Peyton Place (1958) on Netflix

A peaceful New England town hides secrets and scandals.

It's the pre-WWII era. Peyton Place is a small town in New England, whose leading adult citizens rule the town with their high moral standards, which they try to pass on to their offspring. The adults, especially those that wield power largely through their positions and/or through their wealth, will not tolerate anything they believe morally improper, even if there is a hint of impropriety without comprehensive evidence to back up the hints. As their offspring grow from teenagers to adults, the offspring learn that there is much hypocrisy by the adults lying underneath that façade of proper Christian morals. The offspring begin to rebel in different ways, which is brought to public scrutiny with the arrival into town of an "outsider", the new young high school principal Michael Rossi, and through a murder trial.

—Huggo

Allison MacKenzie looks back on life in the New England town where she grew up around the time of Pearl Harbor. Beneath the town's placid god-fearing exterior lay any number of dark secrets involving sexual attraction and repression, illegitimacy, rape, gossip, intolerance, and class snobbery. No wonder Allison had moved to a quiet place like New York.

—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Coming-of-age story set in a small New England village whose peaceful facade hides love and passion, scandal and hypocrisy. Allison, a beautiful high school student and aspiring writer, struggles to grow up under the thumb of her emotionally crippled single mother. The mother, Constance MacKenzie, a woman with a hidden past, is now aroused by the temptations of the new high school principal. On the other side of town, Allison's best friend Selena lives in a shack with an abusive stepfather. As the seasons change, so do Allison and her friends, as they struggle to mature in the stifling small town. Finally, Allison leaves Peyton Place, but she returns to help Selena, now accused of murdering her stepfather. The trial will expose the town's bankrupt moral standards and finally bring its citizens together.

—Fiona Kelleghan <fkelleghan@aol.com>