You can’t escape “Widow’s Bay.” The television academy doesn’t want to. This newcomer series has won 13 Emmys overall, including the awards it took home in technical ceremonies over Labor Day weekend, with the top award for comedy still to come. It almost makes up for the spooks, sea hags and occasional cannibalism.
Set on a Martha’s Vineyard with a troubled past and a deeply eerie present, this Apple TV series, created by Katie Dippold, a veteran of “Parks and Recreation,” is an uncanny blend of horror and comedy. And often it is just plain uncanny. Come for the gags and the jump scares and the pervading weirdness — stay for the meditation on how we bury and occasionally disentomb our shared history.
The series stars Matthew Rhys as a beleaguered mayor with a plan to drive tourism to the island. This is a bad plan! The island is extremely haunted!
James Poniewozik, writing in The Times, described the series as “that tricky chimera, a horror-comedy, and it is equally — and more impressive, simultaneously — effective at both. A laugh and a scare are different outcomes of the same achievement, a good surprise, and ‘Widow’s Bay’ has more of those than there are fish in the sea.”
The series already won big at the earlier ceremony (formerly known as the Creative Arts Emmys) with eight trophies, including wins for outstanding guest actress (Betty Gilpin), production design, casting, cinematography and music composition. On Monday night Rhys, Kate O’Flynn and Stephen Root took home acting awards, and “Widow’s Bay” also won Emmys for writing (Dippold) and directing (Hiro Murai). Going into the award for best comedy, the show had the look of a juggernaut. A Season 2 renewal promises Emmys to come.
The post Widow’s Bay’ Dominates the Emmy Comedy Category appeared first on New York Times.
