SummaryHarlan Buckley (Holt McCallany) returns to his family's fishing empire after two heart attacks after bad decisions by his wife Belle (Maria Bello) and son Cane (Jake Weary) threaten the business. Their daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist), a recovering addict, brings new complications that could spell more trouble for the family in the drama series fr... Read More
Created By:Kevin Williamson
The Waterfront
Season 1 Premiere:
Jun 19, 2025
Metascore
Mixed or Average
54
User score
Generally Favorable
6.4
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All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
30% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
55% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
15% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Jun 19, 2025
90
The Waterfront is the mercilessly entertaining flex of a showrunner who knows exactly what he's doing.
Jun 20, 2025
70
“The Waterfront” seems unlikely to be as seismic as some of Williamson’s best-loved work, but it does have more bite than many other streaming dramas set in beach towns with surprisingly high murder rates. The dialogue is at least occasionally snappy, and McCallany and Bello make excellent sparring partners.
User score
Generally Favorable
53% Positive
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
27% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
20% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Jun 19, 2025
10
Extremely entertaining nighttime soap with some blood! And fun!. All the actors are so solid, and the locations look beautiful! Makes you wanna live there, even with murders!
Sep 4, 2025
60
I found myself wishing there was more — not just more after the finale, but more in the middle to let this family live and breathe before things fell apart.
Jun 19, 2025
60
It is escapist summer nonsense with – God, I hope – no pretensions to being otherwise. Dive into the adult creek and wallow in nostalgia as the waves of absurdity sweep towards shore.
Jun 19, 2025
50
Everything’s a little fuzzy, lacking in detail. Characters put on attitudes and get in and out of trouble — there are shootings and scrapes, surprising reveals and shocking events — but few are, or seem about to develop into, interesting people. .... There’s enough activity that some viewers, possibly a lot of them, will dig in just to see how this thing caroms into that.
Jun 19, 2025
40
In the first few episodes of Netflix’s new drama The Waterfront, a man is tortured via shark, a woman is nearly set on fire in her suburban driveway, and a body gets dropped into an alligator-filled swamp. Yet the most remarkable thing of all is how boring it all feels.
Jun 20, 2025
25
An uninspired soap with laughably bad dialogue, The Waterfront is trying to be the new Yellowstone, but it doesn’t come close.
Jun 23, 2025
8
A prominent family in a North Carolina waterfront community faces challenges to their wealth and well-being. Even though they own a restaurant and fish processing operation, the real money comes from using their boats to smuggle drugs. Obviously, this leads to numerous conflicts and challenges. With showrunner Kevin Williamson, it’s all about story and relationships. The plot winds its way thru unexpected developments and dramatic encounters (with a few violent moments). The cast is full of flawed characters with Holt McCallany and Maria Bello effectively leading the hierarchy of relationship issues. Jake Weary, as the conflicted heir, carries much of the show’s emotional heft with Topher Grace providing an especially winsome villain. Williamson knows how to “class up” the melodrama, while keeping sufficient moments of action for extra tension (after all, he did create the “Scream” franchise). It’s not exactly trash TV, but the considerable dramatic flexes create lots of summer escapist fun. Undoubtedly, it’ll be renewed for a 2nd season, cause they left us hanging. (8 one-hour eps)
Jun 27, 2025
6
Strong leads playing Mr and Mrs Buckley. Story line not well developed. Over the Top actually Soapy gratuitous violence. It's no Ozark. Pales in comparison
Jul 3, 2025
5
The real crime is that the immensely talented Bello and McCallany are wasted in this weak soap. More gloss than depth, the Ozark-wannabe lacks nuance, smarts, or surprises. Pity. A bold choice would have been to tweak this in the direction of parody, which it nearly achieves out of sheer cliche and melodrama. Pass.
Jul 12, 2025
2
Proof that Neflix will greenlight under-developed, not worthy for prime time dribble. Script is horrible and characters are stereotypes of every Southern character that exists. The dye job on the leading character is as laughable as his acting. Couldn't make it beyond one episode. So disappointing given the big names involved.
