‘The Waterfront’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Show

This article was published on 6/28 and republished on 6/30.

Well, it’s that time. The Waterfront had its run on top of Netflix’s top 10 list, but now it’s been capsized by a show that it was never going to be able to escape.

That, of course, is the return of Squid Game for its third and allegedly final season. Squid Game season 1 remains the most-watched season of any show in Netflix history. Squid Game season 2 is inside the top 5. I expect season 3 will probably top 2, and now it’s arrived with a six-episode finale run. There was a zero percent chance it wouldn’t arrive at #1, and here we are.

The Waterfront has had a solid run since its debut, starting at #1 and continuing until this dethroning that was always going to happen. If Squid Game did not show up, I imagine it would have remained in that spot for some time. It’s a great start for the series that is angling for a second season, and as I’ve said before, I absolutely believe that will happen as Netflix looks to fill the water-based crime series hole left by Bloodline and Ozark, both of which ran for multiple seasons. It’s only a matter of time until we hear the same for The Waterfront.

Squid Game? It’s shown up with slightly better critic scores than season 2 but worse audience scores, dropping from a 61% to a lower 53%. I’m only halfway through, but I’m not sure why. Episode 2 was easily one of the best entries in the entire series. Again, this is the final season, but its creator has a clear idea for a spin-off that takes place between seasons 1 and 2 and has not ruled out a potential sequel either, he says.

The rest of the list has Ginny and Georgia performing extremely well, given how long ago it aired. It was already renewed for a fourth season ages ago, so there is no waiting around for that news. America’s Sweethearts: The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders series seems to be one of Netflix’s more popular reality series these days, and I can’t imagine why. Expect it to return.

Two licensed shows are doing well, Animal Kingdom and Blindspot, which arrive with six seasons and five seasons, respectively, for viewers to chew through.

The question now is how long will Squid Game season 3 stay on top. If it’s any less than two weeks, I’d be a bit surprised, as Netflix has cleared its release slate for a while for this reason. But this is the least amount of episodes a season has had, so that means viewers will finish more quickly. We will keep an eye on it.

Update (6/30): There isn’t a ton of movement on the list, nor do we have official news about The Waterfront season 2, but we have started to hear more from the cast and crew about the prospect for that follow-up season which naturally, all of them want to see.

This is probably my favorite bit, a note from Peyton actress Danielle Campbell about who she would like to see come to the show in season 2, speaking to US:

“If Katie Holmes could come onto the show, I would probably just smile and never stop.”

Does that sound random? It’s not random, given that The Waterfront showrunner is none other than Kevin Williamson, creator of Dawson’s Creek way back in the day, where Holmes was of course star.

Holmes doesn’t act as much as she used to, her only project in the last two years being an episode of Poker Face on Peacock. For a minute I thought she was in CODA, the Best Picture winner of 2021, but she was in Coda, which is a different movie, which starred Patrick Stewart and definitely did not win Best Picture. But yes, it would be very cool to see her. Though at this point, it would be very cool to see a season 2 of The Waterfront at all. As I said, I do think this will happen, and we will hear about it soon enough.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.