Ever since he played Sherlock Holmes on the BBC show, Benedict Cumberbatch has played a different version of the socially awkward genius. In each iteration, her eccentricities are glamorous and endearing rather than toxic. In Abi Morgan Eric, however, Vincent Cumberbatch shows another side of brilliance. How, despite his incredible creativity and intelligence, Vincent was unable to live or work.
Despite being the driving force behind a successful children’s puppet show, Vincent’s acerbic tongue and variety including co-creator Lennie Wilson (Dan Fogler) have a team that doesn’t understand him. At home he is no better, bringing his ego and infidelity with his wife, Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann), and his artistic and withdrawn son, Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe).
Things take a turn for the worse one morning when Edgar goes missing on his way to school. Vincent’s personal and professional life fell apart. Cassie wants out, and Vincent’s downward spiral into a haze of alcohol and drugs finds him a suit. Through it all, Vincent is convinced that if he gets the puppet that Edgar drew, a seven-foot-tall blue shaggy monster called Eric, in the event, Edgar will return home. As Vincent grows more lonely, Eric becomes a manifestation of his hopes and failures.
It’s the 1980s in New York – the Big Apple is shiny on the outside, and rotten on the inside. Vincent’s journey to rock bottom echoes that of a homeless man living in a railroad tunnel. The rich and powerful are building shiny new condos while pushing people off the streets to live in the name of gentrification. The 1980s were also the time of AIDS and people could not explore their sexuality safely.
Eric (England)
creator: Abi Morgan
CastBenedict Cumberbatch, Ivan Morris Howe, Gaby Hoffmann, McKinley Belcher III, Wade Allain-Marcus, Mark Gillis, Dan Fogler, Clarke Peters, Phoebe Nicholls
Episode: 6
Run-time: 52 – 55 minutes
Story line: When his son goes missing, a brilliant puppeteer is filled with thoughts as he is forced to face his failure.
The policeman responsible for finding Edgar, Michael Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III), is gay and Black and as much of an outsider as the talented graffiti artist Yuusuf (Bamar Kane). Although the other boy, Marlon Rochelle, has been missing for almost a year, his mother Cecile (Adepero Oduye) accuses the NYPD of not looking for him because Marlon is poor and black unlike Edgar who is cute, white and has rich parents. .
A still from ‘Eric’ | Photo Credit: Spencer Pazer/Netflix
A nightclub called The Lux run by Ali Gator (Wade Allain-Marcus) appears to be the center of the action. Before moving on to the missing person, Ledroit was in the representative squad and some mentioned the attack in the ring of the child type. There are all kinds of leeches and parasites on the big carrion in the city, from crooked cops to crooked addicts and pimps.
Vincent is privileged in spades considering his professional success and the son of real estate mogul, Robert Anderson (John Doman) and society lady Anne (Phoebe Nicholls). However, that didn’t stop him from scoring a hit from a junkie on the subway. The privilege is in stark contrast to Cecile and the superintendent at the apartment (Vincent), George (Clarke Peters), who was wrongly imprisoned earlier and taken in for questioning about Edgar’s disappearance.
There are tragic and practical consequences of the unnamed love between Ledroit and cellist William (Mark Gillis), who dies of AIDS. Eric it looks bright in the birth of the city from the ruins of previous settlers (as Father Vincent coldly explained), desperate steps taken by people suffering, love and grief, hope and despair. And if none of that floats your boat, there’s an elegant mystery at the black heart of the mini-series, an incredible timing detail and Cumberbatch’s virtuoso turn as Vincent that’s like a spike in your veins.
And there is another reason to be thankful Eric – rediscovering The Velvet Underground’s blistering ‘Heroin’.
Eric is currently streaming on Netflix
