OBSESSED WITH CRUSHING FAMILY SECRETS, GENERATIONAL SINS, AND RAW PERIOD DRAMA? 10 ELECTRIFYING SHOWS LIKE ‘EAST OF EDEN’ THAT WILL COMPLETELY CONSUME YOUR WATCHLIST! If Netflix’s bold, psychological reimagining of East of Eden left you craving sprawling historical sagas, complex antiheroes, biblical family rivalries, and sweeping visual storytelling, your next major binge-watch is waiting! Here are 10 phenomenal series that deliver that exact blend of tension, emotional devastation, and narrative ambition.

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10 Epic, Multigenerational Historical Sagas to Stream After Netflix’s East of Eden

Zoe Kazan and Florence Pugh’s hit adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden has reignited audience appetite for sweeping, literary historical epics. Chronicling decades of rivalry, betrayal, and romance across California in the lead-up to World War I, the series combines biblical allegory with raw character drama.
For viewers looking to capture that same expansive scope, here are ten literary and multigenerational dramas worth adding to your watchlist next.

1. The House of the Spirits (2026)

  • Where to Stream: Prime Video
  • Cast: Dolores Fonzi, Rochi Hernández, Alfonso Herrera, Nicole Wallace
  • The Premise: Like Steinbeck, Isabel Allende’s landmark novel delves into the inescapable burden of generational sins and strengths. Framed through the retrospective eyes of granddaughter Alba (Hernández) in the 1970s, the narrative moves backward through the journals of family matriarch Clara (Fonzi). Spanning four generations of the Trueba family against a backdrop of unnamed South American political upheaval, it mirrors real Chilean history with magical-realist touches.

2. War and Peace (2016)

  • Where to Stream: Peacock, Prime Video
  • Cast: Paul Dano, Lily James, James Norton, Jessie Buckley
  • The Premise: Andrew Davies’ lavish BBC adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Russian classic begins in 1805 during the height of the Napoleonic Wars. The six-part miniseries interweaves the fates of three central figures—idealistic outsider Pierre Bezukhov (Dano), spirited romantic Natasha Rostova (James), and solemn, aristocratic Andrei Bolkonsky (Norton)—as personal tragedies and national warfare reshape their lives.

3. Pachinko (2022– )

  • Where to Stream: Apple TV+
  • Cast: Youn Yuh-jung, Kim Min-ha, Lee Min-ho, Jin Ha
  • The Premise: Adapted from Min Jin Lee’s bestselling novel, this international epic chronicles four generations of a Korean immigrant family across eight decades. Moving between Japanese-occupied Korea in 1915, wartime Osaka, and Tokyo’s booming financial sector in 1989, the series tracks matriarch Sunja’s resilience in the face of systemic prejudice, war, and displacement.

4. The Forsyte Saga (2002–2003)

  • Where to Stream: Netflix
  • Cast: Damian Lewis, Gina McKee, Rupert Graves, Ioan Gruffudd
  • The Premise: Based on John Galsworthy’s Nobel Prize-winning novels, this acclaimed British miniseries follows three generations of a wealthy, nouveau-riche commercial family from late Victorian London into the 1920s. Centering on the obsessive, controlling solicitor Soames Forsyte (Lewis) and his unhappy marriage to Irene (McKee), the series exposes the moral hypocrisy behind high-society facades.

5. When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025)

  • Where to Stream: Netflix
  • Cast: IU (Lee Ji-eun), Park Bo-gum, Moon So-ri, Park Hae-joon
  • The Premise: Sweeping South Korea’s Baeksang Arts Awards, this romantic historical drama centers on rebellious, poetry-loving Ae-sun (IU) and steadfast ironman Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum). Set on rural Jeju Island beginning in the 1960s, the series charts decades of rapid cultural and political transformation across the nation through their enduring relationship.

6. North & South (2004)

  • Where to Stream: Prime Video, Tubi
  • Cast: Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Sinéad Cusack, Brendan Coyle
  • The Premise: Adapting Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1855 industrial novel, the four-part BBC miniseries follows proud southern girl Margaret Hale (Denby-Ashe), who relocates to the soot-stained northern mill town of Milton. Her clash with brooding, uncompromising cotton-mill owner John Thornton (Armitage) evolves against the backdrop of labor strikes, class conflict, and social upheaval.

7. House of Guinness (2025– )

  • Where to Stream: Netflix
  • Cast: Anthony Boyle, Louis Partridge, Emily Fairn, James Norton
  • The Premise: Created by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), this period saga explores the fallout following the 1868 death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, the titan who transformed the Dublin brewery into a global empire. The drama centers on the explosive power struggles among his four eccentric heirs, navigating industrial expansion, religious condemnation, and rising Irish Republican tensions.

8. Roots (2016)

  • Where to Stream: Prime Video, Tubi
  • Cast: Malachi Kirby, Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, Laurence Fishburne
  • The Premise: A contemporary retelling of Alex Haley’s The Saga of an American Family, this four-part event series tracks multiple generations of an enslaved African-American family. Beginning with the capture of Mandinka warrior Kunta Kinte (Kirby) in 1767 Gambia and extending through the American Civil War, the series delivers an unflinching study of survival, family lineage, and institutional brutality.

9. The Plot Against America (2020)

  • Where to Stream: HBO Max
  • Cast: Morgan Spector, Zoe Kazan, Winona Ryder, John Turturro
  • The Premise: Created by David Simon and based on Philip Roth’s alternate history novel, the miniseries imagines an America where aviation hero and isolationist Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election. The narrative follows a working-class Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey—including a standout performance by East of Eden creator Zoe Kazan—as public antisemitism and authoritarian fascism slowly encroach on domestic life.

10. The Thorn Birds (1983)

  • Where to Stream: Prime Video (Digital Purchase / Rental)
  • Cast: Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer
  • The Premise: Adapted from Colleen McCullough’s romance epic, this classic miniseries traces three generations of the Cleary family across Drogheda, a sprawling Australian outback sheep station. Spanning 1920 to 1962, the central drama revolves around the lifelong, forbidden love affair between ambitious Catholic priest Ralph de Bricassart (Chamberlain) and spirited ranch heiress Meggie Cleary (Ward).