The Waterfront

While the character development of the core family could use some work, The Waterfront has some great crime thriller scenes propelled by Topher Grace's infectious and much-needed villain, who single-handedly made the otherwise passable Netflix crime thriller series worthwhile.

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.

The writing is trite (“It’s all key lime pie,” Harlan warns his son, “until you come home and find your wife and kid dead”), but the characters unleash on one another with such reliable fury that it sweeps you along, like a wave breaking on the shoreline.

It is escapist summer nonsense with – God, I hope – no pretensions to being otherwise. Dive into the adult creek and wallow in nostalgia as the waves of absurdity sweep towards shore.

Overall, the whole endeavor feels overly familiar. McCallany owns the screen anytime he appears, but the story wasn’t original enough to inspire viewing beyond the first two episodes.

The best thing about “The Waterfront” is a string of truly spectacular and nicely choreographed murders that’ll get your schadenfreude pumping. It’s because the various romantic entanglements don’t heat up enough to sizzle. While these scofflaw characters are chock full of scandals, salaciousness, and secrets, they’re missing the complexities that yank us into more addictive dramas.

Everything’s a little fuzzy, lacking in detail. Characters put on attitudes and get in and out of trouble — there are shootings and scrapes, surprising reveals and shocking events — but few are, or seem about to develop into, interesting people. .... There’s enough activity that some viewers, possibly a lot of them, will dig in just to see how this thing caroms into that.

The show throws some intriguing chum in the water with Harlan’s backstory, Belle’s desire for power versus her maternal instincts, and Bree’s surprisingly resonant crisis. But ultimately, the bait isn’t enough to hook you in.

“The Waterfront” goes all in, but too often that leaves its most entertaining elements dead in the water.