Florence Pugh's "excellent" period drama hailed as 'one of the best' jumps up Netflix chart

It's been over a week since Netflix released its new miniseries adaptation of East of Eden, starring Florence Pugh, and it's still proving to be a hit. Currently, the show is sitting at today's second-biggest show in the UK after holding the top spot, with brand-new release Below taking its place.

Based on John Steinbeck's 1952 novel, the plot follows two families in Salinas Valley in California, where the arrival of Pugh's character Cathy Ames causes a whole host of dramas and tragedy.

Unlike the book and the 1955 film starring James Dean, Cathy is the focus of this adaptation. And speaking of that film version, fun fact: its director Elia Kazan is the grandparent of Zoe Kazan, who directed this new version!

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As well as Pugh, the cast includes Catch 22 and Poor Things' Christopher Abbott, Challengers' Mike Faist, and Game of Thrones' Ciarán Hinds.

With all that talent in front of and behind the camera, it's not a surprise that this adaptation has proven a big hit with critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a very strong score of 88% positive from 57 reviews.

Metro called the show "one of the best period dramas [Netflix] has made", while Empire dubbed it "an excellent and elegant adaption".

The Irish Times said that the miniseries was a "showcase for Pugh's star power", and Variety India went as far as to say that the actor gives "one of the best performances of the year".

Digital Spy's own review called it a "must-watch" and an excellent character study, but did note that it can be "brutal" viewing.

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If you've seen the show already, you might want to check out our interview with the three leads.

The trio took us on a deep dive into what they believe Cathy's true feelings are, and which line of Steinbeck's writing stood out to them the most.

East of Eden is available on Netflix now.

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.