CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Netflix's East Of Eden

CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Netflix's East Of Eden

Mind those matches. Netflix is doing Great American Literature again, and that means everything is highly flammable - timber houses, log barns and truckloads of wooden acting.

East of Eden Season 1 Review: The Trouble With Being the Good Son

Spoiler warning: This review discusses the entire series and the novel’s ending. East of Eden broke my heart more often through its supposedly good father than its murderous mother. That’s where this uneven adaptation finds its strongest drama. Zoe Kazan’s departure from John Steinbeck’s treatment of Cathy is welcome, but the series spends too much time explaining cruelty that Florence Pugh makes compelling enough. It’s more affecting when it fo…