Netflix’s Crime Drama ‘The Waterfront’ Was Inspired By Real Life Events

Series creator and showrunner Kevin Williamson drew inspiration from his father’s past mistakes while writing the Netflix crime drama The Waterfront. The result is a gripping and dynamic tale about one family’s misguided approach to resolving their financial troubles.

Set in coastal North Carolina, the story of the prominent Buckley clan is told over eight episodes, each packed with twists, turns, and cliffhangers that will keep you hooked. It’s one of the best new shows in years and is reminiscent of classic family dramas, The Sopranos and Ray Donovan, in that there is nothing the Buckleys will not do to preserve their legacy.

Williamson, who has had a string of hit TV shows including Scream, Dawson’s Creek, and The Vampire Diaries, sat down in an interview before the series premiered on June 19 to talk about his dad’s mistakes, which cost the family dearly.

First, he clarified that the Buckleys are fictional, but their circumstances are not entirely made up. The Buckleys are a wealthy family on the verge of losing their fishing empire. They’ve ruled Havenport, North Carolina, dominating everything from the local fishing industry to the town’s restaurant scene.

Their once-profitable family business faces financial ruin when patriarch Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany) suffers from two heart attacks. To keep the family businesses afloat, his wife Belle (Maria Bello) and son Cane (Jake Weary) attempt to sell some precious land, knowing Harlan would be devastated. They also get into the drug smuggling business with some very unsavory characters, including drug kingpin Grady, played brilliantly by Topher Grace.

What was meant to be a temporary fix quickly becomes a nightmare they cannot escape. Harlan attempts to take control of the spiraling situation as the Buckleys’ daughter, Bree (Melissa Benoist), who is an addict in recovery and has lost custody of her son Diller (Brady Hepner), soon finds herself entangled in a complicated relationship that could threaten the family’s future.

As Williamson explained, the events surrounding this fictitious family were inspired by his father’s misdeeds. He took creative license to explore the lengths people will go to when their legacy is at stake.

Williamson, who grew up in North Carolina, filmed the show in Southport, which is near Wilmington. He also filmed two of his biggest hit series, Dawson’s Creek and I Know What You Did Last Summer, there. “I’m very familiar with North Carolina because I grew up about two hours from there. There was a real Dawson’s Creek where I grew up.”

He then described the impetus for this story. “My dad was a fisherman, and I come from a long line of fishermen,” he said, clarifying that though this story and family are completely fictional, his dad’s real-life troubles inspired it.

“My dad got into some trouble in the 1980s. He was a fisherman, and it was tough. The regulations and the government quotas that they were putting on the fishermen at the time…he just couldn’t make a living. And for a lot of fishermen, the business went away. If you look at the percentages of where we were and where we are today, and now with the import business and how you can get fresh fish from other countries, the American fisherman is growing extinct. My dad was falling on rough times, and someone offered him a chance to make some money on the down-low by smuggling some drugs, and he did it.”

Williamson paused as he reflected on his father. “He was a very good man who was trying to support his family.” He explained that this was not a one-time incident and led to a multi-year prison sentence, of which he served 11 months in a minimum security prison.

He reiterated that his father was a good family man who made mistakes. “I think when it comes to feeding and supporting your family, you would do anything.”

Williamson described this family drama as very much like Dawson’s Creek in that both were inspired by his experience growing up on a creek in North Carolina. “I love stories where a family, in this case, the Buckley clan, hits hard times. In this story, they try to steer the ship in the other direction.”

The drug smuggling world, they quickly learn, is like quicksand; you cannot just dip your toe in without your entire body getting immersed in the mess. To extricate themselves from Grady’s unrelenting grip, they do some pretty horrendous things.

Harlan, his wife Belle, and their children Cane and Bree each cross moral lines when it comes to saving the family as they get deeper and deeper into the world of crime.

For Williamson, this was an examination into humanity. “I wanted to explore the duality of life. You know, we’re not this or that. We’re this and something else. There’s a duality to us; we are light and dark. I wanted to explore that in the context of a family that’s challenged with crisis, because I think everyone today is challenged in some way.”

While not making excuses for his characters’ choices, Williamson points to the financial challenges many people face. “We live in the gig economy era, and everyone’s looking for a side hustle just to make ends meet, and this family has a history in this world.”

Each family member does something they never thought they would or could, but it’s all for the good of the family. McCallany, Benoist, and Weary discussed their characters in a sit-down interview.

McCallany described Harlan as “a very imperfect man in many ways,” but explained his good intentions. “He does a lot of things that a lot of people would consider morally ambiguous, but at the same time, I think that he loves his family very deeply. They’re the most important thing in the world to him. And so, at the end of the day, the decisions that he makes come from a place of love.”

When asked to talk about her character, Bree, Benoist said she found a way to understand and relate to her. She’s complex, and despite feeling betrayed by her family, when push comes to shove, she does something extreme to save them.

“I don’t think she likes herself, and I think that’s a force for a lot of her behavior. The entire time that we were shooting this, I found myself defending her time and time again because I could see that this person was in so much pain. She has a lot of her father in her, and she so desperately wants to be loved and accepted by her family.”

Bree’s motivation, added Benoist, was her son. “She wants to atone for all these terrible things that she’s done to him. She’s trying to make up for all of that. Not just with him, but the rest of her family as well. She has a cross to bear.”

As for Cane, who got the family into this drug-smuggling mess, Weary said, “He’s a victim of circumstance and now he’s trying to repair his family’s legacy.”

When asked whether there would be another season, Williamson was quick to answer. “I’m ready for a second season, because I think we’re just getting started.”

He wants to keep exploring that gray area between good and bad. “I love the idea of good people doing bad things. The Buckleys are good people, but they cross the line and the line keeps moving in the show. Once you cross that line, can you come back, and is there salvation?”