Widow’s Bay: The Inaugural Swim and Beach Reads

Widow’s Bay has quickly become my favorite thing on television. I was already hooked after the first two episodes, where they proved that they’d found a way to make a horror mystery series genuinely funny. But I was having trouble coming up with a good quick description of it, because all the obvious comparisons come up short. Not because it’s completely unique and original, but the opposite: it’s constantly reminding you of dozens of different familiar things, but it doesn’t quite work exactly like any of them. Is it like The Fog plus Parks and Recreation? Or Twin Peaks if it had been more wry than surreal? Or Green Acres as a prestige horror series? Or maybe Salem’s Lot, or It but, you know, intentionally funny? It doesn’t even feel quite right to call it a “horror comedy,” since it doesn’t really depend on jokes (except for when it does) and it’s also not a horror series with some comic relief (except for when it is). It’s more like everything is playing off everything else,…