Did you catch the two-episode premiere of Widow’s Bay last week? The new Apple TV series from creator Katie Dippold and director Hiro Murai hits the sweet spot between comedy and horror, taking viewers to a cursed island where the mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), is on a one-man mission to turn the place into a tourist attraction.
In episode three, “The Inaugural Swim,” we start to see that his ill-advised plan has started to catch on. The New York Times published a glowing article in its travel section, and visitors have begun arriving in droves from the mainland to see what the fuss is all about. Meanwhile, viewers and Widow’s Bay locals alike know there’s a dark malevolence lurking beneath all those quaint seaside views that’s slowly starting to reveal itself.
We get a glimpse of that in this exclusive clip from this week’s episode, which shows Tom having some regrets about opening the Widow’s Bay beaches as part of the annual Inaugural Swim summer kick-off.
Some very on-point Jaws references there in the underwater shots of Tom’s thrashing legs—not to mention the fact that Tom, exactly like the mayor in Jaws, is so insistent on acting like everything in Widow’s Bay is peachy keen for the tourists.
Except that’s not a shark fin that bobs up and down in the water. Whatever it may be, it’s certainly attached to something that gives chase to our terrified protagonist. Good thing he flails his way to shore—and that Sheriff Clemons (Kevin Carroll) is there to help pull him six inches to safety.
Find out more in this week’s episode of Widow’s Bay, which arrives Wednesday on Apple TV.
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