Stephen King raves as Widow’s Bay scores season 2 renewal

Well, here’s a bit of streaming telly news I didn’t expect to be typing up today: Stephen King himself has joined the growing chorus of fans for Apple TV+'s breakout horror comedy, Widow's Bay. Yes, the bloke who pretty much invented the modern horror bestseller is all in on this oddball little series—which is honestly the sort of seal of approval most horror creators would have sold their nans for. Not only that, but King had some strong words about another Apple TV+ thriller that, frankly, sounds like it’s off the charts for suspense.

King Puts Widow's Bay On His Map (But He's Fangirling for Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed)

If you hang around on X (Twitter if you’re my mum), you might’ve spotted King throwing his opinions around with typically dry authority. He called Widow’s Bay 'good'—which, coming from him, is already several steps above polite silence. But what really perked my ears up was how he couldn’t stop talking about another Apple TV+ series, a crime thriller called Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed. In his own words:

"WIDOW'S BAY is good. MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED is even better. It's like Hitchcock came back to do it one more time. And Tatiana Maslany is so good. The play of emotions on her face is pretty incredible. She goes from comic to terror in an instant."

First off, if Stephen King says your show is channelling Hitchcock, you’ve done something right—or at least you’ve scared the pants off someone with excellent taste. And that bit about Tatiana Maslany is spot on: apparently her acting range in that series goes from laughs to all-out dread faster than you can say 'dead phone battery in a creepy house'. Not sure what is higher praise in television at the moment, since Maslany already won awards for Orphan Black and managed to play half a dozen people at once.

So, What’s the Deal With Widow’s Bay—And Why Is Everyone Hooked?

Widow’s Bay is the sort of show that sounds like a fever dream when you read the synopsis. Matthew Rhys stars as Mayor Tom Loftis, whose big idea is to transform a basically-forgotten New England island into a tourist hotspot. Not your average seaside pitch though: this place is stuck in analogue hell (no reliable Wi-Fi, mobile signals like you’re calling through a brick wall), and the locals are convinced the island is proper cursed.

Loftis, being both stubborn and (I’d argue) a bit dense, ignores all the supernatural warnings and presses ahead. Naturally, things start going sideways once the visitors turn up and the so-called old folkloric horrors start feeling very much not like folklore. It does what King’s own books do—takes the weird little superstitions of small towns, throws in a few screamingly original monsters, pumps it full of dark laughs, and lets chaos roll.

The Series So Far

• Created by Katie Dippold (comedy fans, that’s the Ghostbusters 2016 director/writer at the helm)
• Ensemble cast includes Stephen Root, Kate O'Flynn, Kevin Carroll, Dale Dickey, Toby Huss
• Matthew Rhys leads as Mayor Tom Loftis
• Currently streaming on Apple TV+—with the season finale out now and primed for a part 2
• Widow’s Bay just picked up a season 2 order after racking up a 97% Tomatometer with critics and an impressive 93% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes
• The show’s openly riffing on everything from King’s own brand of Maine weirdness to the suspense staples of things like Jaws
• Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is written by David J. Rosen and starring Tatiana Maslany, who King thinks is the best thing on telly right now

For once, the hype might actually live up to the King-sized compliment, and if his taste means anything—and let’s be honest, it usually does—it might be time to give both of these a go.