Casting remains faithful to the source with no race or gender swaps of established characters. The core premise of generational conflict, free will (“timshel”), and good versus evil stays intact across episodes like “Brothers,” “Cathy,” and “Timshel.” Progressive influence appears in targeted interpretive expansions rather than foundational changes.

Writer Zoe Kazan and star Florence Pugh explicitly humanize Cathy by adding trauma backstory tied to male control and abuse, aiming to make the “monster” relatable and sympathetic; Kazan described “freeing up Steinbeck’s better instincts” and Pugh stated her job was to make audiences “sympathize and maybe fall in love with her a little bit.” For Lee, Kazan hired Asian-American novelist Alexander Chee to expand the character’s arc, removing the book’s pidgin dialect and adding scenes of Lee returning to San Francisco to illustrate racism more directly, which Kazan framed as paring away “distractingly racist” elements while going “further” than Steinbeck. These updates reflect modern sensitivity to representation and gender dynamics but remain secondary to the novel’s themes. Audience and critic reactions note the feminist lens and “girlboss” treatment of Cathy, with some labeling it “woke” for softening the villain, yet the series preserves Steinbeck’s structure and moral complexity without centering identity politics or systemic critiques as the primary driver.