FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE YET TO SEE ‘ERIC’, THIS IS A NON-SPOILER REVIEW.

Lost in the Reel’s Video Review for “Eric”

Netflix has been all over the place this year.  They’ve recently been releasing dumpster fires on our screens like last week’s Atlas, Jerry Seinfeld’s pop tart disaster movie Unfrosted, and the highly disappointing Man in Full.  But, then they randomly drop a show like Baby Reindeer with not much buzz around it at all and then it’s one of the best things to come out of 2024 so far.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how Netflix picks their projects, but one thing is for certain…  I would like them to continue championing truly original programming like Baby Reindeer instead of the life-sucking algorithm bait that they tend to rely on.  And luckily, their new limited series Eric, despite all of its flaws, falls into the former camp… Of being a truly original program.  

WHAT IS ‘ERIC’ ALL ABOUT?

Eric follows the disappearance of a young boy named Edgar in 1980’s Manhattan and his grief-stricken father Vincent… a puppeteer on America’s leading kids’ TV show.  Vincent finds solace through his friendship with Eric, the monster that Edgar has created. In his quest to find the truth to Edgar’s disappearance, Vincent is forced into the dark underbelly of a city rife with corruption to discover that the real monsters live much closer to home. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s AIDS epidemic, Detective Ledroit, sent to uncover internal corruption in the NYPD, finds himself drawn into the search for Edgar, while privately coming to terms with deep, dark secrets of his own.

‘ERIC’ HAS A LOT IN COMMON WITH ABI MORGAN’S PREVIOUS FILM, ‘SHAME’….

Eric does have some familiar ideas packed within its walls.  It’s basically a dark, gritty crime thriller about a father rattled with addiction, looking for his missing son.  But creator and writer Abi Morgan has so much more up her sleeve for this story.  Morgan, who in my opinion should be an Oscar-winner, or at least nominee, for her work co-writing the unforgettable screenplay for Steve McQueen’s Shame; translates a lot of the energy and themes from that film to Eric. 

Despite the cute and fuzzy puppets, this is a series so bleak and full of despair that it feels like you are being sucked into a black hole with no way to exit.  The way she has been able to capture the seedy and seductive underbelly of New York in both of these projects is second to none.  And our lead protagonist, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, has so much in common with Fassbender’s character Brandon in Shame.  They are both manic and chaotic wrecking balls, marred by addiction, who destroy everything and everyone around them.  Yet, somehow, because of the performance and the writing in equal measure, you continue to root for them to find a way to “be better”.  

THERE ARE A LOT OF IDEAS AND THINGS GOING ON IN ‘ERIC’…

Creator Abi Morgan has so many ideas and themes she wants to cover with Eric, that it ends up that Morgan bites off way more than she can chew in six episodes.  Not only does she have this main mystery of the missing child, but then she uses that as a jumping-off point to cover systemic racism, the AIDS epidemic, political and police corruption, sex trafficking, gay counterculture, mental health, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness… AND THEN, to top it all off, she has this children’s puppet show as a backdrop for the entire thing.  It’s a lot. 

And while some of what Morgan has to say about these issues comes through, even more get brought up and never find much resolve.  Still, I much prefer seeing a project like this with so much ambition and something it wants to say, than one that is completely mindless trying to pander to every demographic.  

HOW IS CUMBERBATCH AND THE REST OF THE CAST?

The real highlight of Eric though, hands down, is the performances.  Benedict Cumberbatch returns to our small screen in such a ferocious way with his turn as Vincent.  This character is so insane and insufferable, that with any other performer, it could have gone south, right from the get go.  But with Cumberbatch, you know that you are in good hands… that there is a beating heart inside Vincent, it’s just one that is scarred and searching for healing.  His voice work as the titular Eric is also sublime… creating two very different characters that are also intertwined.  It’s a performance I could see getting Emmy consideration. If not for the fact this show will surely be incredibly divisive.

Our other two leads are also on their A-Game.  Transparent‘s Gaby Hoffman, who is always exceptional, gives such a raw, emotionally vulnerable performance as Vincent’s wife Cassie.  I love that this could have been the throw-away role. But instead, Hoffman imbues so much humanity and honesty into the series through her work.  And McKinley Belcher III plays Officer Ledroit in what might be the most impactful performance of the show.  This also might be due to the fact that Ledroit is given the most well-rounded character arc from writer/creator Morgan.  Ledroit is a gay black cop in a mostly-white and highly-racist and homophobic NYPD.  His relationship with his lover dying of AIDS, his harbored secrets and intense scrutiny for being “different” has led him to be a man with a composed exterior, but a seething rage inside.  I love this character and McKinley Belcher III’s performance.

DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE PUPPETS, THIS IS ONE DARK SERIES…

If you can get past the bleak and painful subject matter… I think the thing some viewers will just not get or appreciate about Eric is the inclusion of the puppets.  It’s a strange addition to a series that is so seeped in grit that it feels like a Fincher or Villeneuve production, otherwise.  But it’s also what makes this series so “different” and adds a much-needed levity to the proceedings. 

The inclusion of the puppets also adds this juxtaposition of how the evil that permeates this world can be cut through with child-like wonder and empathy.  And if you can stomach the fact that you’re watching Benedict Cumberbatch running through the streets of New York, cussing up a storm, drinking from the bottle and snorting or smoking drugs whilst being followed by an adorable blue monster… You will see how much weight this concept lends to its main character and his plight.  

NETFLIX NEEDS TO CONTINUE CHAMPIONING ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING LIKE ‘ERIC’…

Although I have my issues with how unfocused Eric can be in its six hour-long episodes… I do believe that it all came together in a very satisfying way at the end.  Abi Morgan might get lost in a sea of her own ideas and even the main mystery at hand gets sidelined for another mystery… somehow, miraculously, she is able to tie it all together.  Albeit not in the most polished of ways, more like in a scrappy, eccentric, pick-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps kind of way… but, that’s what Eric is all about to me. 

It’s about damaged people and a destructive society, trying to find comfort and importance in the people and the things that they love.  It’s about cyclical family trauma, and trying to undue the horrors of the past to move forward, maybe even just an inch, to a better tomorrow for everyone.  And it’s about finding a home, wherever that might be… with family, with friends, with co-workers or even in the very literal sense of the term.  I’m honestly just happy that a show as original, as ambitious and one that swings-for-the-fences-with-reckless-abandon  like Eric, flaws and all, can find a home at Netflix.  And I hope the streaming service continues to open its doors for more and more projects like this one, in the future.

Eric is Streaming Now on Netflix.

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