East of Eden (2026)

Trauma grants no automatic absolution, but the past also need not become a permanent sentence. That tension is where the marvelous “East of Eden”—frontrunner for show of the year—ultimately finds its grace.

At times, its investment in Cathy’s inner life, her motives, and her early traumas nearly unbalances its pointed consideration of choice and morality. But the apple cart never tips over, and in total, the series is the sort of sweeping intergenerational saga contemporary TV rarely attempts and even more rarely achieves.

Although it might feel like the story has sanded away some of its sharpest edges, East of Eden is less like the parable presented on the page and more about a family caught in a toxic cycle it desperately needs to break free of. It's a tragic and bittersweet series, but one that is worthy of praise by any Steinbeck enjoyer.

A thoroughly absorbing series with an astonishing Florence Pugh.

East of Eden is a reverent, traditional adaptation of one of America’s great novels. Zoe Kazan captures the grandeur of the tale and wrestles, largely successfully, with its unruly structure.

[Cathy's] presence provides the drama with a pulpy propulsion that cuts through the self-seriousness of most of the male-centric plotlines. Cathy becomes the black sun around which the series rotates, in command of an irrepressible will to power that makes her a villain you can’t help but root for. .... Cathy’s gravitational pull is such that the further the miniseries veers from her, the more it tends to plod.

Does it work? Long story short, I’m sorry to say, I don’t think it does. .... The goings-on between these characters loses something significant when you start to pity Cathy, and even begin to cheer her on as a kind of misunderstood girlboss.