ERIC -- Benedict Cumberbatch Crime Drama Is a Baffling Misfire

Review by Sean Boelman

The Emmy season’s eligibility ends at the end of May, so the early summer period is often full of awards hopefuls wanting to be fresh on voters’ minds. While that may be the intention of Netflix’s crime thriller Eric, starring an A-list cast led by Benedict Cumberbatch, it ends up being a massive turkey because of its irredeemably bad execution.

Eric follows the creator of a popular children’s puppet show as he struggles with the disappearance of his son, only to find an unlikely ally in the monster that lives under his son’s bed. Although you have to admire the show’s creators for trying something so off-the-wall, that admiration will stop quickly once you realize how poorly the ambitious premise was pulled off.

The biggest issue with Eric is that it cannot settle on a consistent tone. Ultimately, the only way to describe it is Gone Girl meets Birdman with a splash of IF. The story's core is a very gritty procedural drama, but this is buried beneath fantasy elements that feel clumsily mixed in. The eponymous imaginary character disappears for nearly the length of entire episodes, rendering any attempts at magical realism woefully inept.

Creator/writer Abi Morgan also falls victim to the biggest pratfall of so many stories about missing kids: caring too much about the parents. After the first episode, the primary arc becomes the father’s mental illness and struggles with addiction. Although the show does attempt to explore the theme of abuse, it does so with painfully little nuance.

The show’s attempts at dealing with harder-hitting themes are even more embarrassing. Eric attempts to comment on issues such as gentrification, police brutality, and the homelessness crisis — all topics that are very in the news right now. While it’s not to say there can’t be a satirical approach to these themes, the story of a man talking to a giant puppet/imaginary monster is probably not the way to handle them.

What is most frustrating about this series, though, is that it has a genuinely talented cast, and each of them is giving their all. Benedict Cumberbatch, Gaby Hoffmann, Dan Fogler, and Ivan Morris Howe are all solid in their roles, and McKinley Belcher III gives a bonafide performance that is far better than this material deserves. Yet, when they are working with a script that so often veers into the ridiculous, it’s difficult to approach their performances with anything resembling a straight face.

The one redeemable element of Eric is its visual style. Lucy Forbes (The End of the F***ing World) directs all six episodes of the miniseries, and she does a good job of balancing the noir-inspired aspects with the children’s television-inspired elements. The puppet work here is very strong, not that you would expect any less from a show with puppeteering as such a central plot element.

However, with its many shortcomings, Eric ends up being one of the most baffling misfires this side of The Book of Henry. And while that film was at least enjoyable in all its inexplicable lunacy, Eric just feels completely misguided at every step. It’s impossible to take it seriously as a crime thriller, but it’s somehow even further from working as a satire. It’s really hard to tell at what point anyone thought this was a good idea, but hey, at least the end product is compulsively watchable in a dumpster fire sort of way.

Eric streams on Netflix beginning May 30. All six episodes reviewed.

Rating: 0.5/5