Los Angeles, CA – Though Zoe Kazan has seven episodes to tell the story of John Steinbeck’s historical family saga, she is not able to free Cathy from the literary life sentence Steinbeck imposed on her. Kazan, who has also written the show, looks at the Trask family from Cathy’s lens but does not explain why an intelligent, fiercely independent woman like Cathy escapes domesticity only to remain in the nearby town, still very much in the family’s orbit. Considering it is 1899, without digital trails to pick up, Cathy could just as easily have gone to Chicago or New York. Steinbeck needed her to be in Salinas. Since Kazan is staying true to the novel, Cathy in the show also stays in Salinas, flattening the character and causing the viewer to question her choices.
And once you start questioning Cathy’s choices rather than accepting Steinbeck’s conception of her as a depraved villain, there are so many things that do not make sense for the character. Why marry Adam at all, when she does not want to be controlled, even if it is with kindness? Why work in a brothel and kill the madam to become the owner? While the options for work for a lone woman were much more limited in the early 1900s, there were surely other ways Cathy could earn money. While Kazan has not succeeded in creating a believable Cathy, her additions to the Chinese-American Lee, the Trask’s servant, has created a rounded character. Lee is not an archetype, and comes across as someone who has lived, loved, and lost, and someone you definitely could have tea with.
The miniseries opens in 1899 with an almost-dead Cathy (Florence Pugh) landing at the doorstep of two half-brothers, Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Charles (Mike Faist). The boys are brought up by their abusive father, Cyrus (Tracy Letts), who pits them against each other. Adam falls in love with Cathy while Charles is suspicious of her. Even though Cathy does not want to go to California where Adam hopes to make a fresh start, she agrees to marry him and they move to California. Cathy leaves Adam with their newborn twins to work at a brothel run by Faye (Martha Plimpton).
With Adam deeply depressed, it is Lee (Hoon Lee) who cares for the boys, Caleb (Joseph Zada) and Aron (Joe Anders), and keeps the house running. As time passes, the impetuous and rebellious Caleb strives for his father’s affection while the dutiful Aron studies and falls in love with Abra (Zoe Phillips), a wealthy neighbour’s daughter. As Adam and the boys leave the ranch to live in a house in town, Cathy seems set on her collision course with her sons. Beautifully shot and featuring quite a few quotes from the novel, including Lee saying,
“There’s more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty,” East of Eden is a remarkable adaptation. Kazan’s grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the 1955 film adaptation of the last part of the novel. In revisiting the family connection, Zoe has created a beautiful miniseries, and Pugh is riveting as the morally bankrupt Cathy. If only Kazan had made Cathy more of a person than a symbol, exploring the little girl who was fascinated by Alice in Wonderland and the magic potions that made one disappear, instead of focusing on the Lady Macbeth-like madam. East of Eden is currently streaming on Netflix.
