Credit: Netflix

East of Eden on Netflix breathes life into a sprawling, multigenerational saga, based on John Steinbeck’s 1952 magnum opus, offering both public and intimate perspectives of a rapidly changing society.

Set in California’s fertile Salinas Valley from the Civil War era to World War I, the story focuses on the indelible antihero Cathy Ames and the Trask and Hamilton families, exploring family legacy, intergenerational baggage, societal and familial expectations vs free will, and the eternal struggle between good and evil.

While East of Eden transports viewers into an epic paradox of identity and redemption, it’s the post-viewing list fans have been eyeing to extend the historical hangover.

So, if you’re done with the newest adaptation, here are five Netflix shows to follow up with after East of Eden.

Five Netflix shows to watch after East of Eden

Alias Grace (Mary Harron, 2017)

While East of Eden focuses on character-driven explorations of Cathy, Alias Grace wrestles with perspective, morality, and whether a person is born sinister or shaped by circumstance against the backdrop of a rapidly changing society. Based on Margaret Atwood’s historical fiction novel, the series is set in 1843 Upper Canada, where a double homicide takes place, killing Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery.

Fellow servants James McDermott and 16-year-old Grace Marks turn into prime suspects in the brutal murders, both convicted of the crimes. Although McDermott is hanged, Grace receives a life sentence due to her young age, and she claims total amnesia about the murders. Alias Grace centres on imprisoned Grace’s interviews with Dr Simon, a young psychiatrist, who tries to refresh her lost memories to secure a pardon, only to uncover a scarring backstory dating to her childhood.

1883 (Taylor Sheridan, 2021-2022)

If East of Eden’s epic frontier survival and generational drama hooked you, 1883 is one of the best follow-ups currently streaming on Netflix. At the centre of the limited series is the Dutton family, who move from impoverished Tennessee and Texas to the Great Plains and establish the Yellowstone Ranch in Montana. Former Union Army Captain Shea and his partner Thomas recruit James, the Dutton patriarch who’s on the move with his wife Margaret and 17-year-old daughter Elsa to guide inexperienced European immigrants safely to the Northwest.

While the wagon train confronts harsh weather, dangerous crossings, and violent altercations with bandits and thieves, 1883 is told from Elsa’s perspective, the series narrator. Although the pioneer realities and multigenerational ties of fighting to establish a home in the American West make them direct spiritual siblings to the Hamilton and Trask families’ journeys, Elsa and Cathy’s personal journeys take centre stage, offering a multidimensional perspective of frontier establishment.

Peaky Blinders (Otto Bathurst, Tom Harper, Colm McCarthy, Tim Mielants, David Caffrey, and Anthony Byrne, 2013-2022)

Since East of Eden spotlights a divisive antihero, Cathy Ames, Peaky Blinders is worth adding to your post-viewing watchlist. Set in the early 20th century, the gangland saga follows the ambitious ascent of Thomas Shelby and his Romani-Irish family as they lead and strengthen a brutal post-World War I criminal gang in Birmingham, England.

Over the course of six seasons, Peaky Blinders captures the Shelby family’s expansion and establishment, as the gang transitions from local bookmaking into legitimate business, reaching the elite leagues of London mobsters, the IRA, financial moguls, and a fascist politician before Tommy steps into parliament. Like East of Eden, the show is a masterclass in sibling loyalty and betrayal, stressing the high cost of ambition while spotlighting iconic antiheroes, female and male.

Godless (Scott Frank, 2017)

Godless on Netflix also features a sweeping American frontier reminiscent of early 20th-century California, as seen in East of Eden. The Western limited series centres on ruthless outlaw Frank Griffin as he hunts his former protégé, foster son, and partner, Roy Goode, who stole from Frank’s gang and double-crossed the brothers, into an isolated town, where Roy hides out on a remote ranch with Alice, a steadfast widow.

Frank’s drawn-out pursuit lands him in La Belle, New Mexico, a mining town where most men perished in a catastrophic mining disaster. As a result, the town is entirely run by women. Godless follows the women of La Belle as they unite with local townspeople and a young deputy to fight Frank and his dangerous gang, exploring the unlikely sides of obsession and morality.

All the Light We Cannot See (Shawn Levy, 2023)

To round out the East of Eden post-viewing marathon, we recommend All the Light We Cannot See, which explicitly explores the divisive themes of morality, resilience, and innocence against the backdrop of a historically tumultuous time where destinies are entwined in more ways than one. The World War II drama centres on the interconnecting lives of a blind French youngster and a young German soldier in occupied France.

All the Light We Cannot See opens with Marie-Laure LeBlanc and her locksmith father’s escape from German-occupied Paris, carrying a cursed diamond to prevent the Nazis from getting hold of it. While they find refuge in a coastal town with her reclusive uncle, who secretly transmits resistance radio broadcasts, Cruel Gestapo official Reinhold von Rumpel starts an intense pursuit of the father-daughter duo, desperate to seize the diamond. But when a young German orphaned soldier is tasked with tracking down the illegal transmissions, the original plan backfires.