. Horror auteur Ti West, recently celebrated for the [_X_ trilogy](https://time.com/6990983/mia-goth-interview-maxxxine/), bathes a nightmarish historical flashback in tea-stained chiaroscuro. I’m still thinking about [_Friendship_](https://time.com/7281936/friendship-review-tim-robinson/)filmmaker Andrew DeYoung’s dark-psychedelic opening shot in an episode that revolves around mysterious black mushrooms. There are some great throwaway lines. Explaining why an old romance ended, an unflappable Widow’s Bay lifer deadpans, “He got bit by an animal and became that animal,“ then moves right along to the next reminiscence. Although I’ve been asked not to describe their roles, it must be said that guest stars [Betty Gilpin](https://time.com/7014335/three-women-review-starz/) and [Hamish Linklater](https://time.com/6098478/midnight-mass-review-netflix/) are ideally cast. Where other actors might play the part of a straight man surrounded by hysterical weirdos, well, straight, Rhys is always dropping hints that Tom’s sanity is more fragile than it looks. Yet the show is more a jumble of stylish allusions and skillful performances than it is a transformative work unto itself. Throwing the island’s bemused outsider sheriff (Kevin Carroll) and a frantic pastor (Toby Huss) into the cast of characters broadens but doesn’t deepen the story. Widow’s Bay gets an origin story that drives the plot without imposing much thematic unity. Dippold tries to give Tom’s arc emotional stakes by dipping into the deep well of parental horror. It’s widely believed that anyone born on the island will die if they ever venture to the mainland. While the mayor might profess to be above superstition, he is also a single father who has never let his islander son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick), test that theory. A more expansive version of this storyline might’ve anchored the show. But Tom’s climactic epiphanies are so banal that they would have been better left unarticulated, and there are so many other elements competing for screen time that we never get to know Evan as more than a stock rebellious teen. Tighter focus and a more effective synthesis of influences might have helped. The show also squanders many chances to get full-on scary or bizarre, retreating into humor just when it could’ve astonished us. Most of all, what’s lacking is the sense that its haunted-island setting is a metaphor for anything at all. The best small-town horror is rich in symbolism. The [rugged beauty of Twin Peaks, Wash.,](https://time.com/twin-peaks-revisited/) concealed a rot in America’s rural heartland. [_Buffy_](https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101301/buffy-the-vampire-slayer/)’s Sunnydale, Calif., was a suburban gateway to the underworld, each of the monsters its hellmouth coughed up a rite of passage for a girl braving the emotional gauntlet of high school. Widow’s Bay might remind you of _Jaws_’ Amity Island in one episode or _The Wicker Man_’s Summerisle in another, but all the references in the cinematic canon can’t create meaning where none exists. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/23/widows-bay-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/23/widows-bay-review/"},"headline":"Matthew Rhys' Widow's Bay Is a Collection of Horror References in Search of a Point","datePublished":"2026-04-29T11:17:24.058Z","dateModified":"2026-05-12T07:05:39.186Z","description":"Matthew Rhys leads a great cast in an island-set horror comedy that never synthesizes its collection of genre references into a meaningful story.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/23/widows-bay-review/","keywords":["Television","review","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcbd6c20779549d43/69ea256c3022bdf12c756c1c/Widows_Bay_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcbd6c20779549d43/69ea256c3022bdf12c756c1c/Widows_Bay_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Widows_Bay_Photo_010201.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Apple TV","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/23/widows-bay-review/","name":"Matthew Rhys' Widow's Bay Is a Collection of Horror References in Search of a Point"}}]}] ```