The Best Shows to Watch After Widow’s Bay

There isn’t a show around that’s exactly like Widow’s Bay. Katie Dippold’s new Apple TV original has definitely struck a chord with audiences in 2026, maintaining a delicate balance between scares and chuckles and introducing us to instantly iconic characters like Tom, Wyck, Patricia, Rosemary, and Bechir. But there are shows out there that manage to do spooky small-town horror or silly supernatural shenanigans well enough to devote your time to as you wait for a second season of Widow’s Bay.

We’re going to assume you’ve already seen (or passed on) some of the bigger shows that Widow’s Bay’s humor and horror have been compared to, like Twin Peaks or The X-Files. Instead, we’re going to focus on some of the other series that may have slipped by you over the years.

The Chair Company

Isn’t it wonderful that television is once again embracing its wild, weird and wacky side? And right up there with Widow’s Bay in this endeavor we have The Chair Company, which combines comedy and surrealism in a way that no one else has quite managed. With one season available to binge on HBO Max and more in the offing, Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin’s bonkers story of a man who gets a promotion, falls on his ass during his big speech and then gets fixated on finding out why his chair broke is sublime, and you can now get in on the ground floor of what promises to be one of TV’s oddest conspiracy thrillers.

If you’re already a fan of Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave style of comedy and enjoy shows with offbeat characters, The Chair Company might be for you. However, it’s worth noting that the show has been divisive for some, who’ve found it just too weird for its own good.

Round the Twist

This Australian curio from the early 1990s would never be made today! It’s essentially a show for kids, but you’ll definitely be asking yourself how anyone thought it was entirely appropriate for them.

Landing somewhere between The Adventures of Pete & Pete, The Twilight Zone and a fever dream, Round the Twist focuses on the boisterous Twist family, who move to a lighthouse in the town of Port Niranda and end up encountering a whole bunch of supernatural weirdness. Boasting a theme song that will never leave your brain and four seasons full of episodes that constantly push the boundaries of kids’ TV, Round the Twist is weird, funny, creepy, and utterly gross. Essential cult viewing for those who miss boundless imagination on a tight budget.

Midnight Mass

After a former venture capitalist kills a woman in a drunk-driving accident and ends up serving four years in jail for the crime, he returns to his hometown of Crockett Island looking for a fresh start. Unfortunately, a mysterious priest also arrives on the island around the same time, giving the town’s waning faith a shot in the arm but also harboring a dark secret that will affect everyone in the community.

Hamish Linklater plays this charismatic priest, Father Paul Hill. You may now also know him as Richard Warren, the founder of Widow’s Bay, who made a pact with a demonic entity to protect his colony through a first winter and doomed them to everything that followed. When Linklater was asked about taking the oddly similar acting roles, he told Decider that “You definitely worry that people will only think of you as a bad leader of a parish on a little fishing island, but then you start getting jealous, and you’re like, ‘I don’t want to see anybody else run a little haunted island better than me.’ So then you’ve got to defend your territory.”

If you haven’t seen Netflix’s incredible supernatural horror series Midnight Mass yet, now’s the time to see Linklater truly in his element.

Eerie, Indiana

Lasting just one season in the early 1990s, presumably down to NBC’s struggles to market a show starring kids with many grown-up themes, this cult horror series pre-dated Stranger Things by a few decades and was thus way ahead of its time. We follow teen Marshall Teller (Hocus Pocus star Omri Katz) who moves to the creepy town of Eerie, Indiana, and manages to meet Simon Holmes, one of the only (fairly) normal people living there. Together, he and his new friend have to cope with everything Eerie throws at them, including alternate dimensions and government experiments.

In its admirable efforts to satirize American suburbia by presenting its audience with a weird, atmospheric view of small-town life beyond the smiles and typically consumerist view of home-baked paradise, the world wasn’t quite ready for the vibes of Eerie, Indiana back then. But its kids were gonna love them.

Evil

Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, and Aasif Mandvi lead the cast of this odd drama series that managed to make it to four seasons on CBS and Paramount+, despite plummeting ratings.

It’s a hard one to sell to those wary of getting wrapped up in the more religious mysteries and monsters one might typically expect to find on the long-running Supernatural, but much like Widow’s Bay, Evil is also way funnier than you expect it to be. It definitely helps that the show’s villain, played by Lost‘s Michael Emerson, knows exactly what tone his evil flexing needs to strike as the series gets wilder and more ludicrous.

Unlike a few shows on this list, Evil certainly went out on its own terms, so this is one you’ll be able to complete if you’re not looking for an ongoing series.

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace

Darkplace pretends to be a “lost” 1980s TV series created by a fictional horror author named Garth Marenghi (Matthew Holness). Marenghi says he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in this old supernatural medical drama set in Darkplace Hospital, a building above a gateway to hell. The parody show embraces all the classic elements of bad TV: godawful acting, continuity errors, hilarious special effects, nonsensical plots, and eyewatering dialogue. Between episodes, its fictional cast members also pop up in new interview segments, offering the kind of unself-aware commentary that will have you in stitches.

Somewhere between parody and affectionate tribute to supernatural horror telly, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace bombed when it first aired but gained a keen cult following that appreciated its moxie and weird comedic style. There’s never been anything like it before or since, but you can now check out this groundbreaking British series on Peacock in the U.S.!

From

We’re gonna be real with you: From is light on laughter, but in terms of delivering a string of infuriatingly compelling mysteries, you won’t find a more dedicated show to sink your teeth into. Set in a seemingly inescapable U.S. town plagued by monsters that emerge at night, the people trapped in From’s terrifying bubble must unravel the secrets at the heart of its existence to stand any chance of leaving before they’re killed.

The cast of characters often gets altered by unexpected monster incursions, but as the show kicks off, we meet mainstay Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau), the self-appointed sheriff of the town, and the newly arriving Matthews family, who help us understand what is and isn’t possible going forward. Produced by the Russo brothers (Avengers: Endgame) and Lost director Jack Bender, From will reel you in and refuse to let go.

Gravity Falls

The only animated TV show on this list, Alex Hirsch’s Disney series Gravity Falls has definitely earned a spot as an easy, breezy, temporary Widow’s Bay replacement, following Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (Kristen Schaal), who get sent to hang out with their great-uncle Stan in the titular Oregon town, which just so happens to have enough mysteries, paranormal activities, and supernatural oddities to keep them busy for a while.

The show was critically acclaimed and influenced everything from Steven Universe to Rick and Morty, but it really hasn’t lost any of its edge or fun since it first aired. This is one you can watch with your kids, which we definitely wouldn’t recommend for the next show on this list.

Ash vs Evil Dead

Decades after the conclusion of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy, Bruce Campbell returned to the role of Ash Williams in this violent, irreverent horror-comedy series, which sees Ash drawn back into the scourge of the Deadites as they launch a new campaign of terror.

Reluctantly stepping back into his iconic, chainsaw-wielding guise, Campbell’s Ash struggles to keep up with the younger people he has to team with in Ash vs Evil Dead, but this beloved series never really tries to modernize the often crass and horny Ash or take the Evil Dead subject matter too seriously, happy to lean into the over-the-top grossout violence of the films and the unique slapstick comedy that made the character work so well in the first place, making it a solid option to hop on after Widow’s Bay.

The series seemed to be constantly fighting for its life on the Starz network, but it managed to get three 10-episode seasons out there in the end. No small feat.

What other shows would you recommend to Widow’s Bay fans? Let us know in the comments!

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The Best Shows to Watch After Widow’s Bay

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