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| Best Shows Like East of Eden. |
If East of Eden left you wanting another sprawling family drama filled with buried secrets, complicated siblings, generational wounds and characters who seem determined to make their own lives harder, there is plenty to watch next. Netflix’s seven-episode adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel combines period drama, family tragedy, moral conflict and the old Cain-and-Abel question of whether people are doomed to repeat their parents’ mistakes.
The following 23 shows tap into some of those same ideas, whether through bitter family rivalries, inherited trauma, forbidden secrets, ambitious characters or families slowly falling apart from the inside. Some are historical epics, others are contemporary dramas, but all understand one important rule of television: give a family enough secrets and eventually somebody will open the wrong cupboard.
Shows Like EAST OF EDEN
1. Pachinko (2022)
Pachinko follows several generations of a Korean family whose lives are shaped by love, displacement, discrimination, ambition and survival across Korea and Japan. Like East of Eden, it treats family history as something that stretches far beyond one generation, showing how decisions made by parents can continue to affect their children and grandchildren.
The multigenerational structure is the biggest connection. Both stories are interested in how families carry emotional baggage through time, while their characters struggle to decide whether they must accept the path handed to them or create another one. It is also a sweeping period drama with a strong sense of place, giving its family story a much larger historical backdrop.
2. The Thorn Birds (1983)
Set across decades, The Thorn Birds centres on the Cleary family and the complicated relationships that develop around them after they move to Australia. The series mixes family loyalty, forbidden relationships, ambition, resentment and social expectations into one enormous generational drama.
It makes sense as an East of Eden follow-up because both shows are interested in families being shaped by forces larger than any individual member. Characters make choices for love, pride and status, only for those choices to echo through the next generation. It also has that old-fashioned television epic quality where nobody seems capable of having a quiet afternoon.
3. Succession (2018)
Succession swaps early-20th-century California for the brutal world of a modern media empire, but its central concern is surprisingly close to East of Eden: children desperately competing for the approval of a powerful father.
The Roy siblings are constantly measuring themselves against one another while trying to secure their father's attention, respect and eventual approval. Like Adam, Charles, Caleb and Aron, they are shaped by a complicated parental relationship and respond to it in dramatically different ways. The difference is that instead of fighting over a family farm, the Roys are fighting over a global business empire — because apparently ordinary sibling arguments were not stressful enough.
4. Bloodline (2015)
Bloodline follows the wealthy Rayburn family, whose carefully maintained image begins to collapse when one troubled member of the family returns home. Old resentments and long-hidden secrets gradually surface, forcing the siblings to confront things they would rather leave buried.
Its strongest connection with East of Eden is the idea that family loyalty can become both a source of comfort and a terrible burden. The Rayburn siblings are bound together by history, but that history also makes them increasingly dangerous to one another. Both dramas ask how much damage can be hidden beneath a respectable family image before everything finally starts to crack.
5. Six Feet Under (2001)
Six Feet Under begins with the death of a family patriarch and follows the Fishers as they attempt to keep their family business running while dealing with grief, identity, relationships and years of unresolved emotional baggage.
Like East of Eden, it is ultimately less interested in a simple good-versus-evil divide than in the complicated reasons people become who they are. Each member of the family has a different response to the expectations placed upon them. The series also explores how parents can leave emotional legacies that their children spend years trying either to escape or understand.
6. Little Fires Everywhere (2020)
Little Fires Everywhere centres on two mothers and their families whose lives collide in an apparently perfect American suburb. Questions about motherhood, class, identity, secrets and parental control gradually pull the families into conflict.
The series shares East of Eden’s interest in complicated parent-child relationships and the uncomfortable question of whether good intentions can still produce damaging consequences. Neither story treats family life as a simple battle between heroes and villains. People make choices they believe are justified, and then have to live with what those choices do to everyone else.
7. Animal Kingdom (2016)
Animal Kingdom follows Joshua “J” Cody as he moves in with his extended family after the death of his mother. He soon discovers that his relatives are deeply involved in criminal activity and that family loyalty comes with a considerable price.
Its connection to East of Eden comes through the idea of inheritance beyond money. The characters inherit behaviours, secrets, expectations and destructive patterns from the generation before them. J must work out whether he will become another product of his family or find a way to build his own identity.
8. The Son (2017)
Based on Philipp Meyer’s novel, The Son is an ambitious family saga moving between different periods in the history of the McCullough family. It explores power, land, violence, family loyalty and the ways that generations can inherit both wealth and conflict.
For East of Eden viewers, the appeal is obvious. Both are expansive American family stories built around land, complicated fathers and sons, ambition and the consequences of decisions made long before the younger generation arrives. The timelines also allow the audience to see how the past shapes the present rather than simply being told that it did.
9. Godless (2017)
Godless is a Western miniseries set in the American frontier, where a notorious outlaw searches for a former associate who has turned against him. Its story unfolds around a small community containing characters with their own histories, loyalties and grievances.
It is not a direct family drama in the way East of Eden is, but it shares the period setting, moral ambiguity and interest in characters trying to escape violent or damaging pasts. The landscape also matters enormously. Like Steinbeck's California, the environment becomes part of the storytelling rather than simply a backdrop.
10. Queen Sugar (2016)
Queen Sugar follows three siblings who return to Louisiana after inheriting their father's sugarcane farm. Their differing personalities and ambitions quickly create tension as they attempt to decide what should happen to the family property.
That setup has a particularly strong East of Eden connection. Siblings, inheritance, land and parental expectations are all central to the story. The characters are not simply deciding what to do with a farm; they are deciding what their father's legacy means to them and whether they want to preserve it. Naturally, family discussions become considerably more complicated once everyone has their own idea of what “doing the right thing” means.
11. The Underground Railroad (2021)
The Underground Railroad is a historical drama that follows Cora, a young woman escaping slavery and searching for freedom. The series uses a sweeping, sometimes surreal approach to explore violence, oppression, identity, survival and the meaning of freedom.
Its connection to East of Eden is thematic rather than structural. Both stories are concerned with free will and the struggle to determine one's own future despite circumstances imposed by previous generations. Cora's journey is much more directly shaped by historical oppression, while Steinbeck's characters wrestle with family inheritance and personal morality, but both stories ask what freedom actually means when the past refuses to stay behind.
12. Deadwood (2004)
Deadwood turns the American frontier into a dense drama about ambition, power, loyalty and survival. Set in a developing mining settlement, the series brings together criminals, businessmen, politicians and ordinary settlers whose interests repeatedly collide.
The show shares East of Eden's interest in the American landscape as a place where people attempt to reinvent themselves. Characters arrive carrying complicated histories and discover that starting again does not necessarily mean escaping the past. Its morally messy characters and period setting make it a natural choice for viewers who enjoyed the darker side of Steinbeck's world.
13. Boardwalk Empire (2010)
Set during Prohibition, Boardwalk Empire follows political figure and gangster Enoch “Nucky” Thompson as he builds power in Atlantic City. The series expands into a sprawling story about organised crime, politics, family relationships and personal ambition.
The connection to East of Eden lies in its examination of how power changes family relationships and personal morality. Characters repeatedly have to decide whether loyalty matters more than ambition. Like Steinbeck's characters, they are often convinced that they are making choices for a good reason, only to create another problem somewhere else.
14. Sharp Objects (2018)
Sharp Objects follows journalist Camille Preaker, who returns to her Missouri hometown to investigate the murders of two young girls. Going home also means confronting her difficult relationship with her mother and the memories she has spent years trying to escape.
The series is far more intimate than East of Eden, but its focus on family secrets, parental influence and inherited emotional damage makes the connection clear. Both stories examine what happens when children grow up under complicated parental expectations and carry those experiences into adulthood. The family home, meanwhile, becomes less of a sanctuary and more of a place where the past has been waiting patiently.
15. Big Little Lies (2017)
Big Little Lies centres on several families in a wealthy California community where apparently perfect lives hide complicated relationships and serious secrets. The series gradually exposes the pressures affecting parents, partners and children.
Like East of Eden, it questions the idea that a family can simply present a polished public image while everything underneath remains healthy. It also focuses on how parental behaviour affects children, sometimes in ways the adults fail to recognise. The California setting provides another loose connection, although the houses are considerably more expensive than Steinbeck's farms.
16. Sons of Anarchy (2008)
Sons of Anarchy follows Jax Teller, a member of an outlaw motorcycle club, as he begins questioning the legacy left by his late father and the direction of the organisation controlled by his stepfather.
The family dynamic is where the East of Eden comparison becomes particularly interesting. Jax is caught between the legacy of his father, the influence of another powerful parental figure and his own desire to choose a different future. The series repeatedly asks whether someone can break away from a system created by the generation before them.
17. The Red Road (2014)
The Red Road is a crime drama set in a rural community where a local sheriff becomes increasingly entangled with a nearby Native American community after a violent incident. Personal loyalties, family relationships and old tensions drive the story.
Its similarity to East of Eden comes from the way personal decisions are tied to community history and inherited conflict. Characters cannot easily separate their present lives from what happened before them. The rural setting and serious examination of morality also give the series a similarly grounded, uneasy atmosphere.
18. Rectify (2013)
Rectify follows Daniel Holden after he returns home following years on death row. His return forces his family and community to reconsider everything they thought they knew about him and the events that originally destroyed his life.
The series is much quieter than East of Eden, but it shares its fascination with guilt, redemption, family expectations and the possibility of changing one's path. Daniel's return also changes the lives of everyone around him, much like the arrival or departure of one troubled family member can reshape an entire household.
19. The English (2022)
The English is a period Western following an aristocratic English woman and a former cavalry scout whose paths cross in the American frontier. Their journey gradually reveals histories of violence, loss and revenge.
The show works for East of Eden viewers because it combines a sweeping period setting with characters shaped by painful histories and difficult choices. It also treats the American landscape as an active part of the story. Nobody simply wanders across those enormous landscapes for the scenery; the past tends to follow them along.
20. The Leftovers (2014)
The Leftovers begins after a mysterious event causes two per cent of the world's population to disappear without explanation. The story then focuses on the people left behind and how they attempt to understand what happened.
Its connection to East of Eden is largely thematic, particularly around grief, family, belief, guilt and the search for meaning. Characters respond to the same impossible circumstances in radically different ways. The series is interested in whether people can choose who they become after devastating events rather than simply being defined by them.
21. The Good Lord Bird (2020)
The Good Lord Bird is a historical miniseries centred on abolitionist John Brown and a young enslaved boy who becomes involved in Brown's campaign. The series mixes historical drama with a sometimes irreverent tone while exploring America's deep political and social divisions of the period.
For viewers who enjoyed the historical scale of East of Eden, it offers another story where individual lives collide with enormous forces shaping the country. It also explores morality, conviction and the consequences of people believing completely in their own version of what is right.
22. This Is Us (2016)
This Is Us follows the Pearson family across multiple generations and timelines, revealing how childhood experiences, parental decisions and family relationships shape the adults its characters eventually become.
The show is a much warmer proposition than East of Eden,* but the central idea is remarkably familiar: parents influence children, children reinterpret their parents and the past keeps turning up in the present. The multiple timelines also make it particularly effective at showing how one decision can take on a completely different meaning years later.
23. The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
The Haunting of Hill House may seem like the odd one out, given its supernatural horror elements, but underneath the ghosts is a deeply serious family drama. The Crain siblings grow up after their parents' experiences at Hill House and carry those memories into adulthood.
Like East of Eden, it is fascinated by the relationship between parents and children, sibling differences, buried trauma and the way family history can shape identity. The supernatural elements simply give those emotional problems a house full of ghosts to make everything considerably more awkward.
For me, the strongest reason to explore these shows after East of Eden is not simply that they feature unhappy families or historical settings. What makes Steinbeck's story so durable is its interest in whether people are trapped by where they come from. The best comparisons here are the shows that understand that question from different angles.
Pachinko looks at generations and survival, Succession turns parental approval into a vicious competition, Queen Sugar makes land and inheritance central, while Sons of Anarchy examines the weight of a father's legacy. Others, such as Six Feet Under, Rectify and This Is Us, are more interested in how people process the emotional consequences of family history.
None is a carbon copy of East of Eden, thankfully — watching the same story 23 times would be a rather strange way to spend a weekend — but each brings something that should appeal to viewers who enjoy character-driven stories where family, choice and the past collide.
If East of Eden was your kind of family drama, which of these would you put on next? And if your favourite is missing from the list, tell me which show deserves a place here — there are clearly enough dysfunctional television families to keep this conversation going for another 23 entries