Alison Engel

In “East of Eden,” the 1952 novel that John Steinbeck considered his opus, unfit parenthood begets generations of trauma. The text has seldom been brought to the big screen, most likely because of the challenges posed by the saga’s narrative sprawl. The latest “East of Eden,” a seven-part miniseries, is created by Zoe Kazan. Her retelling is ambitious, uneven, and thrives in the interpersonal details and surprising characters, Inkoo Kang writes: it is “a feat of translation that whittles the book down to its core components while expanding the elements that lend themselves most readily to prestige-television tropes.” The standout performance is that of Florence Pugh as Cathy, a gothic villain you can’t help but root for. “Her backstory emerges in the second episode—a strong contender for the best hour of television this year,” Kang continues. Read her review of the show at the link in our bio. Illustration by Alonso Guzmán Barone (@guzmanbarone).