Apple TV+ has never been great at marketing its shows. This is one of the reasons great shows produced by the platform go unnoticed.
This summer is a perfect example. Two new Apple originals, Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Star City, are sitting at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes right now, and most people haven’t even heard of them. Meanwhile, the Apple TV+ newest limited series, Cape Fear, is drawing eyeballs thanks to a starry cast that includes Amy Adams, Javier Bardem, and Patrick Wilson.
The real story this summer isn’t any of those shows. It’s about a horror comedy show that no one really saw coming.
We are talking about Widow’s Bay, created by Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold, which follows the mayor of a quirky New England island town where strange, supernatural things just sort of happen.
The show is quietly building an audience almost entirely through word of mouth. No marketing campaign, no A-list names attached, just a genuinely good show that people kept telling their friends and family about.
Widow’s Bay has now made it to the platform’s most-watched show in the US, according to FlixPatrol. Globally, it sits just behind Cape Fear. It holds a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus praises Dippold for leaning into the weird and making it work, delivering something that’s equal parts funny and genuinely unsettling.
Apple TV+ has renewed the show for a second season.
