\n\tAt the end of a very strange dinner punctuated by flickering lights and ominous warnings, a travel writer (Bashir Salahuddin) scouting an island village diagnoses what he sees as the problem with its marketing pitch. \u201cI see what\u2019s going on here. You don\u2019t want to be Nantucket. You want to be Salem,\u201d he says. Leaning in, he adds, \u201cIt\u2019s a nice town. You don\u2019t need the gimmick.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s a well-intentioned bit of advice, and exactly the compliment mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys<\/a>), the man who\u2019s been desperately trying to show him a good time, has been hoping to hear. By that point, however, Tom, and we, understand that he is dead wrong. This is a nice town. But its spookiness is no gimmick. It\u2019s the real deal. And in a TV landscape dotted with quirky little hamlets, it\u2019s the best reason to drop in on Widow\u2019s Bay, Apple\u2019s uneven but intriguing mashup of Pawnee-style coziness and Derry-esque chills.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tWidow’s Bay\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n \tWorth a visit.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tAirdate:<\/strong> Wednesday, April 29 (Apple) \n\tEven before the island reveals its supernatural hand, it exerts a strong pull. With sweet shingled buildings, a briny breeze you can practically taste thanks to Christian Sprenger\u2019s crisp photography, and an appealingly old-fashioned lack of Wi-Fi, Widow\u2019s Bay, located 40 miles off the New England coast, feels like a refreshing antidote to disconnected modernity.<\/p>\n \n\tIf its denizens seem a bit offbeat, that\u2019s part of the charm \u2014 this is the sort of insular enclave where a chain-smoking gossip (Dale Dickey\u2019s Rosemary) will tell you exactly which of her neighbors is suffering from syphilis or crushing debt, and a salty fisherman (Stephen Root<\/a>\u2019s Wyck) can trace his lineage on this rock back for centuries. And while Tom might be desperate to downplay the town\u2019s surprisingly bleak history (the people did not immediately turn to cannibalism during the deadly storm of 1786, he insists to a visitor: \u201cThat took four days!\u201d), even that just adds to its sense of character. It\u2019s no wonder he imagines this place becoming the next Martha\u2019s Vineyard.<\/p>\n \n\tBut Widow\u2019s Bay, it soon becomes apparent, is more than just strange. Among locals, it\u2019s established fact that the whole place is damned: Monsters roam its woods and mysterious storms rock its coastlines, and legend has it anyone born here can never leave. Mainlanders like Tom might be more skeptical of those claims (and to be fair, he\u2019s not wrong to point out that \u201cthe fog took him\u201d is hardly the only logical explanation for the disappearance of a sailor with a drinking problem), but the evidence speaks for itself. By the end of the first episode, it\u2019s clear something unequivocally supernatural is happening here. By the midpoint of its ten-part season, it\u2019s obvious Tom must do something to counteract the curse, lest it destroy not only his citizens but all the tourists he\u2019s insisted on luring here, in a \u201cmayor from Jaws\u201c-level fit of denial.<\/p>\n
Cast:<\/strong> Matthew Rhys, Kate O’Flynn, Stephen Root, Kevin Carroll, Dale Dickey, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Jeff Hiller, K Callan
Creator:<\/strong> Katie Dippold\t\t\t<\/p>\n