“Widow’s Bay” — Allison Jones and Emily Buntyn
The casting of “Widow’s Bay” by Allison Jones and Emily Buntyn is sublime and so thoughtful. Matthew Rhys is, of course, excellent, and the cast around him is not only wonderfully vivid but also feels like a believable small-town community. They all nail the show’s incredible writing and specific tone — both the comedy and the horror. There is an eccentricity to the characters, but they all feel real and grounded in reality. It’s a thrill to see actors I already know and love (like Jeff Hiller, Dale Dickey, and Kate O’Flynn) alongside actors who are new to me, such as Lonnie Farmer and Marilyn Busch. Busch’s physicality is superb.
As Mayor Tom, Rhys’ exasperation with his colleagues & neighbours is hilarious, but he also brings such pathos to the character, which means as a viewer one feels so invested in his story. O’Flynn is a standout of the series for me — her deadpan delivery and eccentricity are wonderfully entertaining, but she also infuses the character of Patricia with an otherness that is excruciatingly heartbreaking and relatable. She is perfect for the role, so much so that I can’t really imagine anyone else playing it. I’d recommend the excellent British series “Everyone Else Burns” for anyone who is keen to see more of her work.
Allison and Emily have assembled a cast that both serves and also elevates the series. I’m a complete wimp when it comes to horror, but I’ve been compelled to keep watching because of the fantastic performances! — Emily Brockman, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”
“Widow’s Bay” is the kind of show that feels like it shouldn’t work. It’s “Jaws” meets “Twin Peaks” meets “Parks & Recreation” by way of a campfire ghost story, and on paper that sounds like a recipe for tonal whiplash. Instead, it’s one of the most effortlessly watchable new shows in years. The writing is sharp, the premise is clever, and the supernatural mystery keeps things moving, but the real secret sauce of the series is the casting. More specifically, the work of casting directors Allison Jones and Emily Buntyn, who deserve a huge share of the credit for why this weird-ass show works as well as it does. A lesser cast could have turned “Widow’s Bay” into a mess of competing tones and mismatched performances. Instead, Jones and Buntyn have assembled a murderers’ row of actors who all seem to understand the assignment at a molecular level. Nobody is playing for the joke. Nobody is trying to be the quirky one. Everyone commits fully to the show’s bizarre wavelength, which somehow makes everything funnier, stranger, and often scarier.
Matthew Rhys anchors the chaos with a performance that’s both precise and very much unhinged, but in the best way. He’s long been a reliably intense, dramatic actor, but here he leans into comedy with a staggering level of confidence. His default expression becomes a kind of exhausted disbelief, like he’s perpetually one bad town council meeting away from completely losing it. The breakout, however, is Kate O’Flynn. Every time she appears, the show gets a little more unpredictable and a lot more fun. She has the rare ability to steal a scene without seeming like she’s trying to steal it, wringing laughs out of the most delicate of moments that likely aren’t even on the page. Then there are ringers like Stephen Root, Kevin Carroll, and Dale Dickey, character actors so good they can generate laughs, tension, or sympathy with a single look.
In a show this tonally ambitious, one bad casting choice could have sunk the whole thing. Instead, Allison Jones and Emily Buntyn have pulled off something remarkably difficult: they’ve built an ensemble so perfectly calibrated that even the weirdest plot turns feel completely natural. “Widow’s Bay” isn’t just well cast; it’s truly a masterclass in superb comedy casting. — Cody Beke and Seth White, “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins”
