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WWhat do you do if you want your beautiful little island off the coast of New England to be the next Martha’s Vineyard, but full of legends about local people, sea hags, killer whales, deadly fog and boogeymen who kill young girls in their beds? And what if that and full of seashells, deadly fog and serial killers, that doesn’t fit in with cannibals and boogeyman myths?
This is the challenge Widow’s Bay faces for its mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), in a 10-episode series that is, in the best possible way, against the factions. Horror may be its defining feature, but it’s much more than that. However, for fans of that genre, writer-creator Katie Dippold and Hiro Murai, the director of the first five episodes, which put the voice, provide the goods, which lovingly cover many strings.
A drunken fisherman, Wyck (Stephen Root), plays Cassandra’s image: his warnings about the island’s curse are ignored by Tom, a long-time suspect. There is a dark corridor full of dangers. There is a hotel room where time passes differently, outside the door where the screams of terror are not heard. There’s no wifi and spotty phone reception, but the lights flicker a lot and there are constant power outages (which means, for islanders on the island, wrong). There are scars that won’t stop bleeding, coma patients who turn into zombies, church bells ringing and – uh-oh – more fog! The risks of jumps and explosions are well-measured, too.
But Widow’s Bay is a joke, somewhere between workplaces and families. Tom must deal with various local cultures, including the underdogs who make up his mayoral team. The fact that Kate O’Flynn has been chosen as Tom’s main assistant, Patricia, in a role that is well suited to her skills – a glorious combination of deadpan voice with a limitless aura that always gives good things – is a sign that we are in the presence of people who know what they are doing, that they are about to succeed and that the results will be original.
The directors deserve some praise for their choice of Rhys. He is known for his best work in TV dramas, from his role as undercover Soviet spy Philip Jennings in The Americans to his memorable monster in Lena Dunham’s horror series Girls, and his recent outing as a suspected female murderer. The beast in me; he is always special. But here he freely moves from horror to comedy (and there are funny moments in Widow’s Bay) to “real” things – sad scenes of losing his wife, intimate scenes with Tom’s young son who rejected him.
(Does there always have to be a reluctant teenager? It’s my only criticism and it’s not – it’s a minor complaint. But in an intoxicatingly new show like this, the burst of loose air is palpable.)
There are some nice, clever emotional moments between Tom and the other characters, too, especially Wyck. It is Wyck who best remembers the mayor as a young man who would visit his father on the island every summer after Tom’s parents divorced. He’s the only one who knows that Tom pretends to ring people’s doorbells in a game I call Ginger Knock Down. He gave Tom a nervous look. Their deep relationship as the question of whether the child is the father of the man comes first is worth the price of admission alone.
In fear of humor, we must add a little drama. Local celebrities and unemployed workers have no race: they are full-blooded and community members. They have their problems and joys and idiosyncrasies. Patricia is a difficult study and lonely, both of which are exacerbated by her years of ostracism by the girls – now mothers – she went to high school with. They think he lied to get the attention of the man who killed several of his friends. There are many ways, Widow’s Bay shows, to be bullied – and many negative ways – to infiltrate a community. Like most horrors, it shows that the supernatural can be very rare.
In short, Widow’s Bay is rich and mysterious. Big, funny, scary, true – Easttown mare they meet Schitt’s Creekbut it is something else that makes it one. Log in. The water is full of sea shells, but beautiful.
