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Spoilers follow for <\/strong>Widow\u2019s Bay<\/strong><\/u><\/a> Season 1, which is now available to stream on Apple TV.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now that the first season of Widow\u2019s Bay has ended, let\u2019s dive deeper into the passionate conversation that\u2019s been growing exponentially<\/u><\/a> with each new episode. Is it really the best new TV show of the summer? On the whole, I think the answer is a resounding yes. The Apple TV series, created by Katie Dippold, has pulled off a minor miracle in effectively balancing its blend of horror and comedy and<\/em> its deep bench of inspirations \u2014 Stephen King<\/u><\/a>\u2019s multitude of spooky New England hauntings and happenings, Twin Peaks, John Carpenter, Jaws, the list goes on \u2014 without getting pulled too far in any one direction. There\u2019s simply nothing like it on TV right now. <\/p>\n Widow\u2019s Bay is about a tiny, insular island off the coast of New England that\u2019s basically stuck in a past era. It\u2019s accessible only via unreliable ferry, cell service is practically nonexistent, and the economy has long been sustained by fishing and whaling. The only person desperate to revitalize the place is Mayor Tom Loftis (an outstanding Matthew Rhys), and everyone hates him and his plan to turn Widow\u2019s Bay into the \u201cnext Martha\u2019s Vineyard\u201d tourist destination \u2014 primarily because the born-and-raised islanders believe their home has been super-haunted since its founding. <\/p>\n Part of what makes the paranoia funny<\/em> is how its characters weather their superstitions. There\u2019s the middle-of-the-road hushed terror of the townie priest (Toby Huss), but also the extremes in the ranting and raving sea dog Wyck Crawford (an always great Stephen Root) and the matter-of-fact acceptance of chainsmoking mayoral office worker Rosemary (Dale Dickey, who gets her moment to shine in tracing the generational lineage of the island\u2019s curse in Episode 9, \u201cEmergency Shelter\u201d). What ties them all together, though, is their certainty of the unavoidable force that grips the island, and Tom is a dangerous idiot for trying to pretend otherwise.<\/p>\n