Loved The Waterfront? These 10 shows will keep you drowning in drama

If you loved The Waterfront for its gripping emotional betrayals, family drama, and coastal crime scenes, you are in for more. From cartel violence to buried traumas and broken legacies, each series mentioned here shares the dramatic soul of The Waterfront while offering its own unforgettable story.

These ten shows wade into similarly turbulent waters and mix shocking moments with tight families, power struggles, and secrets.

Disclaimer: This article is solely the writer's opinion. Reader's discretion is advised.

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Here is the list of the 10 shows like The Waterfront that will keep you drowning in drama:

10. ZeroZeroZero (2020)

ZeroZeroZero is a drama, crime, and thriller about a large-scale cocaine shipment. It exposes the Mexican cartel that cultivates the drug, the Italian mafia family that purchases it, and the shipping family in the US named Lynwood. The show is about family responsibilities, treachery, and brutal murders.

A dramatic scene in ZeroZeroZero depicts Emma and Chris Lynwood entering a a house littered with corpses. The bodies of murdered gangsters are piled around a sofa, and birthday balloons hang above the carnage. The violence is much more chilling in its silence. The scene in The Waterfront where the Buckley family enters the waterfront mansion and finds a dead body in the hallway is reflected in the show's shock.

Both scenes use a combination of striking domestic interiors to heighten the emotional impact and bolster the feeling of family horror. A large number of these pictures are based on the same theme revolving around The Waterfront: the serenity is interrupted abruptly by crime and the noisy music of crime.

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9. Unauthorized Living (2018-2020)

Unauthorized Living is a Spanish drama based on the story of an influential drug lord who conceals his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. He kept his illness a secret from his own family to protect his kingdom. The play is an experiment with power, legacy, and the instability of control.

One of the scenes shows the patriarch standing in front of a video message without taking off his clothes. His valet objects, but he does not want to lose face in the context of sickness. In The Waterfront, Harlan Buckley poses as someone who has a serious illness and demands secrets and financial support from his family.

The scenes are both about patriarchs holding on to power whilst their bodies or their minds turn against them. In the scenes, the tones of each other's reflections break dignified fronts under duress. With the passing of the power struggle comes the emotional wounds echoing across generations, where the domesticated peace is battered against the ugly side of loss.

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8. Treme (2010-2013)

Treme is a show about the lives of musicians, chefs, and other New Orleans residents who are just trying to get along after Hurricane Katrina. It is a potent combination of cultural renewal and heavy personal loss. This performance combines music, community, and performance but takes the form of a city.

In a strong scene, a funeral procession led by a brass band becomes a powerful tribute. The bereaved people dance through the streets, shedding tears and expressing hope. It restores the pride in the city. In The Waterfront, a funeral is held on the docks. The Buckley family stands by the water as a solo trumpet plays, creating a sense of memory.

The two scenes share three elements: ritual, place, music, and tradition that bring grief and strength together. They show how families incorporate ceremonies in paying tribute to the loss and reclaim their identity, with New Orleans, particularly the harbor, playing a central role in healing.

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7. Broadchurch (2013-2017)

Broadchurch is a British detective show that takes place on the coastline. The beginning is a dead body of an 11-year-old boy found on the beach, and detectives Hardy and Miller begin to uncover the community’s buried secrets. The show is about sadness, distrust, and small-town rascality.

The discovery scene reveals Hardy on his knees at the foot of the cliff in front of the body of the boy. In comes the tide, and the mist invests him. It is hushed, sorrowful, and gritty. A similar scene occurs in The Waterfront when a Buckley child is discovered near a waterline, drowned.

They both employ sea images to depict profound shocked emotions. The ocean becomes a silent observer of a tragedy. Some scenes assume loss and the community's response to that loss to demonstrate how The Waterfront and Broadchurch connect loss to setting, silence, and family destruction.

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6. Ray Donovan (2013-2020)

Ray Donovan is a taut family drama in which a hard-boiled LA elite cleaner negotiates crime, deceit, and legacy. Ray is involved in dirty activities to save his family, and at the same time, his father comes back to stay in prison and exorcise some triggers of trauma and political power.

A scene from Ray Donovan shows that Ray challenges his father in the family house after discovering that he had been betrayed. The stress increases as childhood abuse gets blended with the violence in the present. Ray sends his father outside after hurling water in his face.

This scene echoes a powerful scene in The Waterfront where Buckley confronts his father at the mansion while yelling accusations and expressing fear. The two scenes present situations where sons confront their fathers in places that represent their homes and make decisions between love and separation.

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5. The Sopranos (1999-2007)

The Sopranos is a crime drama milestone focusing on Tony Soprano, a crime boss juggling crime and family. The show addresses issues of infidelity, deceit, insanity, and the high cost of control in a dysfunctional Italian-American family.

In the "Whitecaps" episode, Tony and Carmela encounter each other at the beachfront home. They holler about love and dream of getting out. There is slamming of doors and crying. It is reflected in the scene where the Buckleys tackle each other at the docks in The Waterfront. Unkind words destroy confidence.

Both shows highlight the emotional devastation in families by using waterfront homes and rising tensions. They show how, when loyalty, lies, and power are violated, the elements of love and resentment mix.

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4. McMafia (2018)

McMafia immerses itself in global crime by following the journey of Alex Godman, a Russian crime family banker in London. He opposes the criminal life of his family, but due to the pressure, he gets more involved with the violence and sacrifice of morals.

In one of the tense scenes, Alex steps into a glamorous hall where his uncle is beaten and tied. The uncle growls in a request for pity, and Alex understands that perhaps he has secured his very own doom by not being submissive. In The Waterfront, Buckley is returning home to learn that a member of his family was hurt during a bloody raid.

Both scenes feature wonderful family settings that are changed to violent scenes. They bring out the clash of fear and responsibility under family influences. Precariousness preceding destruction bursts out in horrors in the two shows.

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3. Animal Kingdom (2016-2022)

Animal Kingdom is about an active matriarch and her inseparable criminal family that operates along the coast of California. The unfaithfulness, deadpan formulas, watching, and savage plans of the Codys put their relationships to the test as they maintain their empire.

One of the episode's most memorable scenes is when J, heavily bleeding, arrives home to meet his uncle in the sitting room. He carries his dying uncle, who is screaming. Family members are in a panic, and J should either take action or collapse. This corresponds to the fact that there is an instance in The Waterfront where a child of the Buckley family has discovered an injured family member sitting on the dock.

Both take the intimacy of domestic places, rudely invaded by suffering. The sentimental twist is not a fiction. They demonstrate how crime rips their families apart in the ordinary rooms by the water.

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2. Bloodline (2015-2017)

Bloodline is a thriller TV show with family ties that was filmed in the Florida Keys. It is based on the Rayburns, who own a beach resort. Tensions increase and long-kept secrets are exposed when Danny, the black sheep brother, pays a visit home.

One of the most important scenes portrays Danny, who revisits a police tape interview of John, where he claims that their father had abused them. After the truth is revealed in a car, Danny experiences a depressive episode. It is a similar scene to one in The Waterfront, where a Buckley sister exposes violence in the family in a silent hall.

In both scenes, intimate, closed spaces are used to reveal betrayal. They are preoccupied with the way that secret abuse shatters trust and suppressed guilt boils to the very surface.

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1. Ozark (2017-2022)

Ozark is a dirty crime series revolving around Marty and Wendy Byrde. They move their family to Lake of the Ozarks to launder money for a Mexican cartel. Their new life is made of water and lies.

When Wendy's lover, Gary, is thrown from a high-rise building on the cartel's orders early in the story, Wendy is terrified into submission. Marty sees it and becomes horrified and bereaved. This is a shocking fall, which is an allusion to the time in The Waterfront when a relative plunges through the balcony of the waterfront manor during his violent fight.

The two scenes employ surprise violence and falling bodies in personal spaces of luxury. Families are compelled to deal with the price of crime at their doorsteps because of the brutal imagery.

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We can conclude that all these TV series echoed the sentimental burden and cinematographic tension of The Waterfront. Through dramatic disclosures and quiet admissions, they showed how crime and family ultimately intersected in heartbreaking ways that could never be undone. The Waterfront fans felt very much at home