Deadline’s cover story follows the cast and creators of Apple TV comedy Widow’s Bay as the series gains a passionate fan base and awards attention. Its mix of horror, deadpan humour and slapstick is presented as the reason it has connected with viewers, particularly by making anxiety and bleak situations funny.

Creator Katie Dippold said the idea originated years earlier: a Massachusetts island comedy about misfits, where Mayor Tom Loftis’s plans to gentrify the community are disrupted by an ancient curse. The show has received 19 Emmy nominations and inspired fan-made merchandise, while Dippold and executive producer-director Hiro Murai are already working from a Season 2 writers’ room, though they did not reveal story details.