A Crime Thriller Series From The Creator Of Scream Is Blowing Up On Netflix

There are two sides to writer-director Kevin Williamson, depending on what your tastes are. If you're a horror enthusiast, you'll certainly know him for co-creating the "Scream" franchise and writing several of its movies, in addition to penning 1997's "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and 2022's underrated COVID-19 slasher flick "Sick." If slashers are a little too scary for you, however, then you may recognize Williamson as the creator of the TV shows "Dawson's Creek" and "The Vampire Diaries," both of which were era-defining melodramas that captured the zeitgeist.

These two halves might sound like they're diametrically opposed to each other, but both genres are categorized by their soap opera-style ingredients. The crucial difference is whether you hope to see the characters fall in love or kill each other. Now, with Williamson's newest show "The Waterfront," you get both, which may be the reason why the series has been blowing up on Netflix since it premiered on Thursday, June 19.

"The Waterfront" follows the Buckley family, as led by patriarch Harlan Buckley (played by a scenery-chewing Holt McCallany, who previously tore through David Fincher's "Mindhunter"). Harlan would rather drink than deal with the myriad of problems weighing down his family's long-running fishery and restaurant. Picking up the slack is his wife Belle (Maria Bello), who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty cleaning up her husband's messes, and his son Cane (Jake Weary) who decides to take matters into his own hands by moonlighting as a drug runner for a sociopathic drug lord startup founder played by a delightfully twisted Topher Grace.

As if that wasn't enough drama for you, Cane's sister Bree (Melissa Benoist) hates his guts and uses her drug-fueled relationship with a DEA agent to take him down. Meanwhile, Shawn West (Rafael L. Silva) joins the restaurant as a bartender, circling the family's drama as Harlan's illegitimate son.

If that all sounds ludicrously over the top and preposterous, you should know the series is based on a true story that was close to home for Williamson: His father was a fisherman who used his fishing boat to smuggle drugs, albeit in a much smaller operation than what we see in "The Waterfront." Using these real events as a jumping off point for a show of head-spinning twists and soapy developments, "The Waterfront" is indeed making waves on Netflix (pun firmly intended). In fact, as of June 25, 2025, FlixPatrol is reporting the series is sitting comfortably among Netflix's Top 10 across most of the world and has even reached the number one spot in several markets, the U.S. among them.

You can see what all the fuss is about for yourself by taking a trip to "The Waterfront," which is now streaming on Netflix.