Review: In 'East of Eden', Florence Pugh devours Steinbeck and makes Cathy the year's most magnetic villain — the trouble starts when she leaves the screen

There is a lovely irony in 'East of Eden', which landed on Netflix on October 1: the adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 novel comes from Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who directed the 1955 film that made James Dean a legend. The granddaughter, however, shifts the axis. Where the movie stayed with the sons, the seven-episode limited series — the first four episodes directed by Garth Davis, the last three by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre — belongs to Cathy Ames, the woman who abandons her husband and twins, and it covers far more of the book than Hollywood ever attempted.

And Cathy is Florence Pugh, who also co-produces and has been attached since 2022. She is by far the best thing here: a physical, layered performance that can be seductive and frightening in the same shot. Kazan doesn't turn her into a heroine but gives her context, and her burst of rage when yet another man tries to tell her what to do is one of those moments that linger. In episode four, when Cathy, alone, literally sheds the role she has been playing, the series hits its peak. Ciarán Hinds as Samuel Hamilton and Hoon Lee as Lee provide a warm moral counterweight, and Joseph Zada's Cal is convincing in his rivalry with twin Aron (Joe Anders).

The price of Pugh's brilliance is the dimness around her. Adam (Christopher Abbott) is underdeveloped, Charles (Mike Faist) falls short of what the novel offers, much of the Hamilton saga is cut, and the back half, with less Cathy on screen, loses steam and never quite grapples with Steinbeck's great moral debate about choice and destiny. Still, shot in New Zealand with a luxury cast (Tracy Letts, Martha Plimpton), it is an imperfect but deeply enjoyable adaptation — and perhaps Pugh's definitive TV showcase. Score: 8/10