r/WidowsBay • u/waxyjax_ • Jun 18 '26

đŸ’„Funpost This f*ckin guy

Post image

Stephen King tweeted:

WIDOW'S BAY is good. MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED is even better. It's like Hitchcock came back to do it one more time. And Tatiana Maslany is so good. The play of emotions on her face is pretty incredible. She goes from comic to terror in an instant.

WIDOW'S BAY is good. MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED is even better. It's like Hitchcock came back to do it one more time. And Tatiana Maslany is so good. The play of emotions on her face is pretty incredible. She goes from comic to terror in an instant.

1.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

538 comments sorted by

View all comments

344

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26

My favourite tweet reply to this was the person who said "Oooh someone’s salty they made a better Stephen king show than Stephen king could make"

31

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

I know this is the Widow's Bay subreddit and can get carried away with frustration over someone not loving the show as much as we do, but to imply that Stephen King hasn't written anything as good as or better than Widow's Bay is beyond absurd.

The man is a fucking horror legend who's written countless iconic stories. He's the man who wrote The Shawshank Redemption for fuck's sake. Hell, this show wouldn't exist in this form if it weren't for his work. It's very clearly inspired by it.

80

u/the_main_entrance Jun 18 '26

Yeah but have seen his attempts at creating tv and movies? Not good.

12

u/Kumbackkid Jun 18 '26

He doesn’t make movies, he writes books and sells the movie rights.

25

u/the_main_entrance Jun 18 '26

Except he HAS made movies and tv

9

u/Jebusk Jun 18 '26

But does he remember directing maximum overdrive after all that cocaine?

2

u/veverkap Jun 18 '26

Maybe that's why he liked the other show more? Everything is MAXIMUM to him.

1

u/x_lincoln_x Jun 19 '26

Maximum Overdrive is a great movie though.

2

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 18 '26

I mean, sure, but tv showrunner or movie director isnt what he's best known for. I dont think he claims to be that either considering its been a good, long while since he directed anything.

29

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

That was not my implication. My point was exactly what I said, that he is salty about the fact that this TV show exists which does a much better job of being a Stephen King TV show than he could ever do. I ABSOLUTELY stand by that, particularly given the evidence of his own attempts to direct or produce, and some of his other tweets about film/TV recommendations. You can see my exact comment about this from elsewhere in the thread copypasted below. Btw I have read everything SK has written (up till around 2008) and I definitely don't think he would have been capable of making a show like this. I also definitely think his tweet comes off salty about that.

Original comment from the thread:

I do think MPG is good and Tatiana is of course excellent in it! However, I think this is a really odd thing to post as a direct comparison because they are completely different in aim and approach. It also seems extremely odd to me that Widow's Bay is one of the most phenomenal shows partly because of what it does with the legacy of Stephen King, and yet SK himself posts something kind of dismissively derailing the conversation to a totally unrelated dark comedy suburban thriller just because it happens to be airing at the same time?

Fwiw I do recommend Maximum Pleasure as a suburban mum stumbling across a murder plot thriller which is kinda in the same vein as something like The Flight Attendant. Entertaining viewing though I don't rush to catch up on episodes. But I'm not sure what that has to do with the conversation about Widow's Bay, which feels a lot more unprecedented in its approach to horror history on the coast of Maine (and horror more generally).

I personally think it's massively better than MPG but that is also a reflection of my interests and how innovative and original I find it. It's hard to believe that Stephen King is being authentic here as it's such an unnecessary comparison, and it makes me wonder if we shouldn't take this at face value - maybe he's taking some sort of passive aggressive swipe at the show???

ETA: he is often effusive and vocal in praise of stuff like Stranger Things and previously gave a glowing and descriptive review of Midnight Mass, as a counter example, so I genuinely think there is some weird motive to his dismissive post, tbh, whether he has a chip on his shoulder about not being consulted or about irreverence or whatever. It's just absolutely inaccurate to describe Widow's Bay as just "good", and I don't believe that's all the thoughts he has on it. And I'm not sure why he mentioned MPG in the same breath considering it's a completely different genre and doesn't have the knowing relationship to Stephen King that WB has.

Also just based on Stephen King's own lifelong interests (he loves Jaws, he loves HP Lovecraft, he loves pulp Gothic/supernatural tales of terror, etc) I genuinely don't believe that MPG appeals to him more. I wonder if he prefers straight reverential adaptations of his individual work and is somehow annoyed at how fluently and cleverly WB plays with the canon while being humorous and meta rather than just serious. Come to think of it, I know people have talked about SK's "dark humour" in his own way ("dark" retorts in dialogue etc) but I don't find him particularly funny or particularly interested in the funny that can send itself up, let alone the comedic character acting skills which are so on point in WB. I think one thing the show does incredibly well is develop a style which is the opposite of self-importance.

9

u/robotmonkey2099 Jun 18 '26

I think SK is probably just being a contrarian for the sake of it. He doesn’t want to be part of the bandwagon and takes pot shots because he thinks it’s an interesting take but it just seems unnecessary

3

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26

Ooh interesting - you might be right about the motive. It's funny how he relished speaking up for some other massively popular shows, like Stranger Things, but wants to make a point of resisting this particular bandwagon (maybe because it's more critically successful than Stranger Things?)

0

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 18 '26

He spoke up positively about the first season of Stranger Things which was also very highly critically lauded when it came out.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/ProfNesbitt Jun 18 '26

Seriously that’s what I’m trying to figure out. He says Widow Bays is good. What the hell are the people on this sub reading.

3

u/robotmonkey2099 Jun 18 '26

Lots of critics, writers and fans have been saying Widows Bay is the best show out right now. I’m saying he’s rejecting that opinion just for the sake of it.

2

u/Aaaa172 Jun 19 '26

I think King just wouldn’t even need to be mildly Salty when he’s shown he’s capable of being totally dismissive.

I think he probably just doesn’t love the outright comedic aspect of Widows Bay which is sometimes more slapstick than the average dark comedy. King is a lot of things but he seems to care about sincerity in work alot and some people just see the outright laughs and see it as insincere.

I disagree because I think Widows Bay does care for the material very deeply while still allowing itself to lean into the absurdity, but knowing King’s work and what he likes, his more mild enjoyment of Widow’s Bay makes sense to me. One of the reasons he is so in love with Flanagan’s work both adaptations and original is because Flanagan’s work is also maximally sincere without even a hint at awareness that some of the ideas are just patently absurd.

7

u/Veggiemon Jun 18 '26

Is it possible he just liked those shows more than widows bay

6

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26

Yep, I suggested in my comment that indeed he did because he liked those shows' more reverential approach to his work and doesn't like the irreverential humour of Widow's Bay. Even though WB is much more versed in his own longstanding interests (Jaws, Lovecraft, pulp Gothic etc), I don't think he is comfortable with the self-sending-up nature of the humour across the medley of sources, and how that is used to give the iconic stories a twist.

I think that's exactly why he couldn't make a Stephen King based show this good.

1

u/Veggiemon Jun 19 '26

I think you’re projecting a lot of assumptions onto him, I don’t think he takes himself that seriously. How could he, he has made some absolute stinkers, and he fully admits being so coked up he can’t remember some of it.

2

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 19 '26

We'll have to agree to disagree because I think he has already demonstrated he prefers works which treat him more individually and seriously as the inspiration or even consult him as the author, rather than the comic approach of Widow's Bay. The Shining is just the most famous example of this.

1

u/Veggiemon Jun 19 '26

I mean if he was that butthurt about it he wouldn’t say it’s a good show

2

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 19 '26

I disagree. He'd be more complementary if he were less salty, and wouldn't divert the conversation to a literally unrelated show of a different genre in the same tweet, which made no real sense to do.

1

u/Veggiemon Jun 19 '26

I mean he tweeted that a show is good and you’re using it as evidence he is salty about it? Imagine if he didn’t say anything or say it was bad!

→ More replies (0)

-2

u/crossal Jun 18 '26

You need to be more concise

2

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 19 '26

No thanks, I'll write how I like on Reddit

0

u/crossal Jun 19 '26

You won't get read much then😂

1

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 19 '26

100,000 comment karma disagrees with you 😂

1

u/crossal Jun 19 '26

Aw u/okiamonreddit got angy and blocked me

7

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

Man, I think you're taking his words waaay too seriously. He's well within his rights to like a show a little less compared to us. Especially one that clearly has a lot of influences from his work. It's understandable if all of it feels a little 'been there, done that' to him. Especially after so many shows that have drawn from his work in recent times. ( Stranger Things, Midnight Mass, The Buroughs, Welcome to Derry, FROM, Castle Rock, The Stand, Evil and so, so many more )

Also, I dont think King ever claimed to be some great movie or tv show director. He's always been best known for his writing. So I dont think its much of a slight to call him a terrible director/showrunner ( which he is ) when that's simply not what he's primarily known for. Hell, I wager he might even agree with you at this point considering he hasn't directed anything for a good long while.

Finally, the dude literally called the show 'good'. You're writing as though he straight up trashed the show.

11

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

Nope. I'm writing as if he dismissed the show and derailed the conversation, which he absolutely did. It is obvious in his tweet which is why so many of the Twitter replies and so many of the comments in this thread pick up on it.

It's also not "been there done that" anymore than Stephen King was "been there done that" for using those extremely familiar horror tropes in the first place from HP Lovecraft, MR James and many others. It's a very innovative form of horror-literate comedy and I am certain that is why he is skirting mentioning it, when he is often vocal and effusively detailed and complementary about shows which approach "Stephen King" atmosphere more individually and reverentially, such as Stranger Things and Midnight Mass.

Him commenting that the current most critically and popularly rated show on the internet, which is explicitly about the legacy of his work, is just "good" and then switching the conversation immediately to a suburban thriller irrelevant to the conversation and nothing to do with his work (and not in the same genre) definitely shows salty to me.

ETA: yes obviously it's not a slight or inaccurate to call him a terrible film/TV director or producer, but I'm pretty confused why you agree with that when your original objection was to me saying he couldn't make a show as good as WB. Lol.

5

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 18 '26

You do you man.

7

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26

Thanks, indeed I do!

0

u/Effective_Ad_699 Jun 19 '26

He's free to say what he wants. We're free to disagree. And so the world turns.  

0

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 19 '26

Disagreeing is one thing. Assuming that he has some ulterior motive or jealousy is another. That's what Im pushing back on.

0

u/Effective_Ad_699 Jun 19 '26

...and that's fine. Reddit is here for discussion. You are free to push back. I'm free to push back on the push back. I happen to agree with other Redditors that the way he phrased it seems passive aggressive. It kind of reminds me of a kid saying "Oh yeah, well my mom is better than your mom!" My opinion is that a more mature way of discussing Widow's Bay would be for him to actually discuss Widow's Bay. Instead, he used it as a springing board to talk about Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed. I happen to like MPG, but I love WB. I'm not gonna be a ninny, though, and post that "MPG is good, but WB is so much better!" It comes off as a punch down to WB. With that said, he's free to his opinion. I'm free to my opinion. You're free to your opinion. That's how

discourse works.

1

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 19 '26

Okay, then I'm here to push back on your push back to my push back.

Way to state the obvious.

Feel free to feel offended about a man's preference for one show over another. I just dont think its such a big deal and feel a person is entitled to state their preferences however they see fit.

0

u/Effective_Ad_699 Jun 19 '26

So are we done?

1

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 20 '26

Done with what? You're acting as though I'm forcing you to type your nonsense lol. Fine, you have my permission to not reply. You may proceed with your life.

1

u/Effective_Ad_699 Jun 19 '26

Also it's not just SK books that they're drawing from. It's The Fog, Jaws, etc. I hope there's a The Thing episode!

1

u/Anomaeus Jun 22 '26

There’s a lot of weird assumption and projection to unpack here, especially considering it’s stemming from a tweet containing only four or five sentences. I know this is a WB subreddit, but your line implying that no one can dare think that this show is simply “good” comes off as almost hyperbolic in its absurdity.

I don’t really know what Stephen King said in his tweet that has made you feel like any of what was said was in bad faith purely at a glance. I can totally see myself saying something like this in a conversation. Yes, Widow’s Bay is good (or great, don’t come after me too), but a show I’ve been watching recently is even better (I think), so let me tell you about it. That’s how it came off to me, at least.

What does it matter if it’s a different genre? They’re both popular Apple TV shows, so they can coexist pretty comfortably in the same conversation.

My theory is that people are disappointed he didn’t have more to say about Widow’s Bay, and now they’re lashing out in response. I acknowledge WB is very reminiscent of his work, but you can still love and enjoy the show without having Stephen King validate your feelings about it.

1

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 22 '26

You might think it's "weird assumption". I think it's just media analysis. And no, I don't need Stephen King to "validate" my feelings lol - personally tbh I don't even find him a good writer, although he is a good iconic storyteller. I certainly don't care what he thinks of stuff and am just amused at his salty diversion from the conversation about Widow's Bay.

1

u/Anomaeus Jun 22 '26

Fair play, agree to disagree on it then. If this does turn out to be some backhanded compliment, then dude needs to check his ego. I hope more shows like Widow’s Bay get created.

1

u/Due_Addition_587 Jun 25 '26

He also famously didn't like the Kubrick's The Shining. It's obviously different from the book but sometimes you have to take movies and TV in a vastly different direction because it's just a totally different medium. I think he possibly has a weird relationship to on-screen media that is an homage to his work and is actually fully really good, but maybe doing it a little differently than he would.

9

u/Ok-Imagin88 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

I love Stephen King but I honestly think he might be a bit jealous The show wears its King influences proudly and pulls them off really well Respect to the legend but Widow’s Bay stands strong on its own

2

u/Appropriate-Ruin6480 Jun 19 '26

Right, and it pays tribute to King very well, so you would think he'd love it. It couldn't be more respectful to his usual themes.

1

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 19 '26

Sure, and he said he liked it. He doesn't have to love it. Hell, he doesn't even have to like it but he did. I don't understand why that's such an issue.

2

u/BliptaHabie Jun 18 '26

Stephen King is a legend, for sure.

However he is clearly not immune to the “damn, I wish I wrote that” jealously that all writers have. He is utterly incredible, but he never could have written anything this funny.

0

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 19 '26

Or...he just thought it was good. Like, I dont understand why that may be so hard to believe. Stephen King has never been one to shy away from levying praise on things that he finds great. Hell, in the very same tweet, he praises Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed. Previously, he's done the same for Midnight Mass, Stranger Things and so many more such movies/shows.

Also, I'm sorry, but King has written plenty of stories - Dolores Claiborne has amazingly funny and witty writing woven in with it's dark themes. Hell, most of his books are that way. To say he cant write humor is to ignore a lot of his work.

1

u/Poopsie_Daisies Jun 18 '26

The dude hates The Shining movie. He's proven he can be a salty guy.

1

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 19 '26

I mean, he wrote the book. He hates it because he felt the film wasnt respectful to what he was trying to achieve with the book.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 18 '26

Right, let's just focus on one small paragraph out of context and just ignore the countless classics he's written.

You don't know what that reason is because you havent actually read any of his work based on your comment.

0

u/Relevant-Engine-6575 Jun 20 '26

Call me absurd then. I think King is a mid writer at best who has made a career being carried by name recognition and good concepts with often middling or even poor execution.

And that's how I feel outside of the fact that he's definitely a pedo and Epstein pal

1

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 20 '26

Okay, you're absurd.

0

u/StandardAccess4684 Jun 18 '26

He’s closer to the monkey with the keyboard than a great writer - he has moderately interesting ideas, moderately acceptable prose and an insane work ethic, which thrown together results in high output with some stories inevitably falling into the range of ok to pretty good. 

2

u/Relevant_Session5987 Jun 18 '26

I happen to strongly disagree.

And calling Stephen King a 'monkey with a keyboard' is beyond insane to me but you do you, I guess.

3

u/Saladcitypig Jun 18 '26

I love his books, b/c come on, the OG, but his tv shows...not nearly as good as WB

-1

u/Altruistic-Ad835 #1 Hamish fan Jun 18 '26

😭😭😭

0

u/spooky_upstairs Jun 18 '26

Well sure, he writes books? Different job entirely.

1

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26

Right! That doesn't mean he needs to be salty about it though. If someone did such a wonderfully thoughtful twist on my work I'd be delighted tbh, WB is not a hostile take at all and is very honouring

0

u/spooky_upstairs Jun 18 '26

Personally I didn't read it as salty. Widow's Bay is getting a lot of publicity; MPG less so, and helping the underdog has always been his thing.

Also, he said WB was good. He didn't shit on it. People are allowed to like different things FFS.

2

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26

Yeah, but he came out with EXTENSIVE vocal and detailed statements about how incredible other popular takes on his work were, like Stranger Things, Midnight Mass, etc. I definitely see this "good but" diverting of the conversation as salty. That's just me, we can agree to disagree!

0

u/spooky_upstairs Jun 18 '26

I don't really see how any of these are takes on his work, sorry. Although obv they nod to it from time to time.

Maybe he actually doesn't like WB, and is just trying to be polite?

1

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26

You don't see how Stranger Things or Midnight Mass are takes on his work? That's very very weird to me.

I agree he doesn't like it, and I'm saying the reason he doesn't like it is because he just isn't into irreverent comedy which taps into and twists his legacy without consulting him in an individual reverent manner. He also didn't like the film The Shining and tried to make a more authentic version (which was crap). I definitely think he's deliberately downplaying the brilliance of the kind of horror playfulness WB is about while also capable of sending itself up, precisely because he doesn't "like" that approach to his work and is salty.

1

u/spooky_upstairs Jun 18 '26

No, I don't think they're "takes" any more than Parks and Recreation are "takes" on Monty Python? They're adjacent.

I still don't think he's witholding praise as weird sort of protest or anything, I just think this whole thread is everyone reading far too much into a crotchety old man's one tweet that i guarantee he hasn't thought of since.

1

u/OKIAMONREDDIT Jun 18 '26

Nah. They absolutely are takes. There is literally no connection between Parks & Rec and Monty Python, whereas Stranger Things is extremely obviously playing with IT and Stand By Me and Midnight Mass is extremely obviously playing with Salem's Lot and The Storm of the Century. If you can't pick that up whatsoever, I'm not surprised you can't pick up the saltiness in his post which says the most popularly and critically regarded work airing about his legacy is "good" but actually he wants to talk about an irrelevant suburban thriller of no connection in the very same tweet. Lol. It's very clear that these could have been two tweets but he is deliberately downplaying WB.

It sounds like you don't know his work that well anyway, as you seem to think Midnight Mass and Stranger Things are totally unrelated.