Featuring a star-studded cast led by Benedict Cumberbatch, Netflix’s Eric isn’t short of entertaining and occasionally breathtaking performances. But this is a tale of two distinct halves, and Eric stumbles in fitting them together into a whole.
The show revolves around the vanishing of nine-year-old Edgar Anderson (Ivan Morris Howe), the son of puppeteer Vincent (Cumberbatch). Feeling responsible, Vincent decides to leverage his media presence as the creator of a popular children’s show and bring his son’s drawings to life as Eric, a new monstrous puppet.
Vincent believes that once he sees Eric come alive, Edgar will go back home. Meanwhile, Edgar’s disappearance leads Detective Michael Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III) to reopen the case of Marlon (Bence Orere), a 14-year-old Black kid who’s been missing for a year.
On Cumberbatch’s side of the narrative, Eric echoes themes of inherited trauma, substance abuse, and mental health issues. In his turn, Belcher III reflects the usual interest of writer and creator Abi Morgan in history.
Having written critically acclaimed movies such as The Iron Lady and Suffragette, and TV shows such as The Hour, Morgan has proved time and time again how she has a knack for period dramas. Morgan constantly looks at the past as a source of inspiration to discuss contemporary issues, a feat she repeats here.
By setting the show in 1985, Morgan can explore the housing crisis in New York City, showcasing the brutality of gentrification politics. At the same time, Eric highlights the stigma of homosexuality long before we understood the workings of AIDS, when the disease was seen as a just punishment for queer people. Eric also examines the racial schism in American society, reinforced by the unfair treatment of Black people by the police and the legal system.
Eric is bursting with relevant social commentary, as many of the issues it denounces are still part of our daily lives. It’s not a coincidence that Morgan has written Eric while the homeless population in the U.S. and the U.K. is on the rise, widespread support for far-right politicians grows all over the world, and LGBTQ+ people face a new wave of hate and misinformation. Because of all that, it’s a shame that Eric‘s poignant script gets diluted by Cumberbatch’s character’s self-inflicted psychological wounds.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it: Cumberbatch’s Vincent is an asshole. The puppeteer drinks too much, frequently has loud and violent fights with his wife, Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann), and often puts his work on television ahead of his parental duties. It’s hard to sympathize with the character after his son disappears because he is indeed responsible for Edgar not feeling safe around him.
Vincent’s determination to turn Eric into a character in his puppeteering show pushes him into a cycle of auto-destruction, in which he treats all the people close to him in the worst manner possible. Finally, Vincent’s addiction worsens each day, as he uses Edgar’s as the perfect excuse to get drunk and high all the time.
One of Eric‘s main goals is to give Vincent a redemption arc, forcing him to face the errors of his ways and become a better father, husband, and co-worker. However, the limited series is unsuccessful in this task, as it spends too long focusing on Vincent’s flaws for the audience to even care about his fate. It also doesn’t help Vincent’s case that everyone else seems to be fighting real battles instead of ones created by their own minds.
There shouldn’t be a hierarchy of human suffering, and the middle-class trauma of Vincent shouldn’t be dismissed just because some people have it worse. Yet, it’s hard to take some of the puppeteer’s complaints seriously when we can see he is, in grand part, solely responsible for his misery. Meanwhile, Detective Ledroit has to unravel New York City’s entrails, learning more about how the wealthy and powerful prey on innocent lives.
Cumberbatch’s talent is unquestionable and Eric allows the actor to deliver one of his best performances to date. Still, his constant bickering with an imaginary friend gets stale quickly, especially since the scenes dedicated to Vincent rarely move the larger plot forward. As a crime show, Eric has an engaging mystery at its core, which grabs your attention and makes you want to binge the series. Unfortunately, that means Vincent’s delusions often hinder the show’s pacing, depriving the audience of the best part of the show.
The dissonance within Eric’s six episodes ultimately comes from its two main stories. Although intertwined, Vicent and Ledroit’s journeys have opposite progression. While dealing with the power of imagination and the demons that live inside our minds, Vincent’s story anticipates a happy ending right from the start. In Vincent, we see a character with a predictable and well-defined arc, with a solid moral lesson of owning your mistakes and making the world a better place.
Ledroit’s road is more twisted. Since the Detective deals with a gritty and realistic version of 1985 New York, his story has no defined endings. There’s closure, for sure, but things won’t fit perfectly in the end, with loose threads and tragic outcomes that indicate life goes on, and we should all learn from the past to build a better future.
Of course, the disparity between Vincent and Ledroit works on a meta-level. The white middle-class character has a linear path to follow, and despite every wrong decision he makes, he remains the protagonist we’re supposed to sympathize with. The Black character, on the other hand, struggles at every step he takes, regardless of his inflexible moral compass. Nevertheless, this comparative discourse seems accidental in Eric, as the difference between the two main poles of the show often damages the unity of its tone.
If Eric doesn’t tear itself apart, that’s due to its production value. Director Lucy Forbes does a fabulous job of keeping everything together, as much as she can, with the script’s faults. Plus, even minor characters get their opportunity to shine, thanks to a cast dedicated to giving layered performances. Belcher III, in particular, uses the most significant role in his career to show everyone he deserves much more screen time than he has gotten so far. Ledroit is the most challenging part in Eric, yet Belcher III makes the role his own with confidence and humanity, elevating the story by his mere presence.
There’s a lot to love in Eric, a show in which the whole cast and crew are dedicated to creating something unique. Sadly, all this effort is often hampered by how the series leading star, Cumberbatch, is stuck in a story loop that gets in the way of everything else.
Good
Despite struggling to balance all its story threads, 'Eric' is still an engaging crime series capable of exploring complex social issues. Plus, while Benedict Cumberbatch gives one of the best performances in his career, Netflix's limited series serves to showcase the immeasurable talent of McKinley Belcher III.
Eric