Matthew Rhys

Matthew Rhys gives the mayor of Widow’s Bay (2026) a practical concern: getting an isolated island community back on its feet. Tom Loftis wants the place to improve, even with spirits to contend with. Rhys gives that ambition enough conviction for the comedy to work without making the mayor a fool for trying. We found ourselves wanting him to succeed, because the performance makes his plans matter beyond whatever supernatural trouble might interrupt them.

After Kevin Walker in Brothers & Sisters (2006–2011), Philip Jennings in The Americans (2013–2018) became his major American television break. Alongside Keri Russell in the latter, he built a performance around a man’s concealed feelings, with his command of accents serving the demands of an undercover role. The title role in Perry Mason (2020–2023) followed, in a tragic, noir-inflected version of the character. Nile Jarvis in The Beast in Me (2025) continued the darker work. The comedy-horror of Widow’s Bay makes a useful change of emphasis.

There is room in Widow’s Bay for Rhys to be funny without abandoning the character’s purpose. Kate O’Flynn’s Patricia Moyer is still the person we are keenest to see return, because her peculiarities never invite contempt. Stephen Root’s Wyck Crawford also helps make this a community worth spending time in. The series benefits from having a lead who takes the place seriously while leaving room for those other performances. Its residents matter enough for us to worry about what might happen to them.

That careful control can become a limitation: an actor can show us distress without making us feel it. His stage performance in Look Back in Anger (2012) drew criticism for studied intensity without enough feeling beneath it. In Widow’s Bay, though, our caveat is about the series’ tangled supernatural rules, which sometimes demand more attention than they deserve. Try it for Rhys and O’Flynn; a little patience with the spirits is required.