Is ‘Widow’s Bay’ Too Good? Plus ‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ and ‘Top Chef’

Key Takeaways

• Widow's Bay is showing off. The "Your Baggage" episode (written by Emma Ketchum, directed by Andrew DeYoung) earns extended praise for a specific structural decision: showrunner Katie Dippold originally planned to show Patricia's history with the Boogeyman through flashback, then scrapped it and kept the whole storyline in the present tense. That choice unlocked the episode—letting a slasher setpiece and a weeping Matthew Rhys feel tonally continuous rather than like two different shows stitched together. Both hosts were also impressed that the show resolved the Tom-Evan father-son conflict earlier than most series would dare, trusting that more story remains.

• The show's secret is confidence in its characters. Both hosts keep returning to the idea that Widow's Bay gives its people full, contradictory interiority. Patricia (who tases a book club member and immediately apologizes) is genuinely weird but also correct that the woman was awful. Wick is a lonely, strange guy who happens to be right about the supernatural. Tom's line to Evan about why he hid his mother's letters ("They make me sadder than I already am") is called a "thunderclap" of economical writing. Kingston Rumi Southwick's soft-spoken, underplaying performance as Evan gets specific praise: his affect lets the forgiveness register without manufacturing another episode of conflict to earn it.

• Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed has a strong premise and some structural friction. The new Apple TV+ series (created by David J. Rosen, pilot directed by David Gordon Green) stars Tatiana Maslany as a magazine fact-checker whose cam encounter turns into a murder investigation. Ryan appreciates the kinetic style, the naturalistic use of Apple devices, and Jake Johnson playing against type as the ex-husband. Greenwald flags a recurring tic: the show uses episode-ending cliffhangers and then flashbacks to explain them, which feels like wrapping story around a device rather than around how a character would naturally discover or withhold something. He suggests a potentially more durable version of the show would have Paula solve the Trevor case in episode one and spend the rest of the season helping other cam-scam victims.

• The Pit and Backrooms did for their respective mediums what Fleabag and Atlanta did for television around 2017 to 2020. Both cultural moments reminded audiences why collective engagement with a medium matters. The Pit succeeded with old hands; Backrooms arrived with fresh voices. Either way, both reignited a sense of "let's talk about this." Greenwald's broader point is that the mid-2010s streaming era created a brief window where creators like Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Donald Glover, and Michaela Coel could jump the line in a historically gatekept industry. That window has mostly closed, which is why television's path to fresh-voice breakthroughs now looks much harder than what the film moment has just demonstrated.

• Top Chef finally delivered in its penultimate episode, but the season still ends small. The plating-systems challenge produced the best cooking of the season, with judges visibly delighted rather than grading on a curve. Jonathan was eliminated despite competent work because his ambition (bread and butter; a pumpkin on a candlestick) fell far below his competitors'. A lingering frustration: the finale location was never announced, suggesting the season may wrap in the Carolinas without the travel that typically marks a Top Chef final. For a season already criticized for uninspired challenges, that feels deflating.

• The Star City spinoff game generated five concepts. Taking their cue from Star City (Apple TV+'s For All Mankind spinoff told from the Soviet perspective), the hosts invented alternate-POV shows. Ryan: "The Smoking Section" (The X-Files from the Cigarette Smoking Man's angle, with Nick Galitzine aging into the lead role). Greenwald: "Recreation and Parks" (Parks and Rec as seen from rival town Eagleton, starring Parker Posey and Sam Elliott). Ryan: a West Wing follow-up centered on Vice President Hoynes, potentially crossbred with the Veep cast in order to zag back toward earnestness. Greenwald: "Thoroughbreds" (Slow Horses' competent London agents, operating without Gary Oldman's department dragging them down). Ryan: "Mad Mitzvah" (the Jewish ad agency Roger Sterling dismisses in the Mad Men pilot, with David Krumholtz as the Roger figure and Timothée Chalamet energy for the young lead, where everything is the same except you cannot mix meat and dairy).

People, organizations, products, and links mentioned

• Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald, hosts; The Watch (The Ringer / Spotify)
• Widow's Bay (Apple TV+): creator/showrunner Katie Dippold; director Andrew DeYoung; writer Emma Ketchum; cast includes Kate O'Flynn (Patricia), Matthew Rhys (Tom), Kingston Rumi Southwick (Evan), Jeff Hiller, Dale Dickey (Rosemary)
• Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (Apple TV+): creator David J. Rosen; pilot directed by David Gordon Green; stars Tatiana Maslany, Murray Bartlett, Jake Johnson, Dolly De Leon; a son of Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears in a supporting role
• Star City (Apple TV+): Soviet-POV spinoff of For All Mankind; episodes 2 and 3 discussed Monday
• For All Mankind (Apple TV+)
• Top Chef Season 23 (Bravo): contestants Sherry, Lawrence, Rhoda, Jonathan; judges include Tom Colicchio and Kristen Kish; guest judge John Yao of Cato (Los Angeles)
• The Pit and Backrooms: cited as communal cultural touchstones
• Dark Wizard (HBO documentary): about climber Dean Potter and his rivalry with Alex Honnold; recommended at the episode's close
• Slow Horses (Apple TV+): Kristen Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman referenced in the spinoff game
• Run (HBO, one season): Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Donald Gleeson; cited as a Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed comparator
• The Big Picture podcast (Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins); Projections Substack by Fennessey
• The Town podcast (Matt Belloni, Lucas Shaw, Craig Worlbeck)
• Wait a Second podcast (Jason Concepcion, Tyler Tynes)
• Masters of the Universe film: Nick Galitzine stars
• 60 Minutes (CBS): briefly discussed in the context of Sam Levinson's reported involvement; both hosts express disdain for the presumption
• Fly By Jing instant noodles: featured in Ryan's frozen-pea cooking anecdote
• Prestige TV Pod (The Ringer-TV YouTube channel): Cape Fear coverage upcoming

Notable moments

• Andy opens by announcing he accepted an offer to run 60 Minutes, adding that Sam Levinson's writing credit on The Idol was what pushed the actual hire over him.
• Greenwald on the 60 Minutes situation: "These avaricious climbing bootlickers are behaving like nothing's ever going to swing back." He then immediately pivots: "Cool. See you guys next week."
• The spinoff game arrives at "Mad Mitzvah": Mad Men from the Jewish ad agency's perspective, where "everything is the same except you can't mix meat and dairy."
• On Widow's Bay's Tom-Evan scene: "They make me sadder than I already am is a thunderclap. That is such simple writing, but it is everything."
• Greenwald on the show's character logic: "Good character writing is yes-and-ing. Patricia is crazy, but also Chris is the worst."
• Ryan on Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed's structural tic: the show wraps story around the concept of a cliffhanger rather than around how a character would naturally discover or withhold information.
• Ryan's culinary corner: he nearly uses his wife's frozen knee peas (thawed and refrozen roughly 25 times, expired November 2025) in a clean-out-the-pantry noodle dish before a Reddit thread warns him about listeria from boo-boo peas.
• Greenwald closes with a recommendation for Dark Wizard, noting his wife's palms were sweating while watching it.

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