Topher Grace is great in The Waterfront, which makes this Netflix show worth watching.

I have to say that the first few episodes of Netflix's new crime thriller The Waterfront were hard for me to get through. But then Topher Grace showed up. His great bad guy character really makes the show. It aims to get that "trouble in paradise" atmosphere that shows like Ozark and Bloodline had. It also contains family drama like HBO's Succession. But The Waterfront seems like a less interesting replica of those popular shows. But it's still fun enough to make you want to watch all eight episodes.

Harlan is played by Holt McCallany, who usually plays cruel dads. In the made-up coastal town of Havenport, North Carolina, Harlan is the leader of the Buckley family. He and his favorite son, Cane (Jake Weary), own a restaurant and a fishery. They also run a covert and illegal business that keeps everything running. The father and son both cheat on their partners, which makes for some annoying and hypocritical moments. You might not feel much for them at first because of how their family works.

Unfortunately, the key ladies in The Waterfront are largely there to help the men's story. Belle Buckley is played by Maria Bello. She is the strong mother who sometimes makes mistakes. She mostly reacts to or fights with her irresponsible husband. Bree, played by Melissa Benoist, is a recovering addict. She has flaws and looks sad and menacing. Her past is hard, and it never really ended. Other female characters, like Jenna (Humberly González) and Peyton (Danielle Campbell), are essentially just attractive faces. They make the drama even less important. In other points, this makes the show feel a little flat.

Topher Grace's great character makes the waterfront a special place.

Why You Should See His Performance and How He Makes the Whole Series Better

Before Topher Grace as the fun bad guy Grady, The Waterfront wasn't a must-see. Grady is a good match for Harlan. Harlan is a tough, old-school person who doesn't exhibit his feelings. It feels like a Joker to Batman. The Waterfront was hard to get into before Grady came. Cane, who we spend a lot of time with, comes out as selfish and obnoxious right away, which doesn't help. Grady really changes the tone of the show.

Grace plays Grady, and it's one of the best roles he's had in years. Grady is a drug dealer who is too pleasant and can rapidly turn from cheerful to lethal. He adds so much to The Waterfront that it becomes a whole new and much better production with him in it. Kevin Williamson, the show's creator, noted that Grace came up with a lot of Grady's phrases and character traits that weren't in the screenplay. If The Waterfront goes well on streaming, it will be because of all the hard effort Grace put into it. Even if the remainder of the concert isn't great, I think he's worth your time.

Grady is a peculiar person. He has troubles with his father and can't control himself. It's not clear how he got his helpers to be so faithful. It also seems like his business model isn't very clear. But I wanted to spend more time watching him because it doesn't make sense. Grace's balance of happy and crazy is just right. It's such a bizarre thrill to see him in the program. I have witnessed everything that has happened to the Buckley family on Yellowstone or Ozark. Grady, on the other hand, is something new.

The Waterfront vs. Other Popular Netflix Crime Dramas

Why This New Show Isn't Quite as Good as Its More Famous Predecessors

When you watch The Waterfront, you can't help but think of other Netflix dramas. Ransom Canyon and other shows have similar principles. A newcomer to a tiny village keeps their true identity a secret. Alcohol and sex make business negotiations, especially property deals, sticky. A lot of the time, former high school sweethearts go through a long "will they, won't they" phase. The Waterfront is a tougher and more brutal version of these stories that are fairly prevalent. It isn't completely new, but it does have its moments.

People who want to watch Ozark again will have to keep looking. The Waterfront isn't it. Cane is acting like a bratty kid. Once you find out why child services took Bree's son away, it's hard to feel sorry for her. The Waterfront tries to make the main family seem bad. Maybe it does this too often. You start to think that maybe you should be rooting for Grady or Harlan instead. I often felt this way.

Marty Byrde was an interesting character in Ozark. He was quite good at getting what he desired. He was a fantastic villain. Harlan in The Waterfront is just an old man who won't change. He is the very manly head of a household that is having problems. Bello's Belle isn't in the primary tale enough to equal Wendy Byrde's frigid energy from Ozark. This makes it seem like Harlan and Belle's business collaboration isn't real or believable. The Waterfront doesn't have the same depth or drive that made Ozark so interesting.

The primary family's character development might use some improvement. But The Waterfront does feature some fantastic crime thriller sequences. Topher Grace's lively and much-needed bad guy really makes these segments work. He makes the Netflix crime thriller drama worth viewing all by himself. He can lift the whole concert like this, which shows how good he is. I think the show would have been less memorable without him.

The Creator's Personal Touch and the Cast Members Who Helped Tell the Story

Looking into what inspired Kevin Williamson and how the actors shape the show

Kevin Williamson, the show's creator, says that The Waterfront is about more than just its complex business and familial concerns. The series is based on his personal life. His father is the biggest inspiration for it. The character Harlan is based on him. Williamson said that his father was not a criminal. But when his fishing business wasn't doing well, his father did choose to do something terrible for his family. Someone came up to me and said, "You can make all this money if you do this one thing." It was hard to say no. His dad got caught. He did his time. He got out. After that, Williamson graduated. This story about the person makes the show more meaningful.

Williamson was able to incorporate more recollections from his boyhood because he was filming in his home state of North Carolina. The cast members remembered how often he linked situations and characters to his own childhood experiences in a similar context. He also talked about how it was like when he filmed old episodes like I Know What You Did Last Summer. Melissa Benoist noted that Williamson's bravery and honesty with them made her feel really inspired. She thought that all the performers wanted to do the right thing by him. This kind of personal connection can make a tale feel more real, even if it's made up.

One thing I like to do to check if a program has a lot of characters is to see if they seem like they live when the cameras aren't rolling. Or do they look like robots that stop when we go to a different story? It's rare for me to witness a show where so many main characters don't seem to exist when they're not in the primary tale. For example, there's the dreamy bartender Shawn (Rafael L. Silva), who seems like he might become a hero but doesn't really have a personality. Also, Cane's ex-girlfriend Jenna (Humberly Gonzalez) arrives to town to take care of her father. She talks about a profession in journalism that seems useless.

This happens to even good actors like Holt McCallany and Maria Bello. I kept seeing situations when Harlan goes from having a beard to having a clean-shaven face. This is how things are in real life. But in the program, it seems like bizarre proof that things happen while we don't see them. That's why it's so bizarre that Topher Grace is here. Grady is not that different from the happy yet snarky character that Grace often plays. But the way he usually does things here feels quite new. Grady is strange. He has problems with his father. He can't control what he wants. I wanted to observe him more because it didn't make sense. He has the ideal blend of happy and crazy. I think this show is worth watching because of him.