Temple of Geek’s Maria Akhtar sits down with Production Designer Steve Arnold to discuss his Emmy-nominated work on the hit series Widow’s Bay. Steve dives into how his personal roots in the Pacific Northwest inspired the show’s setting, the intricate process of building 25 stage sets, drawing homage to classic horror like Jaws and The Shining, and the balance between comedy, horror, and set engineering.

In world-building, high-detail props and unexpected set adaptations frequently convey key narrative points and hidden humor. For production designer Steve Arnold, developing key props for Widow’s Bay required tight collaboration. “It’s all a process and very collaborative,” Arnold noted when discussing the visual translation from script to prop.

Engineering Interactive Artwork

One of the most complex props created for the series was a featured period portrait that is pulled from a wall. Arnold explained the revision process: “People who are showrunners, writers, directors, they don’t necessarily draw, or they can’t really graphically express themselves. So we had to go through a bunch of versions of sketches of how this woman… How do we make her look kind of terrified? But it’s a portrait, and it can’t be too wild”. Additionally, the wall behind it had to be pre-engineered: “It’s not normally scenery doesn’t look like that when you punch a hole in the wall. We had to make it look like old lath and plaster, and all of that was engineered quite early on”.

Turning Casting Delays into Set Pieces

Unplanned production challenges also led to memorable visual choices. The town square was scripted to feature a statue of historical figure Richard Warren. As sculpting progressed without a finalized actor cast, Arnold recalled: “Weeks go by and we’re sculpting… and we had kind of a rough head… and one day we had it all built… and there was a walkthrough with Hiro and Katie and the producers… They walked by and they saw the statue and it didn’t have a head on it, and they were like, ‘Let’s keep it that way!'”.

Subtle Background Details in Widow’s Bay

Other props were filled with subtle details aimed at attentive viewers. Describing the town museum, Arnold shared a favorite set addition: “Something that I stuck in at the very last was, I said, ‘Could we get a straitjacket?’ So they brought in a straitjacket, and there’s a mannequin wearing a straitjacket… over the reporter’s shoulder… just things like that that were on the edge of mental breakdown stuff”.

All 10 episodes of Widows Bay season 1 are available and streaming on Apple TV.