I always write about what I know,” Kevin Williamson, creator of the new Netflix series The Waterfront, told Tudum in June 2025. That’s an ideology he employed while creating his hit 2000s series Dawson’s Creek and Vampire Diaries,

Like a surface-level blend of "Ozark" and "Yellowstone," Kevin Williamson's first Netflix series follows a North Carolina family who keeps their seaside fishing empire afloat by ferrying drugs.

The Waterfront is one of Netflix’s newest original shows that’s already making waves across the streamer. Viewers are plunged into the stormy waters of the Buckley family, whose name and reputation are championed in the crumbling Southern fishing town where they own several businesses.