Eric Review | Netflix Thriller Has Some Brilliance Drowned in Mediocrity

Summary

• McKinley Belcher III shines as detective Michael Ledroit in the gripping police procedural subplot of
  Eric
  . Unfortunately, the rest of the show isn’t great.
• Benedict Cumberbatch’s overacted role as Vincent pales in comparison to the intriguing characters and subplots in the series that don’t get nearly enough time.
• Eric
  tries to tackle numerous interesting themes within six episodes, ultimately ending as an overstuffed, messy, yet worthwhile exploration of secrets, corruption, and anger.

Eric feels like three potentially great TV shows cut into pieces and stitched together into one messy, heavy, but overall worthwhile series. In fact, the six-episode Netflix miniseries feels like The Wire, True Detective, and Wilfred had a malnourished baby. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Vincent, an angry, alcoholic puppeteer in a failing marriage with Gaby Hoffmann’s Cassie, whose nine-year-old son Edgar goes missing within the same year that another child has disappeared in the same NYC area in the 1980s. He slips into drunken lunacy and hallucinates a giant, Harvey-like puppet monster named Eric, originally designed by his son. While the boy is missing, Vincent fights against his demons and for his job.

Unfortunately, Vincent and Edgar’s story is much less interesting than that of the detective handling their case, Mike Ledroit. The character is so interesting, and actor McKinley Belcher III so astounding, that whenever his storyline isn’t present, you realize how much weaker the rest of the show is in comparison.

Nonetheless, Eric handles its themes with great emotional resonance and artistry, even if creator and writer Abi Morgan tries to stuff too many issues into six episodes — corruption, bad fathers, homelessness, discrimination, AIDS, policing, the power of art, etc. Ultimately, the miniseries gets its point across, that there are invisible monsters everywhere which need to be confronted.

An Angry Father, a Missing Son

Eric (2024)

2.5/5

A gripping psychological drama set in the turbulent 1980s New York City, following Vincent, a talented puppeteer whose life is shattered by the mysterious disappearance of his son, Edgar. As Vincent spirals into a world of despair and obsession, he channels his anguish into his puppet, Eric. Eric becomes more than a mere creation, serving as a conduit for Vincent’s pain and a guide through the shadows of his troubled mind. As Vincent delves deeper into the city’s underbelly in search of his son, the line between reality and delusion blurs, uncovering dark secrets and testing his grip on sanity

Release Date May 30, 2024

Seasons 1

Pros

• McKinley Belcher III is astounding as an obsessive detective in Eric.
• The series has a lot of interesting characters and subplots, and a rich aesthetic.

Cons

• Benedict Cumberbatch does his best but overacts as a character who has way too much screentime.
• Eric tries to cover way too many ideas, stories, and characters, and focuses on the weakest of them. It also ends in a bizarrely cheesy way.

Eric immediately establishes the driving relationship in the series, that of Vincent and his son, Edgar. We’re introduced to Vincent among his co-stars, hands in puppets, as they perform a popular kids TV show that is on its last legs. Vincent acts bubbly and positive, singing the Good Day, Sunshine! theme song, while his son looks on longingly. Once the puppet is out of his hand, Vincent returns to his bitter, arrogant, and profane self. Edgar is enamored with the puppets and hides from his father when it’s time to go home. It’s a microcosm for the whole series.

Vincent drags his son home, stopping at the liquor store as usual, before heading home and drunkenly fighting with his wife, Cassie. It seems like a ritual. In the morning, Vincent and Cassie get distracted in another fight, and Edgar walks to school on his own. Cassie tries to call Vincent at work throughout the day, and he ignores her, getting drunk and finally coming home with a bloody wound right on his hairline. There’s a police detective at their flat. Edgar is missing.

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Benedict Cumberbatch Goes Off the Deep End in Eric

Thus begins an odyssey that starts small (two parents and their missing son) and keeps expanding outward until it basically implicates all of New York City. At first, we mainly stay with Vincent, who descends into a drunken reverie of madness and hallucinates a giant puppet monster that Edgar was drawing before he disappeared. With a growling voice, the angrily impatient puppet, named Eric, is an obvious metaphor for the monster that Edgar sees when he looks at his father. It’s played for dark comedic effect, and it doesn’t belong in this show at all. It’s jarring, stupid, and done to death, from 1950’s Harvey to 2001’s Donnie Darko and 2019’s Jojo Rabbit.

Thankfully, Vincent becomes less and less of a character throughout the series, essentially devolving into a wandering, unhoused alcoholic for the last three episodes. Cumberbatch is obviously trying hard with this character, probably too hard. His American accent is weird and his anger and ‘tortured genius’ act is one-note, despite the fine actor pouring tons of emotion into the character. It’s a relief when he’s not around, and the same can be said for Hoffmann’s Cassie. However, there is a phenomenal scene that has Benedict Cumberbatch dancing with abandon to Laura Branigan’s “Gloria,” gyrating with an alcohol and cocaine-fueled fury. It’s eternally memorable.

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McKinley Belcher III Is Brilliant in an Amazing Detective Subplot

There is a wonderful TV show inside Eric though, and that’s the one which follows McKinley Belcher III’s police detective, Michael Ledroit. The actor, who is perhaps most memorable for Ozark and The Good Lord Bird, is quietly outstanding as a queer Black cop hiding his identity amid a 1980s police department filled with bullies and corruption.

Michael goes home to care for his older, white boyfriend, who is dying of AIDS. He obsessively visits a nightclub owned by an old flame, Gator (a passionate Wade Allain-Marcus), who is out of prison and trying to run a clean club. Michael thinks that a nearly year-old missing persons case is related to the nightclub, and has been tortured by his inability to solve the case. Which isn’t helped by the missing teenager’s mother calling him repeatedly and sitting in the waiting area of the police department.

Michael begins to think that the disappearance of a 15-year-old Black boy from about one year ago is connected to the case of the missing Edgar, who is white and gets a lot more media attention as a result. The racial element of this is utilized aggressively, and you feel hit over the head time and time again by it. The queer element, however, is beautifully subtle, tying into the themes of invisible monsters, and Belcher III’s performance is utterly evocative. He’s magnetic here, and watching him explore the case is the best part of Eric.

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Tons of Interesting Actors and Issues That Don’t Get Enough Time

Without spoiling Eric, it’s safe to say that the show bites off much more than it can chew, delving into corrupt police, dirty politicians, the legendary NYC garbage problems of the ’80s, the Reagan-era handling of homelessness and mental institutions, the AIDS epidemic, pedophilia and the sex trade, and more. Honestly, eliminating most of Vincent, Cassie, and Edgar’s story and instead using it as merely a launchpad for an epic story of corruption would’ve been smart. But Eric keeps returning to its worst element, wasting time with Vincent and Cassie when the series could’ve been building the potentially excellent subplots around them.

It is true, however, that the father-son relationship and the hallucinatory puppet do solidify the themes of Eric in clever ways. It’s just a shame that so much time was spent with them. There are even tangential characters here who are much more interesting, such as the great Clarke Peters as the maintenance man in Vincent’s building, George Lovett. The Wire veteran is wonderful, as is his co-star from that classic show, John Doman, who here plays Vincent’s father in barely three scenes. It would’ve been great to see more of Michael’s melancholic relationship with a dying man, and his history with Gator.

Related The Wire Cast: Where They Are Now The Wire is frequently cited as arguably the best TV show of all time, and it was a launching pad for the careers of many famous actors.

Eric Is an Unbalanced Show That Ends with a Lot of Cheese

And so, the main problem with Eric is, well, Eric, and the relationship the puppet monster embodies. The show is severely unbalanced in its narratives. The father-son relationship of Vincent and Edgar, and their characters, are so uninteresting (and almost annoying) compared to everything else. And the way Eric becomes incongruously saccharine and cheesy about their characters, practically feeling like a Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan rom-com at some points, is just embarrassingly cringe.

Nonetheless, there’s a great police procedural hidden within Eric, and the show is told with stylish panache and makes great use of its soundtrack, which is excellent. It also announces McKinley Belcher III as a powerhouse presence who should be on everyone’s radar. Too bad there’s so much else going on. Ericis streaming on Netflix. You can watch it through the link below:

Watch Eric

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