Widow's Bay: The Next Great Mystery Series?

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Among all the different streaming services out there, the one that surprises me most consistently is Apple TV. When it first came out, it was like, really? Apple now has a streaming service. Who doesn't have a streaming service now? But they've actually proved time and time again that they do deliver with some really great shows. But now there's also this other weird phenomenon where Apple will get all these big stars attached to new TV shows that get absolutely zero marketing. And one of those shows is Widow's Bay. Now, I saw somebody repost something about this show on Instagram, or else I would have never heard of it. So, I decided to check it out. And if you're a fan of things like Lost, From, Dark, anything Stephen King, or even Mike Flanigan shows, then odds are you'll probably like Widow's Bay. So yeah, if you like those things, um, go watch the show. But I know some people can be very particular and very careful when it comes to mystery shows because mystery is incredibly hard to do correctly or in a satisfying way. So, if you're one of those people, I'm going to go over some slightly spoilery things just to kind of entice you to watch the show. So, Widow's Bay is about an island off the shore of New England that is begging for some tourism in order to give the island a chance to keep up with the times. They talk about how there isn't any Wi-Fi or barely any air conditioning, no Starbucks, and this is in modern day.

[00:01:29]So, the question is, why do the residents even stay there to begin with?

[00:01:33]Well, Widow's Bay is said to be cursed by locals. Anybody who was born on the island can't leave or else they'll die.

[00:01:42]The first episode focuses on our central character, Tom Loftess, the mayor of Widows Bay, played by the incredible Matthew Ree. He's got a reporter from the New York Times coming to do an article about the island, which could be huge for tourism and revenue, but everything needs to go smoothly for that to happen. So, of course, one of the more superstitious locals named Wick is saying that the town is cursed, that it shouldn't get more people out here because it's all happening again. A strange fog rolls through the town, infecting one of the fishermen, but after that, everything seems fine again.

[00:02:19]Maybe Wick is just a crazy man, or maybe he's actually on to something. Now, one of the things that took me by surprise with the show was how funny it was. I wouldn't call this a comedy. I mean, IMDb does have it as a comedy under their tags. The humor, a lot of the humor, cuz this is kind of a story that is pretty typical now, especially for mystery stories, like all those shows that I mentioned. This sounds probably pretty similar to a lot of that stuff.

[00:02:46]But a lot of the humor comes from, I guess, circumventing that or trying to subvert your expectations. Like there's a scene where Wick warns the mayor and Patricia, his assistant, about the revenants of dead sailors coming. And Patricia's like, "What's a revenant?"

[00:03:04]And Wick kind of just casually is like, "Like a zombie." The whole scene is funny, but it also raises the stakes and lets you know what those stakes are. The show doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's also not making a joke out of the situation. You can literally be laughing at the joke one second, but then still feel terrified about what Wick was warning them about a few minutes later. That was the first episode. I thought, "Okay, small island town, a fog rolls in. Zombies. This kind of just sounds like a weird off-brand midnight mass. It's funny. Sure, Matthew Reese is great in the main role, but what else is there?" The ending of the first episode gives us another hint towards where things are going. And my immediate thought was, okay, so I don't think this island is cursed. After all, this seems like it's going to have a very plausible explanation. But then the second episode came, and this episode hooked me. This is the episode, the reason why I'm making this video, to try and get more people to watch it, because this episode was great. This episode added a ton of new mystery elements to it, and it a lot of it was very intriguing. The general premise of this episode is all about Wick wanting to stop people from staying at the inn because it's haunted. And he accuses Tom of having never been there. So, the superstitious towns people challenge him to stay there and do all the different urban legends to prove that it isn't haunted and that it is indeed safe. He stays there and his safety is definitely questioned. Now, I hate when shows like this, mystery shows, tease something supernatural, but then don't follow through with it, or they just keep on teasing something supernatural to leave it open for interpretation or to give the audience their own sort of head cannon as to whether something is natural or supernatural. I hate that.

[00:04:57]It's like the first season of Yellow Jackets. You cannot convince me that there was not something supernatural going on there. I think that as time went on, either the audience didn't like something supernatural or the showrunners were like, "Well, you know what? Maybe let's go back on that." So, the second and third seasons were again tried to give you that leeway to be like, "Oh, is it or is it not supernatural?" But they kind of never address some of the things that happen in the first season that are so obviously supernatural. Anyway, that was kind of a tangent, but with this episode, there is absolutely something supernatural going on on this island.

[00:05:33]Make no mistake though, this is a through and through mystery show. There was a lot of different things set up across both episodes, small lines of dialogue or even just a weird scene that I think as the show goes on through this season, maybe possible future seasons, we're going to look back on these moments and be like, "Oh, wow. They really had it all planned out." And that is a good thing. In Tom's office, there's a calendar of wolf pictures, but one of the months is a car crash, which I'm sure will come back eventually. They tell the writer about how there were 42 people that originally came to the island. And the historian tries to correct him, saying, "Well, there was technically 43, but Tom cuts off that conversation, saying that the writer and thus the audience isn't ready for that conversation yet." And there definitely seems to be something with time on the island. The age of the missing man in the first episode was 37, though he seemed much older. The owner of the inn didn't want to stay in the captain's suite for even 30 seconds because once those 30 seconds were up, it seemed like much more time than 30 seconds had gone by. There's a lot of stuff with the priest now too in the second episode, there's a lot of things up in the air.

[00:06:48]It seems like we're going to be introduced to even more characters as the season goes on. Potentially even people who come there for their vacations. If what I've said by now doesn't intrigue you, then maybe it's just not the show for you. But like I said, fans of Lost from Dark King Flan, you guys are all going to love this show. Across the first two episodes, I'll give the show like a nine out of 10. So check out the show. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Let me know if you want to see a more in-depth breakdown by the time the season comes to an end. There's new episodes out every Wednesday. So, odds are if you're watching this, there's probably the third episode out, too. No, this is not a sponsored video. I've just wanted to try out a smaller video on camera. If you guys have been around the channel for a while, you'll probably be like, "Wow, I had no idea that's what he looked like." So, yeah. Let me know what you think about this, too, if you're a longtime fan of the channel. Special thanks to all my channel members. You guys are the best. And I'll see you all in the next