East of Eden Review

Netflix's East of Eden is Zoe Kazan's seven-episode adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 novel, run by Kazan and Jeb Stuart, with Garth Davis directing the first four episodes and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre the last three. Florence Pugh plays Cathy Ames opposite Christopher Abbott as Adam Trask and Mike Faist as his half-brother Charles, with Hoon Lee as Lee, Adam's servant, and Ciarán Hinds as the neighbor Samuel Hamilton.

Kazan is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who directed the 1955 film, and the writer Alexander Chee worked with her on Lee. It was filmed in New Zealand and released on October 1, 2026, and it topped Netflix's global English TV chart in its first weekend with about 6.5 million views.

The reviews were strong: 80 on Metacritic from 26 critics and 87 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes from 62. The consensus praises its delicious moral quandaries and sumptuous landscapes, and credits Pugh and Lee's fuller characters with giving this version its dignity. Pugh drew the steadiest acclaim, and many reviewers found Lee the series' emotional anchor, a character the 1955 film cut entirely. The one real argument is over Cathy herself: the series gives her an origin, and the Wall Street Journal felt that blunts Steinbeck's portrait of a woman born without a conscience.

Pugh's performance is the best thing in it and earns acting an S. The writing keeps the book's scale and its moral weight, and the series looks as good as anything on the service, so plot, cinematography and dialogue sit at A, and it is an A.