SERIES REVIEW – Netflix’s latest so-called smash, The Waterfront, has inexplicably surged to the top of Hungary’s streaming charts, even though it’s anything but a must-watch. Kevin Williamson delivers all the familiar tropes: southern-fried melodrama slathered in crime, but how much of it lingers after the first episode is up for debate. This is a seaside family where everyone cheats, everyone’s guilty, and everyone is the architect of their own downfall—just what we’ve all been craving, right? Spoiler: Not really.

Kevin Williamson, master of teen drama, meta-horror, and supernatural soaps, doubles down on dysfunctional family crime sagas with The Waterfront. North Carolina sets the scene, but local flavor here is as thin as pickled fish—what really matters is the Buckleys’ non-stop scheming, slip-ups, and drug-running disasters. From the very first scene, you know: every character is scrambling for survival, sinking ever deeper into their own quicksand.

Soap Opera With Blood, Tears, and Cocaine

In The Waterfront, the Buckleys are far from the Corleones of The Godfather, but disaster definitely runs in the family. On paper, they own fishing boats, a chic restaurant, and a prime chunk of coastal property. In reality, it’s all desperate survival. Patriarch Harlan (Holt McCallany) daydreams about the wild, coke-fueled days of his youth, but mostly loses himself in drinking and cheating while his wife Belle (Maria Bello) stoically tolerates his downfall. Meanwhile, Belle and their son Cane (Jake Weary)—a once-celebrated high school hero—secretly rent out boats to hapless drug runners to scrape together enough to cover the family’s mounting debts. But when the operation goes south, everyone gets pulled in deeper: Cane, grudgingly; Harlan, almost gleefully—finally a new excuse to bark at his son and “toughen him up.” In truth, he’s just a jaded bully, little more than a ghost of himself.

No One’s Innocent, Everyone’s Got Dirt

“I’m pretty good at almost,” Cane admits to his old flame Jenna (Humberly González), whose sudden return stirs up all kinds of trouble—even though Cane has a wife (Peyton – Danielle Campbell) and a kid. “Almost a good guy. Almost a good husband. Almost a good father. Almost a good son… just never quite enough.” (Jenna, now a journalist in Atlanta, hears from Cade: “I read some of your articles online. You’re a good writer!”) As for the rest of the Buckleys, Bree (Melissa Benoist) may be crime-free for now, but after torching the family home a few years ago, she’s only allowed to see her son Diller (Brady Hepner) under supervision—not that he wants to see her. “No one got hurt,” Bree insists. “Physically,” Diller shoots back. Now Bree’s in recovery, attending meetings and working at the family restaurant, but always angling for a way back into the office—clearly, ulterior motives are a family trait.

Swirling around the Buckleys: Gerardo Celasco as a wildly over-the-top DEA agent (Marcus Sanchez), Michael Gaston as the dangerous sheriff (Clyde Porter)—a longtime frenemy of Harlan whose jealousy is always simmering—and Rafael L. Silva as Shawn, the new bartender whose cluelessness behind the bar is suspicious in itself. And yes, Topher Grace will show up… eventually.

Local Flavor? More Like Fast-Food Crime

Williamson grew up in this world; you’d think the family fishing business would feel authentic. Instead, The Waterfront is built on every generic coastal crime trope in the book. Instead of rich local characters or true fishing culture, we get a steady churn of criminal hijinks, sudden twists, and family soap drama. The characters themselves rarely rise above cardboard cutouts—at least based on the first three episodes critics saw. Only Belle (Maria Bello) seems remotely human, while Bree is relatable simply for trying to rebuild despite her son’s loathing. Peyton, the show’s only normal person, really ought to grab her kid and skip town—but that’s clearly not happening.

The Waterfront might be more formulaic than a frozen pizza, but there’s enough drama and chaos packed into every episode to keep you binging just to see what fresh mess they’ll stumble into next. It’s the kind of series where “good enough” is the highest compliment—sometimes, “almost good” is all it takes to hit Netflix’s number one.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-