If you have been missing past Netflix original series like Bloodline and Ozark, then you're definitely going to love diving into the streamer's new crime drama series The Waterfront. The show follows the criminal ups and downs of the Buckley family's fishing empire in North Carolina, but there's nothing family-friend about Netflix's soapy, violent, and twisted show worth binge-watching.
When the Buckley family's patriarch steps away from the business to recover from health issues, those left to run the empire in his stead court danger and crime in the form of running drugs to pay off debt. As always, it's a hole that's simply dug deeper. But how explicit is the nudity, violence, drug use, and other mature themes? We're sharing a spoiler-free guide to the show's content.
The Waterfront on Netflix earns its TV-MA rating
According to the show's official page on Netflix, The Waterfront has been given a TV-MA rating for language, nudity, sex, and violence, but those four categories don't really scratch the surface of the actual content viewers will see onscreen. If you would like to know what you're getting into before watching, here's an explanation of the age rating that's free from spoilers!
Sex and nudity
While sex and nudity are prevalent in the series, they aren't the most graphic parts of the content. There are a few sex scenes scattered throughout the eight episodes, though they aren't particularly explicit. A sex scene in an early episode features a male and a woman. There's no female nudity in this scene, though there is male rear nudity. Other sex scenes don't contain nudity.
Another instance of male rear nudity comes in the first episode. A man instructs another man to strip naked. The man takes off his shirt, and when he takes off his jeans, it's revealed he isn't wearing underwear. There isn't full frontal nudity, though the man's pubic hair is visible, as is his butt when the camera captures the moment from behind. This is the most graphic instance of nudity, though there are at least two additional instances of male characters in suggestively naked.
Language and violence
The Waterfront uses explicit language that's pretty par for the course. The characters make frequent use of profanity and expletives in casual conversation, making the show inappropriate to have on with little ears around. The heightened language goes beyond bad words and also includes discussions of sex, drugs, death, and other themes that some viewers might find uncomfortable.
Speaking of discomfort, violence makes up much of the TV-MA rating. Seriously, it isn't for the faint of heart. There are the usual punches, fights, blood, and gun-slinging you would expect from a crime drama. But there's also a scene that involves a head being smashed, a person being blown up by a machine gun, someone being tortured with jellyfish, and other graphic instances of violence.
If you happen to have a fear of sharks, close your eyes during a scene where a man is held upside over the side of a boat as sharks circle near his head. The series features many moments of abrupt discomfort, like sequences involving torture. There are a lot of deaths shown onscreen with graphic violence gore that could turn your stomach.
Drinking and drugs
Much of the series revolves around drug dealing. If that's not a theme you enjoy watching in crime dramas, then The Waterfront won't be the show for you to watch. It's also not the show to watch if you aren't comfortable with frequent depictions of characters drinking, doing drugs, struggling with withdrawal, and other aspects of addiction that can be triggering for some viewers.
Many of the characters in the series are either recovering or functioning addicts. Various characters drink liquor heavily throughout scenes. There's also a scene that finds two characters taking weed gummies and getting high. A former addict relapses with alcohol and heroin, and another scene shows a character overdosed with a needle near their arm.
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