Dear Gossips,

Are you watching Widow’s Bay? The horror-comedy premiered on Apple TV+ at the end of April and has two episodes left, including the finale on June 17. I am holding my review for the finale, because I want to dig into some genre and tone stuff that will require spoilers, but I have been obsessing over this show for weeks, so imagine my joy when I saw Page Six declare Widow’s Bay “the show of the summer”.

Widow’s Bay is a horror-comedy starring Matthew Rhys as the hapless mayor of a tiny Massachusetts island town that might be, probably is, cursed. The show is like “Midnight Mass but funny”, and Rhys’s character is like “the mayor from Jaws but less evil and more panicked”. There’s nothing wrong with Widow’s Bay, it’s a totally normal place with totally normal people and it is definitely not a hellmouth. It’s very historical!

I feel it is relevant to know that Widow’s Bay was created by Katie Dippold, a veteran of Parks & Rec, and also the star of the iconic “Babadook wine vibes” tweet:

 

Widow’s Bay IS that tweet.

I want Widow’s Bay to be a hit because I want six more seasons of Matthew Rhys panic-screaming his way through various mishaps and misfortunes, never mind I could watch Kate O’Flynn’s middle-aged final girl performance FOREVER. But IS Widow’s Bay a hit? Of course, in the world of streaming it’s virtually impossible to tell. According to analytics website FlixPatrol, Widow’s Bay has been steadily improving since it debuted, and now tops Apple TV+’s internal charts. How it’s stacking up against external competition from Netflix, etc, who knows. But there are signs that the show is growing organically, via word mouth, week over week not unlike The Pitt did in its first season (chalk another win for weekly episodes over binge releases).

I hope it truly is growing its audience; I hope Widow’s Bay is gaining more traction going into the finale in a couple weeks. If you haven’t started it, now is a great time! It’s never too late to visit Widow’s Bay except definitely do not visit Widow’s Bay! I hope Widow’s Bay really is the show of the summer, I hope it becomes like The White Lotus, with massive casting speculation every year and each season piling on the lore. And not unlike The White Lotus, I spend a lot of time imagining the Trip Advisor reviews of Widow’s Bay. You know those one-star reviews are WILD.

Live long and gossip,

Sarah

Photo credits:  Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

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