Eric: 'inventive, assured and far less weird than you expect'
On paper, the six-part Netflix series "Eric" sounds "barmy", said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. Benedict Cumberbatch plays egotistical puppeteer Vincent who works on the "Sesame Street"-style children's TV show, "Good Morning Sunshine". When his nine-year-old son Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe) goes missing on his way to school, he responds to the trauma by striking up a relationship with a "seven-foot-tall blue yeti". But the show is "inventive, assured and far less weird than you expect".
Set in "gritty, pre-gentrified" 1980s New York, a "guilt-ridden" Vincent convinces himself that the only way to get his son to come home is to bring to life the new puppet Edgar had been inventing for the show.
So arrives Eric, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian, a "Muppets-meets-Monsters Inc" imaginary puppet that starts following Vincent around as a "manifestation" of his hopes, fears and "crumbling mental health". As you might expect, Cumberbatch is "mesmerising" to watch as the "viciously narcissistic" Vincent. He will deservedly win awards for his portrayal of a desperate father's descent into "hellish despair and madness".
Written by Abi Morgan – the Emmy-winning screenwriter behind Margaret Thatcher biopic "The Iron Lady" and legal drama "The Split" – the "wildly ambitious" show loops together several sprawling plotlines covering everything from marital breakdown to police corruption.
Running parallel to Vincent's psychological unravelling is NYPD detective Michael Ledroit's search for Edgar in New York's murky underworld. McKinley Belcher III is arguably the show's "MVP", playing the closeted Black gay cop with a "quiet rage" that lies just beneath his cool, professional exterior, said David Opie in Empire.
There are moments when it feels there's "almost too much going on", as if "Eric" is two shows in one, oscillating between family drama and cop thriller "on a dime". It is, however, "refreshing" to see a series explore so many ideas and themes: "it's one of the most original Netflix Originals in some time".
"Eric" is "outstanding", agreed Aramide Tinubu in Variety. But there is one "glaring issue": the giant furry puppet following Vincent around. It's a "distraction" that feels at odds with the dark, dangerous setting and "sombreness" of the series. Cumberbatch is capable of pulling off Vincent's downward spiral without "forcing something so literal" on viewers.
Singh disagreed: the "hint of magical realism" is what made the show so enjoyable to watch. And, despite the Netflix publicity material, the puppet features only "sparingly" in the show. In fact, the way "Eric" switches between a visceral exploration of grief one moment, to a scene of Cumberbatch dancing with his "fluffy sidekick" the next, is testament to the skill involved.
