Martha Plimpton and Florence Pugh in East of Eden.
Photo by Geoffrey Short/Netflix
Netflix doesn’t do a ton of obvious prestige/awards-bait shows, but East of Eden is definitely one of them. The limited series based on John Steinbeck’s novel is a likely shoo-in for awards recognition for Florence Pugh (and possibly Hoon Lee), it looks beautiful and it has the literary pedigree.
It also performed pretty well in its first few days.
East of Eden finished third overall in the Nielsen’s streaming ratings for Sept. 28-Oct. 4, rolling up 782 million minutes of viewing time in the United States. It premiered on Oct. 1, meaning the show accumulated that total over four days. A seven-day tally for the next week will almost certainly yield bigger numbers (it did in Netflix’s own worldwide rankings, growing by 90-plus percent in view count and watch time).
I’m focusing on East of Eden up top here because I really don’t have much to say about the overall No. 1 that I can’t in the notes below. All of the streaming top 10s in the United States for Sept. 28-Oct. 4 follow.