Widow’s Bay 1×1 and 1×2 Review: “Welcome to Widow’s Bay” and “Lodging”

The two-episode premiere of Widow’s Bay season one, across ‘Welcome to Widow’s Bay’ and ‘Lodging’, served an interesting premise about the mayor of a small New England island town trying to increase tourism while addressing (and ignoring) an ever-spreading supernatural threat.

I’ve been meaning to get into a new show featuring dark comedy with a supernatural twist, and Apple TV’s latest Widow’s Bay caught my interest after recently watching the trailer. Having the lead character, played by the always welcome Matthew Rhys, be someone focused on improving finances and infrastructure rather than listening to local superstitions made for a nice perspective, especially because similar stories usually have such stubborn mayors remain on the sidelines instead of being proactive when uncovering the mysteries surrounding their locale; with the sleuthing left to a younger cast of characters.

Set in a New England island town called Widow’s Bay, Rhys portrays Mayor Tom Loftis. From what I could gather, he’s been trying to improve the island for almost three years. The location has poor infrastructure. The budget is nonexistent. There’s also no WiFi. Even the landlines don’t work perfectly, and not to mention the random power outages. Tom’s been working hard to invite a writer from The New York Times, named Arthur (Bashir Salahuddin), to hopefully publish an article that could aid in boosting local tourism.

‘Welcome to Widow’s Bay’ picked up on the day when the much-anticipated reporter was supposed to visit, and Tom wanted everything to be perfect. However, the island had other plans. There’s a long history associated with the small town, with most of the stories being about horrific events, including numerous deaths, murders, witch hunts, and cannibalism. Of course, such a dark history had resulted in lots of ghost stories and superstitions permeating the local chatter.

According to the inhabitants, the island wasn’t a fan of tourists. The upcoming arrival of new people to the area had apparantly “awakened” the island, with the first stage being an earthquake, followed by a thick fog slowly making its way toward shore. The fog had already taken its first victim, a fisherman named Shep Clark, whose disappearance had caused panic that Tom didn’t want affecting the reporter’s visit.

The characters around Tom helped flesh out the environment as well as serve as obstacles that Tom had to face daily. Turns out, Tom ran uncontested, and his being adamant about finally pulling Widow’s Bay into modern times didn’t sit well with the inhabitants, who didn’t like change. One big challenger to Tom was Wyck (Stephen Root), who, along with believing all of the horror stories, just couldn’t see Tom as the leader that Widow’s Bay needed.

I liked how the creative team handled Tom as a protagonist who was also, frankly put, a coward. He wanted to be a leader, but there was something off about him. Tom had a lot of childhood baggage due to a drunk father who didn’t hesitate to fill Tom’s head with ghost stories linked to the island when Kid Tom used to spend summers in his father’s company. Even Tom’s marriage to his deceased wife felt weird, especially due to how she was described as a woman with an adventurous side, and they got married after only knowing each other for four months. Apparantly, Tom had been persistent about gaining her attention ever since he saw her. There’s also a line about how she was already pregnant with their son, Evan, when they married. Hmmm.

Furthermore, Tom came across as the type of character who was so afraid of admitting defeat that he was okay with even putting himself in the line of danger as long as he felt he was inching closer to his goals. From getting attacked in the hospital to being scared of the fog, to (quite possibly) unknowingly spending time with a serial murderer’s ghost by himself, nothing could deter Tom from going ahead with inviting tourists to the island after the reporter published an attractive article.

The horror elements in Widow’s Bay played with psychological fear instead of going down the blood and gore route. Now, that might change in the upcoming episodes. But regardless, I’m here for the more character-driven sense of dread across the island and subtle spooks building toward more drastic scares in every episode.

The first season of Widow’s Bay is supposed to have only 10 episodes, with each chapter running for approximately 40 minutes. I have my fingers crossed that the creative team had enough interesting content to keep the pacing enjoyable, because I have been burned before by similar dark comedy-horror offerings. The two-episode premiere posed a lot of questions about what could be happening on the island. And I hope the answers, when delivered, are satisfactory.

Some of the questions were about how the people born in Widow’s Bay couldn’t leave. Even if they managed to visit the mainland, they would die in about a month or sooner because of health complications if they didn’t return.

Reverend Bryce (Toby Huss) was also concerned after Tom mentioned hearing the church bell ring at night. Apparantly, that was impossible, leading to Reverend Bryce reading a note (from one of his predecessors) about the proper steps he needed to take if such a thing ever occurred.

Again, I hope the answers are satisfactory.

As for a gripe, I wasn’t a fan of giving Tom a rebellious teenager in Evan (Kingston Rumi). I’m so over this tired trope. In my opinion, such teen characters rarely add anything to the narrative.

Oh no! Evan’s got a habit of sneaking off with his friends at night because there’s nothing to do on the island! Why doesn’t Tom try to empathize with his teen son?

Ugh! I couldn’t care less.

Unless the writers have something amazing planned for Evan’s character arc, the less Evan I get every week, the better.

If you have been looking for a show where the lead refuses to succumb to local superstitions even though he’s been warned by certain entities more than once, just so he could succeed in not only his mayor-centric plans but also transform a “scary” place from his childhood into something better, then I think you will enjoy watching Widow’s Bay. As Tom put it, he just can’t let fear win.

The comedic elements made me chuckle, and I’m looking forward to what else Tom and the unsuspecting tourists will face next.

Did you watch Widow’s Bay season one episodes 1 and 2? What did you think of them?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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