In the age of streaming services, every week seems to deliver not only a brand-new series on almost every platform, but also the return of a classic that you hadn’t thought about in years. As a result, it takes a lot for anything to break through the noise, and then it’s even tougher for whatever breaks through the noise to live up to the hype. One of the rare examples of this is Apple TV’s latest hit series, the horror comedy Widow’s Bay. Currently boasting a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the new series starring Matthew Rhys has quickly made a name for itself as a show that expertly walks the fine line of being both hilarious and terrifying.
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Though it had a soft premiere when it launched (competing with other Apple TV hits at the same time), word of mouth has been strong on Widow’s Bay, and with just one episode left in the series’ first season, the streamer has finally given us the news we wanted to hear. Apple TV has confirmed that Widow’s Bay has officially been renewed for Season 2 on the platform, with creator, showrunner and executive producer Katie Dippold offering a tease of what to expect, adding: “Season two is about how everything is great on the island and there’s nothing to worry about.”
Widow’s Bay Renewed for Season 2 (And We Can’t Wait)
In addition to confirming that Widow’s Bay has been renewed for a second season on the platform, Apple TV further announced that they’ve signed Dippold to a new, multi-year overall deal, which is great news for fans of Widow’s Bay as it means the creator will have an outlet for her ideas for the foreseeable future.
In Widow’s Bay, something lurks beneath the surface. The series follows Mayor Tom Loftis (Mattew Rhys), who works tirelessly to make his island community off the coast of Massachusetts into something not only worth living in but visiting by outsiders. The trouble, of course, is that Widow’s Bay carries a cursed history, which certainly makes it appealing to tourists but which can result in unexplained disappearances and bizarre ghostly apparitions.
What makes Widow’s Bay so fun as a TV series is how the show manages to not only deliver some true gut-busting laughs, but can also be unsettling at the drop of a hat. Widow’s Bay also flips the script entirely on a slew of horror genre tropes, not only making jokes out of what longtime fans expect from something like a ghost in a haunted hotel but making sure to deliver an episode that stands out as a great slasher film that does nothing you could predict. Complete with sea hags and a period-set flashback episode, Widow’s Bay has quickly become THE new TV obsession for horror fans.
Though Rhys himself delivers a hilarious performance at the center of Widow’s Bay, he’s one piece of its larger puzzle that includes other lively characters played by Kate O’Flynn, Stephen Root, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Kevin Carroll and Dale Dickey.
The series also has dynamic filmmakers behind the camera, with Emmy-winning director Hiro Murai helming five of its ten episodes. Other directors that have brought the show to life to great effect include Ti West (The Innkeepers, X), Sam Donovan (Severance), and Andrew DeYoung (Friendship, The Chair Company). All of whom channel their work in horror and comedy genres to give us an epic mash-up that is one of the best shows of the year.
“From the moment audiences arrived in Widow’s Bay, they’ve been hooked on every eerie mystery, unexpected laughs, and cursed secret that Katie, Hiro, Matthew, and the entire team have created,” Matt Cherniss, head of programming, Apple TV said in a statement. “It’s become one of those shows everyone’s talking about, and we’re thrilled to see audiences continue to embrace it. We can’t wait to return for another season.”
The Season 1 finale of Widow’s Bay will officially launch next week, on Wednesday, June 17 on Apple TV.
