New on Netflix: a 6-hour mini-series with Benedict Cumberbatch that is unlike any of the platform’s typical productions

What is it about?

New York, 1980s After his nine-year-old son Edgar disappears on his way to school, Vincent begins a desperate search. Considered one of the best puppeteers in the Big Apple, the creator of a hugely popular children’s show, Vincent struggles to cope with his son’s absence, but is overcome with grief and gradually loses his leg.

Self-loathing and wracked with guilt, she clings to Eric, a puppet painted by Edgar, confident that she will be able to bring this blue monster character to the screen when her son returns. As Vincent’s increasingly destructive behavior alienates him from his family, colleagues, and the investigators who try to help him, Eric, an illusion born of necessity, becomes his only ally in finding his son.

Aliens signed by Netflix

This May, which marks the return of The Bridgerton Chronicles, Netflix is ​​also offering its subscribers a 6-episode mini-series with Benedict Cumberbatch. The English actor, who needs no introduction and has already collaborated with the platform in the past, proves with Eric that he likes composite roles.

In this English thriller set in 1980s New York, Cumberbatch plays Vincent, the creator of a puppet show like Sesame Street. If the father seems to thrive in this childish world, he is actually a violent and alcoholic man.

Much to the dismay of his wife (Gabby Hoffman) and his son Edgar, whom he clumsily pushes to come out of his shell. The disappearance of the latter will create an unprecedented cataclysm for their couple, but also for the rest of the city.

Eric is not a simple series about abduction. Well, not only that. If the intrigue surrounding Edgar is the main theme, creator Abby Morgan uses the opportunity to portray America in the 80s: the rise of crime in New York, systemic racism, police violence, the growing abandonment of minorities, the rise of poverty…

The series questions and points to the failures of the American social, judicial and political system: How do we let a child go to school alone? Why is the disappearance of a white child more important than the disappearance of a black teenager? And what do the police do when they attack many homosexuals in the city? It’s a bit of a fantastic move for Eric to mix all these threads and stay relevant and consistent, even when the giant puppet comes to life.

Cumberbatch is stunning as Vincent, both in acting and voice. A true chameleon of the small and big screen, the actor has proven in the past that he’s extremely talented at dubbing – he voices the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit and doubled Eric in the 2018 Grinch cartoon, a foam character who is nothing but his conscience come to life.

Eric are aliens in many ways. It’s definitely not like a regular Netflix production (it’s higher end) and is aimed at a more experienced audience. The good news is that this is a mini-series and so there is no risk of cancellation. If you have 6 hours left, I suggest you at least watch it.