Widow's Bay

Fuck Martha's Vineyard

So I have a new TV obsession. Widow’s Bay is far and away one of the best comedy horror shows I’ve ever seen. I kept seeing promo for it on TikTok and actually made a note in my phone to keep an eye out for it when it landed on Apple. I convinced a bartender at my favourite local brewery to watch it and when I walked in a week later I was greeted with “You. I’m mad at you. I binged it in like, a day and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever watched. Now what am I going to do?”

I had to watch the first episode twice in a row. Not because it was confusing or I was scared and watching through my hands, no. I was laughing too much. I was HOWLING at this thing. I grew up on an island on the East Coast that is also very haunted and may be cursed as well. So, this has a familiar feel to it. The quirky, interesting islanders are all variations of people I knew at home. Fishermen, old ladies who are a million years old but seem weirdly youthful and spritely, the gaggle of mean girls who rarely if ever leave but think they’re better than everyone, that one weirdo who seems to know the entire history of every family on the island, they’re all caricatures of a lot island-folk.

The very brief synopsis is that the show follows the Mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) as he prepares to welcome the mainlanders to the island. The cursed island. The cursed island that is about to have a sudden surge of supernatural things happen because the Fog is rolling in and the Fog is the first sign of A Haunt starting. I come from a place where there are ghost ships on fire in some harbours so this isn’t actually all that weird in my mind.

If you know horror in any capacity, you’ll clock the references and nods to the genre. On my list I’ve got Jaws, IT, Carrie, The VVitch, The Shining, 1408, A Perfect Storm, The Fog, Wickerman, maybe even a little Yellowjackets, Halloween. The showrunner KNOWS HER SHIT. And actually, if you were on Twitter at its peak before it turned into a Nazi-filled shithole, you’ve also likely seen her.

Yes, the Babadook Tweet Woman is behind the wheel here and truly I cannot think of anyone better for it and who I ABSOLUTELY trust to continue to make the show perfection.

There’s some brilliant comedy writing on this and there are so many little details that took me a second or third watch to catch. When Patricia (Kate O’Flynn the woman that you are) finds a party-planning book coincidentally as she’s planning a social event, it didn’t click with me at first that the name of the author of the book was Lucy Fours. Lucifer. And that would explain why that party went completely off the rails and RIP that punch. I also didn’t notice that her bookmobile is called The Pattiwagon which sent me.

Dale Dickey needs an Emmy nomination for this. Trust me when I say you’re gonna love her giving a little island genealogy lesson to Tom. She’s also doing this during a MASSIVE storm which may or may not be a cursed storm too. Tbh the island is like that Simpsons bit: “The frogurt is cursed” “Thats bad”. The island is cursed! That’s bad. But the NY Times wrote an article about how nice it is (and didn’t mention the curse!). That’s good. But there are tourists here now and a Haunt is starting and yes this storm might also be cursed OH AND it’s a lineage curse so there’s gonna have to be some slight murder. That’s bad.

Honestly this isn’t even the funnier of the two teasers and it’s still hilarious. The beats and timing and delivery is impeccable.

What I’m really enjoying besides all the nods to my favourite genre is how very balanced this is. There are a few genuinely creepy parts and a jumpscare or two that I didn’t find scary because I’m very damaged, and the comedy to counterbalance it is top-tier. In an episode that’s a nod to Halloween with a boogeyman and a variation of a Final Girl, Kate O’Flynn gives us a fuckin class on emotion and comedic timing. (I am trying real hard to not spoil anything).

Emmy noms come out in a few weeks and i am SO hoping they get a few. This is a wildly fun show with an amazing cast. and i’m probably going to watch it again tonight. There are so many things to pick apart and analyze and if that’s your jam then this is something you should watch.

Anyway yeah so I’ve been not updating here as much. It’s summer, I’m trying to get as much sunlight as I can, I’m working a full-time job again (a literal 9-5 which is great but having to be “on” and socialize at work while learning a metric fuckton of information is exhausting), navigating some personal and health stuff, trying to have a social life while working on a writing project and trying to figure out what kind of software I need for another one. All that to say, things will be updated here but not as frequently as it was when I was an unemployed slug. My goal is to have one project drafted and complete by November and have the other well in progress. Wish me luck.