Florence Pugh’s long-anticipated return to the small screen is already drawing critical acclaim. The Oscar-nominated actress stars as Cathy Ames in Netflix’s limited TV series adaptation of East of Eden, which has gotten stellar reviews across all critics aggregators.
East of Eden is now streaming globally on Netflix, and it has already earned a place among Florence Pugh’s highest-rated TV shows. At present, it holds a Tomatometer score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it Pugh’s third-best-rated TV series.
Her top TV titles remain 2018’s spy miniseries The Little Drummer Girl at 95% and Marvel’s 2021 superhero series Hawkeye at 92%.
Additionally, the debut score also marks career-high TV ratings for Pugh’s co-stars Mike Faist and Joe Anders.
How Florence Pugh brings Cathy Ames to life
Speaking at the recent premiere of East of Eden, Pugh revealed that Cathy Ames’ character has got more layers than being simply evil. She highlighted how director Zoe Kazan’s scripts helped in exploring Ames in a deeper way.
Pugh said, “I think truly through Zoe’s scripts and the understanding that we wanted to dig deeper, and we wanted to go back and understand the context of why she is the way that she is, and once you open one door to feeling sympathy for someone, the rest really open for themselves.”
The actress explained more about the character, saying, “You know, she’s a woman that has a lot of awful things happen to her. Yes, of course, she does a lot of awful things to other people, but she can be both.”
Based on John Steinbeck’s classic 1952 novel of the same name, the TV show also features other notable cast members. They include Christopher Abbott, Ciarán Hinds, Hoon Lee, Martha Plimpton, Joseph Zada, Tracy Letts, and more.
East of Eden is now streaming on Netflix.