Review: “The Waterfront” is a Wild Binge That’s Certain to Entertain You

Netflix’s drug-running drama will have you rooting for the crooks to get away with it

*** Caution: Mild Spoilers ahead***

At the heart of “The Waterfront” is the influential Buckley family from fictional Havenport, North Carolina. The show, filmed honestly in North Carolina, which shouldn’t surprise us because its creator, Kevin Williamson, also brought us North Carolina-based “Dawson’s Creek” some years ago. I have watched the first four of eight Season One episodes for this recap and am hooked.

The Buckleys run a renowned fishery with an adjacent upscale restaurant, and own most of the marina around the complex. But as we meet our characters, we learn right away that their enterprise is deeply in debt. Let’s meet the family before we get into more of that:

There is father Harlan Buckley (played by “Mindhunter’s” Holt McCallany), a mid-50s tough guy with a bad heart made worse by his alcoholism. After suffering a recent heart attack, a defibrillator was implanted above his heart, which is visible through the skin. We meet Harlan waking up from a one-night stand with a woman and a clear issue with the defibrillator. He had gone MIA since the initial heart attack and was gallivanting around for weeks.

His wife, Belle, who seems casually indifferent about his transgressions, is a strong woman who can give as good as she gets. She answers a call from Harlan’s mistress of the moment and gets Harlan to the hospital. Belle is played by Maria Bello, whom many of us met for the first time during her short stint on “ER.”

Their daughter, Bree (played by TV’s “Supergirl,” Melissa Benoist), has made a real mess of her life. She made an enemy of her ex-husband, his wife, and her teenage son Diller by setting fire to their home while they were inside. This may or may not have happened before she went into rehab, and currently, Bree remains sober. But Diller resents her, and she can only see her reluctant son on court chaperoned visits. She’s eager to get more involved in the family business, the motivation for which may include some innocent sincerity about wanting to be involved and contribute. However, there is certainly another reason that I am going to leave spoiler-free.

Bree’s brother, Cane (played by “Animal Kingdom’s” Jake Weary), has been running the business along with Belle in Harlan’s absence. Cane and his wife, Peyton, live in a nice seaside home and have a cute young daughter, Savannah. Cane is fairly highly strung, but this may in part be the intensity with which he’s had to run the business of late. It turns out, he and Belle decide to make up for some of the huge debts owed by the Buckleys by running drugs using their fishing boats.

This takes an unfortunate turn as we see a two-man crew one evening jumped by a crew of well-armed men. They are beaten and thrown overboard in fishing nets. The next morning, we see the boat has drifted ashore.

This is not a great site for Cane to see on his way to work, as he drives past the beached boat and notices that Sheriff Clyde Porter and a DEA agent are present. Thinking quickly, he visits a cousin who works for the Assessor’s office (? or a similar department that handles ownership records) and asks her to backdate a change of ownership to one of the crew members who had just been thrown overboard into the water.

When the DEA agent, Marcus Sanchez, finally catches up with Cane at the fishery, Cane claims to have transferred ownership three months earlier. Sanchez is skeptical, and I can tell that he remains determined to catch Cane for something in the following episodes. It will be interesting to see what happens.

When Harlan reappears on the scene and realizes what’s going on, he waits for Cane in the fishery’s office and decks him the minute he walks in. Cane has gotten involved with a shady drug dealer named Hoyt, and Harlan can’t believe he tried to do this all on his own and with such a lower companion. Cane catches him up a bit, but Harlan insists he go learn more about Hoyt and who the men are behind his operation.

We also learn that this supposedly “temporary” arrangement to get the Buckleys out of debt is not the family’s first foray into drug running. That tradition began with Harlan’s father, who did so for decades. Harlan, at one point, reminds Belle that this practice was the death of his father and wrecked his poor mother. All he wants to do is run an honest business, but he comes around pretty quickly to the fact that the Buckleys are going to have to do this a bit longer to shake their huge debt.

Also set up in these early episodes is Cane’s high school girlfriend, Jenna Tate, returning to town from her journalism career to care for her ailing father. This, of course, sets up some soapy tension with a still-smitten Cane, and don’t think Peyton doesn’t take notice.

Without spoiling a name, I’ll tell you that someone in law enforcement is dirty, and they end up being the person behind the moves Hoyt was making. Those moves, it turns out, included screwing the Buckleys by stealing the shipment of drugs that was on the boat in question. The person holds a long-standing resentment of Harlan, and the Buckleys, for their perceived wealth and power. But Harlan has already figured out a way to cut this person out by going to a mysterious “Grady” who is the real power connection behind it all.

But this law enforcement officer gets that Harlan is trying to cut him out. And we think it’s he who sends two punks to attack Peyton as she arrives home one evening. They literally pour gasoline on her and are about to light her up. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen, but a message has been sent.

Meanwhile, Belle is trying another tack in dealing with the family’s debt problems, and meets with an ambitious developer named Wes Larson (Played by “Lioness” actor Dave Annable) about selling him several expensive parcels of beachfront property owned by the Buckleys. The catch here is she’s doing it behind Harlan’s back, knowing he would go ballistic.

Another side story is a new bartender at the restaurant, Shawn, who’s just moved to Havenport from Texas. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say you should think about why Shawn wanted to move specifically to Havenport and get close to the Buckleys.

Peyton’s lost patience with Cane and Jenna’s flirtation and even warns Jenna off about it. But eventually she’s so set off by events that she takes Savannah and storms off to her parents’ house in Durham. How she expects to keep an eye on Cane and Jenna from 150 miles away (I calculated using Wilmington, NC), I have no idea.

Harlan comes to see our dirty law enforcement official at his home, and they get into a violent altercation, with Harlan killing him. A cover-up ensues, which includes immediately cremating the body to cover the physical evidence. The Buckleys even host the funeral reception at their restaurant, speaking to their long-standing relationship with this person. Of course, Agent Sanchez isn’t buying it, and as I hinted earlier, is convinced Cane was involved.

Finally, in Episode 4, the dangerous Grady is revealed when Harlan is granted a meeting with him. And this intimidating person comes to us in the form of … Topher Grace?! That ‘70s guy does come off as gregarious at first, eager to do business with Harlan. Harlan looks at him like “who is this pipsqueak?” but is shown his ruthlessness when he guns down a Buckley family rival in front of him. And he isn’t just gunned down. He’s obliterated with a huge, Gatling-gun style killing machine.

“The Waterfront” isn’t for the faint of heart. It has some gritty moments, but it’s also a real grabber that I’m confident you’ll enjoy if you like “upper middle class crime,” among other subgenres. The Buckleys are not great people, but ultimately, we root for them because without their ability to get away with it all, we have no show! I assure you, I’ve left out plenty for you to discover on your own. Enjoy.

And that’s what Todd’s watching.