Apple TV's New Horror Comedy Widow's Bay Is 'Schitt's Creek Meets Stephen King'

Over the past few years, Apple TV has quietly made a name for itself as one of the most consistent streaming services. Whereas Netflix and Prime Video are very much in the quantity-over-quality business, Apple is the last bastion on quality over quantity. It might not have as many original shows in its library as those other platforms, but there’s a much higher chance that when you click on a new series on Apple TV, it’ll actually be worth watching.

Just this year, we’ve had a great third season of Shrinking, a great second season of Your Friends and Neighbors, and a great first season of Margo’s Got Money Troubles. One of the best new Apple shows of 2026 — and one of the best new shows in the entire stream-o-sphere — is Widow’s Bay. But, while it’s gotten its due from critics, it still hasn’t found the audience it deserves.

Widow’s Bay stars Matthew Rhys as the flailing mayor of a small island town. He hopes to get the titular town crowned “the next Martha’s Vineyard,” but a long history of urban legends and paranormal activity keep getting in the way of the rebrand. Created by Katie Dippold, who previously mixed the humorous with the horrific in 2016’s all-female Ghostbusters reboot, Widow’s Bay is the perfect show for horror comedy fans.

Widow's Bay Is As Hilarious As It Is Horrifying

The best way to describe Widow’s Bay would be Schitt’s Creek meets Stephen King. Like Schitt’s Creek, it takes place in a tiny, tucked-away town full of eccentric personalities and lovable weirdos. But, much like in It or Salem’s Lot or Pet Sematary, the town is harboring a dark, supernatural secret that’s about to get out and wreak havoc. The eponymous Widow’s Bay is a lot like Amity Island from Jaws: a quaint little seaside village disturbed by bloodshed and monstrosity, while a desperate everyman struggles to hold down the fort.

The first episode of Widow’s Bay hooked me in, but I wasn’t convinced the show was a horror-comedy hybrid-genre masterpiece until its second episode. In the second episode, Mayor Tom hopes to dissuade the skeptics by spending a night in the supposedly haunted hotel to prove it’s not really haunted. But once he gets there, he starts seeing undeniable evidence of a ghostly presence, which complicates his quest to rebrand Widow’s Bay as a tourist hotspot.

After that, the show becomes a pitch-perfect blend of horror and comedy. The ghosts have their hooks in the mayor, so there’s a big fright every few minutes, but Rhys’ hilariously frantic, flustered reactions to the horror balance it out with plenty of laughs.

Matthew Rhys Is Perfectly Cast In The Lead Role

When the series began, I wasn’t sure about Rhys’ casting. I think he’s a terrific actor, but I’m used to seeing him in a more serious, dramatic register. He played a Soviet spy hiding out in suburbia in The Americans, an intrepid private eye in Perry Mason, and a real estate magnate accused of murder in The Beast in Me. Even when he guest-starred on Girls, he played a serial sexual harasser. So, I didn’t know if he could pull off a fully comedic performance.

But Rhys has turned out to be the absolute perfect lead for Widow’s Bay. He’s the ultimate deadpan foil for all the surrounding craziness. Like Jason Bateman in Arrested Development, he has the thankless role of the “straight man” — the audience surrogate; the one normal person reacting to all the wackiness around him — and plays it so dryly that he scores some of the biggest laughs in the show. And Rhys is just the tip of the iceberg; Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn, Jeff Hiller, and Toby Huss round out a stacked supporting cast.