I Watched Netflix's Top Trending Show, And There's Really Only One Thing It Has Going For It (But It's A Big Thing)

The number one show streaming with a Netflix subscription is The Waterfront, from creator Kevin Williamson (Scream, The Vampire Diaries). The show is decent, though if I’m honest, it's not my favorite show in the 2025 television schedule so far. It feels a little like a Taylor Sheridan knock-off as a prominent Southern family turns to crime to save their failing small town empire. The cast is solid, especially Holt McCallany as the head of the Buckley family. The one performance that really stands out, however, is Topher Grace as the diabolical Grady. There are light spoilers ahead, so head back to shore if you don’t want to know anything about the show before you watch.

It Takes A While For The Waterfront To Find Its Rhythm

The Waterfront, which started streaming this week, follows the downward spiral of the prominent Buckley family (hence comparison to a Taylor Sheridan show) in the fictional North Carolina town of Havenport. It starts a little disjointed with the first three episodes being just different members of the Buckley clan having really bad days–a fact they all mention multiple times. The family has returned to their drug-running roots to hopefully get out from underneath a crushing seven-figure debt and save their family business and beachfront property from being developed.

The patriarch of the family, Harlan, has had a series of heart attacks and has spent most of his recent days and weeks drinking and sleeping around on his wife (who knows all about it). His wife, Belle (Maria Bello), and son, Cane (Jake Weary), are doing whatever they can to save the family empire. That means Cane has gotten into running drugs with their fleet of boats, something the senior Buckley and his father did in the bad old days before Harlan cleaned the business up. Things aren’t going well for Cane until Harlan finds out and steps in. Still, it’s not until Topher Grace’s Grady character is introduced that the show really gets going.

In Episode Four, We Finally Meet The Supplier

Grady has been pulling strings behind the scenes for the whole show before we finally meet him in Episode Four. He is introduced on his farm, where he is not only importing heroin, but growing poppies and manufacturing his own. He has a small army of thugs living on the farm with him and almost immediately it’s clear that he has more than a few screws loose. Grace plays the role brilliantly with just enough menace behind his wannabe tech bro entrepreneur facade to make him unpredictable and scary.

As the final five episodes of the series play out, Grady gets more and more evil and more and more unpredictable. I found myself really only watching to see just how far he would go. I had a feeling that the show wasn’t going to twist things up too much, and in the end, the Buckleys would prevail. It was all about how much pain and craziness they could endure from Grady, and how they would finally outsmart him.

Grady is a great villain, and Grace is perfect casting, and while he’s not someone you can root for, he is definitely someone you want to see more and more of.