Florence Pugh and Hoon Lee Form the Beating Heart of Netflix’s Rich ‘East of Eden’ Adaptation: TV Review
Variety | 01.10.2026 14:01
“East of Eden,” the John Steinbeck novel, opens with a place: the author’s native Salinas Valley, the fertile terrain transitioning from the nation’s frontier to its bread basket at the turn of the 20th century. “East of Eden,” the Netflix limited series created by actor and screenwriter Zoe Kazan, opens with a person: Cathy Ames (Florence Pugh), the Eve and Satanic temptress of Steinbeck’s explicit Biblical allegory. “I believe there are monsters born to human parents,” Cathy intones — transplanting Steinbeck’s introduction of his most iconic villain into the mouth of the woman it describes.
