Welcome to ‘Widow’s Bay’: Matthew Rhys Gives First Look at Horror-Comedy Series

Welcome to Widow’s Bay, a remote but quaint island town 40 miles off the coast of New England that’s definitely not cursed, according to its dutiful mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys). Ask his constituents, though, and they’ll tell you a very different story — several of them, in fact, much to Tom’s chagrin as he tries to attract summer tourists to boost their struggling economy.

The 10-episode Apple TV series, premiering with two episodes on Wednesday, April 29, has been a long time coming. Creator/writer Katie Dippold submitted the pilot script in her interview for a writing gig on Parks and Recreation Season 2. The script got her the job, and she stayed on the NBC comedy for several seasons. Widow’s Bay is the one story she’s always wanted to make.

“This is my version of the novel that a writer’s always trying to do,” Dippold tells TV Insider for this exclusive first look at her passion project. It’s gone through several evolutions since its inception, but Dippold notes, “If someone read the Parks spec from back then, and they read this one, I think the heart of it is the same. Back then, it was more joke-focused. The older version could have felt more like a parody. And as a horror fan, I want the horror and the stakes and the tensions all taken very seriously.”

A visit to a diner in Marblehead, Massachusetts, helped her fine-tune the vision, which Emmy-winning director Hiro Murai helped bring to life.

“It wasn’t perfect. It’s just very cozy and lived in,” says Dippold. “Big coffee mugs and old locals sitting at the counter in flannels, talking about their days. I didn’t want to leave. I just loved that feeling. We’re trying to capture that feeling: cozy, lived in, but there’s something lurking beneath the surface.” A haunted house in New Jersey also inspired the show’s desired feel.

“When I was a kid, I would go to the haunted house on the boardwalk in Long Branch, New Jersey. It was truly terrifying because they would chase you around,” Dippold says. “I would be excited all day. It was such a communal experience. We would all be screaming and laughing. That’s a feeling I have been trying to capture my whole life; the goal was to get that feeling on television.”

Widow’s Bay blends genuine horror with character-driven comedy. Imagine if Jaws and Twin Peaks took place in Parks and Rec‘s Pawnee, add the drama-comedy blend from Barry, and throw in a supernatural curse with Stephen King influence, and you have a sense of Widow’s Bay‘s recipe. But you’ll never predict where this season goes — or the special guests in store — despite its reverent references to horror classics throughout.

“The big reference we have in the series is Jaws, which was an enormous draw and attraction for me as it is truly one of my favorite films,” Rhys tells TV Insider of his first comedy. “There are a number of horror movies that are nodded towards, referenced, and given a great ode. I’m wary to name them because I don’t want people anticipating them. I would like the viewer to experience, as I did upon reading it, the giggly glee of realizing that you are noticing these wonderful references from our past.”

Widow’s Bay is set in the present day, but the town’s infrastructure would make you think otherwise. There’s no WiFi, and the cell service is spotty at best, so they rely on landlines to get in touch with each other and the mainland — the latter of which most of the town’s lifelong residents have never been. Not Tom, though. He grew up spending the summers there, but wasn’t a full-time resident until adulthood. Tom and his late wife raised their son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick), on the island, and he’s never left it either. Evan, now a teenager, is the sole inspiration for Tom’s political career. He’s using public service to give his son a better future.

“Tom is a single parent and is desperate for his son to flourish. If he chooses to live on Widow’s Bay, he wants the island to flourish so that his son can,” Rhys says.

Despite his long history with Widow’s Bay, the quirky locals still view Tom as an outsider.

“The people on the island don’t like Tom. They don’t like his intentions for the island,” Rhys explains. “They resent the fact that he doesn’t truly believe the island’s history in its entirety.”

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Tom doesn’t believe in the curse because “nothing has happened in his lifetime, at least that he’s seen,” Dippold explains, but she notes that “there was something that happened during his lifetime.” No one resents Tom more than wacky former fisherman Wyck (iconic character actor Stephen Root, above, with Rhys).

“If somebody’s gonna lead this island, it’s gotta be somebody strong enough to be able to deal with the island like he does himself,” Root tells us. “And he really doesn’t think [Tom] has the oomph to do it, from knowing him and being around him since he was a teenager.” Wyck has his own demons because of what he’s witnessed on this island. Seeing a non-believer like Tom in charge of their town’s care is unnerving to Wyck. He’ll stop at nothing to warn people of the impending dangers he senses after a certain event reawakens some lifelong fears in the first episode. Wyck and Tom are the definition of an unstoppable force meets an immovable object when we first meet them, but Wyck spends the season growing to respect the mayor.

“Their contention and their ability to come together in the rough times is [Wyck’s] arc,” Root says, adding that Wyck must “forgive some of the things that aren’t within [his] control. The island has control.” Spooky.

Tom achieves his goal of making Widow’s Bay a tourist attraction rather quickly, but that’s just the beginning of this tale that has to be seen to be believed. After decades of calm, the old stories that seemed too ludicrous to be true start happening again, and they just might make a believer out of the stubborn mayor.

The incredibly weird and instantly lovable ensemble of locals includes Tom’s employees at the mayor’s office, Patricia (Kate O’Flynn) and Rosemary (Dale Dickey), as previously announced. Patricia was loosely based on Dippold’s mother and her “endearing amount of neurosis,” the executive producer teases. TV Insider can reveal that Jeff Hiller is also part of this office crew as a character named Dale. Kevin Carroll plays Bechir, a town sheriff. See them all, plus Southwick’s Evan, in the photos above and below.

“Everyone [Tom] works with in the mayor’s office isn’t someone he has worked with his entire life. In fact, some are very new to him, which is why getting to know them proves to be so much fun,” Rhys explains. “Some are very familiar to him; however, most of all drive him insane.”

Dippold’s scripts lured in the stacked cast of comedy experts, including Root. Rhys, however, is new to comedy. “The challenge and terror of that was immediate for me,” Rhys admits. “But the piece itself is so unique.” 

The Americans Emmy winner says Widow’s Bay has his favorite type of comedy, which is the “salty-sweet snack” that horror-comedy provides. But the series delivers high-stakes drama as well and some truly scary moments.

“They’re true opposites of each other and therefore, sometimes, especially in the more horrific elements, the relief that the comedy brings is so welcome, and it becomes more extreme, because you’re just so relieved,” Rhys explains. “The two complement each other. To swing as violently from a comedic moment into a horror moment has this same effect. It’s so wildly pendulous, it throws you from one extreme to the other, and I think people enjoy those opposites in one conception.”

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Widow’s Bay is a reunion for Root and Rhys, who were on HBO‘s Perry Mason together. While Root’s resume is stacked, this series is the first time the Barry star has ever been a series lead in two shows with another actor. Root, who’s no stranger to dramedy, was stunned by Rhys’s comedic skills.

“At the end of this series, I wrote him an email saying, ‘The most amazing thing I saw throughout this series was you doing every kind of acting, broad comedy, small comedy, devastating drama, and farce,'” Root shares. “It was watching a really good theater actor do everything that you can do. He has the chance to do every kind of thing in this show, and he gets to show it off, and it’s brilliant. I told him that it was just astonishing to watch that up close.”

Murai says Rhys’s dramatic performance became the emotional center of the entire production.

“At a certain point, I realized this whole show is about anxiety,” Murai tells us. “Matthew is so good at playing discomfort and repressed fear through his microexpressions. Sometimes it’s played for comedy, sometimes it’s played for drama, but I noticed over time that when we felt tonally lost, we would just orient ourselves to what Matthew was playing. It got us back to an honest place.”

That anxious feeling is in part due to the island feeling like it’s stuck in the past. There’s a quaintness to that, but there’s also something threatening.

“What appealed to me in the script was the idea that this island existed in modern day but displaced in time because of its remoteness,” Murai explains. “There’s a nostalgic quality to these rustic locations with old rotary phones and tube TVs. It’s all very quaint and fuzzy feeling. But then there’s also this sense of unease — like it’s not quite how you remember it. You realize there’s something unnerving about being stuck in the past. We ended up playing with that idea a lot.”

Widow’s Bay premieres with the first two episodes on Wednesday, April 29, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through June 17, 2026, on Apple TV, with a special two-episode release on Wednesday, May 27.

Widow’s Bay, Series Premiere, Wednesday, April 29, Apple TV