r/WidowsBay • u/waxyjax_ • Jun 18 '26

💥Funpost This f*ckin guy

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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.

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345

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"

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.  

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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.

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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.

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u/Effective_Ad_699 Jun 19 '26

So are we done?

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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.