Eric, the review of the new series with Benedict Cumberbatch

Eric it’s not just the name of one new Netflix TV series with Benedict Cumberbatchbut also the name of a puppet who is given a huge task: bring a child home and mend the relationship with his father. We are in the New York in the 1980s, Vincent Anderson is a television writer, works for a children’s program called Good Day Sunshine. His life has taken a turn for the worse, ha a strong addiction to alcohol and drugsexperiences a difficult family situation in which the relationship with Cassiehis wife, is completely worn out and can’t have a healthy one with his son, Edgar. Things get even more complicated when Edgar disappears while walking to school alone. The police searches are totally inconclusive, to the point of leading Vincent to commit himself to finding his son. He decides to include Eric, a puppet designed by, in his show Edgar: The hope is that the child will be able to see him and come home. Meanwhile the detective Michael Ledroit who investigates the disappearance of the son of Vincentis dealing with another intricate case, he defends his homosexuality and suffers for his partner who is dying of AIDS.

Eric’s story tells not only of the disappearance of a child, but of theand fragility of a man who struggles to have a relationship with his son. Vincent totally is victim of his weaknesses and many due to bad relationship with parents. His childhood comes back to him when he is forced to ask himself what kind of father he is, shocked after his son’s disappearance. In desperation, finds his lifeline in an imaginary puppet. Eric stands on the shoulders of its leading actor: Benedict Cumberbatchauthor of one fantastic performance, capable of making us endear ourselves to a totally self-destructive and at times detestable character. Besides him, New York in the 1980s is the uncredited protagonista city that is the scene of a profound social crisiswhere everyone seems to be unhappy and the show created by Vincent, where everyone is happy, it just seems to be a parody of it. The series manages to tell us about a distant era, transforming it into the ideal outline of an atypical thriller, that you don’t watch only to understand where the missing child has gone, but also to know the fate of the other characters, all in their own way dealing with a destroyed life.

Ludovic Robert/Netflix

The series is worth seeing, but lacks presumption in wanting to talk about so many topics at once. We talk about: parent-child relationships, drugs, alcohol, violence and homophobia, but not everyone is given the right space. By giving up something we could have witnessed something more in-depth, but luckily there’s Benedict Cumberbatch who makes it all work.