Crime dramas centered around families are now a dime a dozen. The most popular show of this year so far has been MobLand, which focused on the feud between the Harrigans and the Stevensons and how the former’s fixer, Harry Da Souza, mediated the whole affair before deciding to do what was best for the hand that fed him. Then there was Hound’s Hill, which showed the patriarch of the Glowackis cleaning his town up so as to satiate his desire of being a Godfather-esque figure. The Penguin, the most acclaimed miniseries of 2024, took us into the seedy underbelly of Gotham to chart Oz Cobb’s rise as he made the most of the ongoing feud between the Falcones and the Maronis. From Down Under, we got Territory, which was all about the Lawsons defending their farm by hook or by crook as all the enemies they had made over the years attacked them from all sides. The Gentlemen topped the charts with its story about two brothers, Freddy and Eddie, trying their level best to pay off the former’s debts by shaking hands with drug dealers and gangsters. Now, joining this interesting list of shows is The Waterfront. Is it any good? Let’s find out.
Kevin Williamson’s The Waterfront tells the story of the Buckleys, the most influential family in the fictional fishing town of Havenport, North Carolina. They have the biggest fishery in the area. They own a posh restaurant. And they have a bunch of lucrative beachfront properties to their name. The patriarch of the family is Harlan; his wife is Belle, and their two offspring are Cane and Bree. Back in the day, Harlan’s father, Beau, used to run drugs. But when that got him killed, Harlan chose to stay as far away as possible from such illegal businesses. Unfortunately, when Harlan went off the rails after suffering a heart attack, Cane had to use their trawlers and boats to transport drugs in order to make ends meet. Everything was going fine between Cane and his contact person, Hoyt, until somebody stole one of the shipments and killed two of the Buckleys’ men, Troy and Curtis. This attracted the attention of the DEA, thereby prompting Harlan to put an end to his sabbatical and return to the fore to deal with the issue that his son had conjured seemingly out of thin air. Whether or not Harlan managed to bring the Buckleys back from the brink is what forms the crux of the story.
The Waterfront doesn’t necessarily have a fresh narrative. It’s your usual mix of wealth, drugs, emotional manipulation, betrayals, and moments of redemption. If you have watched a fair amount of family-centric crime dramas, as soon as a new element is introduced into the plot, you can pretty accurately predict where it’s going to go. What keeps you invested in the journey that these characters go on is the emotional turmoil they experience before taking any decision. Instead of making everyone look like apathetic badasses, the writers dig deep into their psyche to try to unearth the flaws that have brought them to a particular juncture and what their problem-solving skills say about their worldview. Out of all the subplots, the one that got the most visceral reaction out of me was that of Bree’s. I won’t spoil it for you, but her desperation to prove that she is worth something and that she refuses to be defined by her mistakes really got to me. Other than her, I found Grady to be really fascinating because of how conflicted he was about expressing his love for Harlan, coming off as an “alpha male,” and also acting like a petulant child. However, Topher Grace’s performance might’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting in that case.
To be honest, if it wasn’t for the amazing cast, I probably wouldn’t have given The Waterfront such a positive rating; all of them were just fantastic. I’m a fan of Holt McCallany’s work, and it’s always great to see him on the screen doing, well, anything; he’s just that good. Melissa Benoist’s turn as Supergirl is iconic. So, I was a little scared if I’d be able to separate that specific piece of art from the artist and accept her in this role. But she made that process really easy for me by giving a career-defining performance. There’s a scene where Bree has to come to terms with all the traumatizing things that have happened in her life, and Melissa is just devastating in that moment. Jake Weary is great and aptly portrays the complicated and messy shades of his character. Maria Bello is excellent. I have already mentioned how amazing Topher Grace is, but it’s perfectly okay to give him a shoutout again for delivering a phenomenally villainous performance. Rafael L. Silva, Humberly Gonzalez, Danielle Campbell, Brady Hepner, Gerardo Celasco, Michael Gaston, and the rest of the supporting cast are all aces in my book. I do wish that Williamson and his team did a slightly better job of presenting them, visually speaking. The cinematography, production design, art direction, costume design, and all the other technical aspects were serviceable, but they could’ve been better.
The Waterfront is a perfectly watchable show. It won’t surprise you, but it won’t disappoint you either. If you have become accustomed to Netflix’s brand of crime dramas centered around dysfunctional and messy families, well, this’ll be right up your alley. I’m actually hoping that this ends up being a success so that Holt McCallany gets to showcase his talent on an annual or biannual basis. Yeah, I think you know where this is going. I was incredibly angry when the streaming giant cancelled Mindhunter for reasons that I don’t fully understand. They said that it didn’t have the views to justify more seasons, and yet every piece of evidence points to the fact that it did have the backing to keep going for several years. Anyway, there’s no point crying over spilt milk. What’s done is done. I’m just glad that both McCallany and Jonathan Groff went on to star in some of the best movies and shows of the past few years. And now that McCallany has returned to Netflix, I think it’d be awesome if Groff joins him too, in some capacity, on the beaches of Havenport. At least, that’s what I think. What are your thoughts on the same? Please, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
