★★★½ (3½ out of 4)
Before it starts repeating itself (a plague on series TV), Apple’s 10-episode “Widow’s Peak” is one perverse pleasure, a mash-up of hilarity and horror that shouldn’t work. Surprise! It most definitely, dazzlingly, dementedly does. “It felt like we’re just kind of like hanging onto two sled dogs at the same time,” says series creator Katie Dippold, who did acclaimed comic duty as a writer on “Madtv” and “Parks and Recreation.” Add in director Hiro Murai (“Atlanta,” “Barry, “The Bear”), who called the shots on half the episodes, and “Widow’s Bay” comes in hot and ready to play.
That it does, with the ever-magnetic Matthew Rhys— the MVP of series from “The Americans” and “Perry Mason” to “The Beast in Me”—leading his fellow actors on a merry chase. The Emmy-winning Welsh actor, again with a perfect American accent, plays Tom Loftis, the mayor of the New England island community of “Widow’s Bay.” The town is choking on its own bizarre insularity. To keep the place afloat, Tom makes it his job to bring in tourists. And the townspeople hate him for it.
This mash-up of hilarity and horror shouldn’t work. Surprise! It most definitely, dazzlingly, deliciously, dementedly does.
Tom perseveres. He somehow convinces New York Times reporter Arthur Lloyd (Bashir Salahuddin) to visit in the hope of making Widow’s Bay the next Bar Harbor or Martha’s Vineyard. Good luck with that. Workable cell phone service and wi-fi are dreams deferred. The townies are rude hermits obsessed with superstitions. The fog has a habit of sucking up rogue sailors. Plus, a 40-mile trip to the mainland can be an invitation to death.
Amazingly, the Times man loves the place and its looney locals. The doors to Widow’s Bay are open at last. And so is the town curse, inflicted by the killer sea hag. The mayor turns to local nutjob Wyck (Stephen Root, sublime as ever) for answers about how the hag kills. “She crawls into your bed and sits on your face,” says Wyck with wicked deadpan.
At the local museum, the reporter learns of priests being eaten alive by whales and cannibals. And, of course, the witch hunts: "Great source of pride,” says the curator. “We caught 'em, we burned 'em." Even the mayor’s office assistant Patricia, eccentricity personified as played by Kate O’Flynn, reminds her boss of the Boogeyman, a masked killer who terrorized teenage girls in her high school years.
The mayor discourages these tales as a tourist threat. Besides, he’s not a Widow’s Bay native, having moved there at the request of his late wife, who was. The widower stayed on to raise his teen son Evan, (Kingston Rumi Southwick), but kept his skepticism intact. That is until he’s forced to stay the night in a locked hotel room and starts getting visitations.
What happens next won’t be spoiled by me. A furious storm is the least of the troubles rocking Widow’s Bay as locals and visitors take refuge in a basement and terror keeps pushing the laughs into hiding. It’s even hard to trust Kevin Carroll as the town sheriff, Dale Dickey, as a chain-smoking gossip, and K Callan as a sweet old lady who bakes cookies she loves to share. But “Widow’s Bay,” powered by a performance from Rhys that nails every nuance in a character who doesn’t quite trust himself, makes the idea of a Season 2 a delicious provocation. Just watch out for the laughs that stick in your throat. They’re killers.