The Waterfront: Netflix Previews Family Crime Drama from Kevin Williamson

The Waterfront is coming soon to Netflix, and the streaming service has announced the premiere date for the series, accompanied by the release of a trailer. Eight episodes were produced for the series.

Holt McCallany, Maria Bello, Jake Weary, Melissa Benoist, Rafael L. Silva, Humberly González, Danielle Campbell, and Brady Hepner star in the family drama, which follows the Buckley family as they try to save their crumbling fishing business by any means necessary. Topher Grace, Dave Annable, Michael Gaston, Gerardo Celasco, and Zach Roerig also appear in the series.

Netflix shared the following about the plot of the series:

“For decades, the Buckley family has ruled Havenport, North Carolina, dominating everything from the local fishing industry to the town’s restaurant scene. But their fishing empire has started to crumble as patriarch Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany) recovers from two heart attacks, and his wife Belle (Maria Bello) and son Cane (Jake Weary) venture into the deep end to keep the family businesses afloat.

As their attempts spiral out of control and into treacherous waters, Harlan steps back in to take command. Facing her own demons, Buckley daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist) – an addict in recovery who’s lost custody of her son Diller (Brady Hepner) – finds herself entangled in a complicated relationship that could threaten the family’s future forever.

Inspired by true events and set against the backdrop of coastal North Carolina, The Waterfront comes from prolific showrunner Kevin Williamson (Scream, Dawson’s Creek, The Vampire Diaries). The twisty drama plays out over eight episodes that are as much about family dynamics as they are about the lengths people will go to when their legacy is on the line.”

Williamson revealed that the series is a bit autobiographical. He said the following, according to Tudum:

“The fishing industry sort of upturned in the ’80s — it all started to go away, and my dad couldn’t feed his family. So someone came along and said, ‘Hey, if you do this one thing, you can make all this money.’ And it was hard to say no to. My dad — a very, very good man — got tempted to do some things that weren’t so legal and got in some trouble. [But] it put food on the table, helped me go to college.

That was one side of my autobiographical story. This is another part of me. I always wanted to tell it. If anyone’s a fan of Dawson’s Creek, in the very first episode, Joey Potter [Katie Holmes] says, ‘My dad’s in prison for conspiracy to traffic marijuana in excess of 20,000 pounds.’ That was exactly my dad’s charge — that’s why he went to prison. He got caught, he served his time, he got out, and I graduated.

The show’s about this aspirational, gorgeous coastal environment — it’s a postcard picture everywhere you look. All of our characters are full of light and dark,” Williamson says. “You never know what you’re going to get. The worst things can happen during the day, and the best things can happen at night. We can have a beautiful walk along the moonlit ocean, and then, of course, someone can also get their face blown off.”

The Waterfront premieres on June 19th. The trailer and poster for the series are below.

What do you think? Do you plan to watch this new series on Netflix next month?