Stream It Or Skip It?

Now that Ozark is over, Netflix needed another show that involved drugs, murder, and effed-up family dynamics in a small town. Apparently, Kevin Williamson is the man to bring that kind of a show back to the streamer, with a series that is in part based on his tough relationship with his father.

Opening Shot: The camera pushes in on a fishing boat in the dark of night.

The Gist: They’re not doing late-night fishing on that boat; it’s carrying over $10 million worth of drugs to be picked up. But two men with rifles hijack the boat, tossing the two men manning it into the water after knocking them out.

In Havenport, North Carolina, Cane Buckley (Jake Weary) goes to the fishery and restaurant that his family has owned for at least three generations. When he sees his boat washed up on shore, surrounded by cops and DEA agents, he scrambles, asking a town clerk he knows to fake a title transfer to one of the missing men from the boat.

Meanwhile, Cane’s father, Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany), wakes up next to one of his girlfriends and clutches his chest, just before he goes for his morning swig of scotch. “Call my wife, then an ambulance,” he tells the woman. When his wife, Belle (Maria Bello) arrives at the hospital, she finds out that the defibrillator that was installed in Harlan’s chest during a previous heart surgery was on the fritz. As soon as Harlan gets the call about the abandoned boat, he leaves the hospital to find Cane.

Cane’s sister Bree (Melissa Benoist) has her own difficulties, as she’s not allowed to see her teenage son Diller (Brady Hepner) without court approval and the presence of a chaperone, something her ex-husband and his new wife remind her of when she goes to see Diller’s relay race. When she comes across the investigation, she introduces herself to DEA Special Agent Marcus Sanchez (Gerardo Celasco), and introduces him to Cane.

Harlan and Cane have always had a difficult relationship; Harlan is old school and thinks Cane is too soft. And when he finds out that Cane has gotten the fishery back into the drug-running business, his first reaction is to punch his son in the face. Cane and his father used to use the fishery for smuggling, so he knows all of the mistakes that Cane has made. For his part, Cane tells his dad that he had to get into business with a mysterious guy named “Owen” in order to get ahead of the fishery’s mounting debts.

Harlan is pretty sure that Hoyt Piper (Scott Deckert), the local thug that served as the intermediary, is the one who had the stash stolen and dumped his workers in the water, he “makes a deal” with the thug, one that attracts the attention of Sheriff Clyde Porter (Michael Gaston).

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Written by Kevin Williamson and based in part on his own relationship with his father, The Waterfront strikes us as a combination of Dawson’s Creek and Ozark.

Our Take: There were times when we were watching the first episode of The Waterfront that we had to remind ourselves that this was written by Williamson, who gave us clever banter in both Creek and the Scream movie franchise. Despite the excellent cast, there were lines and situations that were so clunky and predictable that we shook our heads that they made it to the final cut.

But there is an interesting twist at the end of the episode that leads us to believe that some of the clunkiness will eventually be ironed out. It brings a dynamic to Cane and Harlan’s rocky relationship that will really test whatever ties to each other they have left, as they get deeper into the drug-running game, just as Harlan and his father did back in the ’80s.

Harlan is just one of those dads who can’t seem to give his son any praise or even support, no matter what Cane does. Heck, Cane clocks his father one night, then apologizes, and Harlan chides him for apologizing. That relationship is definitely at the center of this series, and as the family gets more involved in criminal activity, the more interesting the relationship is going to be.

Of course, the other factors are going to be Belle, who seems to have really been running the business as Harlan recovered from his heart surgery, and Bree, who is certainly a loose cannon in the family. Despite both of them being married, Cane reconnecting with his high school sweetheart, Jenna Tate (Humberly González) will also factor in, as will the presence of Shawn West (Rafael L. Silva), a new bartender at the restaurant who seems to be very curious about the family goings-on.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode, but there will probably be some later in the season.

Parting Shot: We find out that Agent Sanchez is getting information from a surprising source.

Sleeper Star: Oh, we’ll almost always give this to Maria Bello, because she always plays strong characters who are generally smarter than most of the people around her. Topher Grace shows up as a guest star at some point, and we’re looking forward to seeing him.

Most Pilot-y Line: During an argument, Harlan asks Belle, “Do you think I want to die?” Bree replies, “I don’t think you want to live.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Perhaps we just need to chalk up The Water front‘s first episode clumsiness to the need for exposition. There’s still an even chance that the series will stumble as it tells its story, as there is still some confusion about certain plot points in the first episode. Williamson’s track record, however, makes us think it will right itself as its first season goes along.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.