Netflix's Mini Series Eric (2024) is a bold attempt to blend multiple genres and themes into a single narrative. As a first impression from the trailer it promises a gripping tale of a missing child with his father going mad and probably been the first suspect, there is also a detective who struggle against corruption of the system. The series recreates a very detailed version of New York City during the 80s full of corruption and clearly going down in very aspect of society. The cast is led by Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Vincent Anderson a troubled puppeteer and McKinley Belcher III who portrays Detective Michael LeDroit a queer NYPD detective. Even though I did enjoy the series I have to say that despite its star roster cast and ambitious premise, this mini series struggles to find a balance between its competing story lines and themes, we got about three stories here each one trying to get enough attention, as a mini series I was expecting at most two side stories, there is not much time at hand to work out everything they try to expose.
The series begins with Vincent Anderson a narcissistic alcoholic who is the co creator of a popular children's show called Good Day Sunshine, Vincent's life is a mess with his marriage falling apart and he is a distant father to his nine year old son Edgar. When Edgar goes missing the next day after a heated argument between his parents Vincent's life falls into a rabbit hole, becoming obsessed with bringing his son's drawings of Eric, a giant puppet to life, believing it will help him find Edgar. This rapidly fall into madness is develop with a mix of dark humor and tragedy, but a times it feels that the character was not fully committed, I guess they wanted to look like it was something in progress because towards the end it does feel like Vincent was already there fully drawn into his madness.
Running a parallel story to Vincent's story is the subplot of Detective Michael LeDroit who is one of the few Black detectives at the polices station I say this because honestly there was no other and he has a secret relationship with and older man who is dying of AIDS, his romantic companion. His primary job is missing people, he is assigned to Edgar's case, LeDroit's investigation uncovers a web of corruption, racism, and homophobia within the NYPD and other institutions involve on the series. LeDroit's story makes a lot of contrast with Vicent story, after all the mini series is not about Edgar but then we have on one hand LeDroit story and on the other Vincent story, yes both found closure but is there any connection? sadly doesn't look like and this could be confusing for a large part of the audience.
Platform: Netflix
Release: May , 2024
The Characters and Their Performance
Vincent Anderson: Very Hard to Like
Vincent Anderson is a complicated character but the audience can hardly like him and I think its intended to be that way, viewers often forget that its an entertaining business, anything that generates a feeling and reaction is good content. He has great potential as an artist but is a trouble man already diagnose who needs medication, this is evident because of his narcissistic personality and alcoholism, with his inability to build a sustainable relationships with his family, it is hard to like the guy. While watching the series, I was impressed by Cumberbatch’s performance, specially when Vincent’s start getting this hallucinations of Eric, a puppet played by Cumberbatch which symbolizes Vincent’s guilt and self blame, who constantly was beating him up and psychologically bully him but from the very first moment it was created it was intended that way, it was never to be a friendly puppet.
Detective Michael LeDroit: The Fuel of the Series
Michael LeDroit a detective and emotional protagonist of the series, he is a cop who is very passionate about his job but full of anger for multiple reasons, not only he is going through a ruff patch with his romantic partner diying of AIDs, his boss is holding him back with an investigation and he has to pretend to be straight because back in the day people would not understand it, this is how his character fully develop and carry the mini series for the most part on his back, LeDroit’s story is the most interesting part of the series due to the detailed and convincing portrayal by Belcher. The investigation he leads into Edgar’s disappearance and the relation he makes with another case of a missing boy is the reason why it was entertaining after all.
Performances
Benedict Cumberbatch as Vincent Anderson
Cumberbatch did an excellent acting job as Vincent but most people would have a hard time liking Cumberbatch from this series and that is fine, its hard to like a villain, specially one who is a father and does everything in his power to fuck things up, Vincent is a hard core guide on what NOT to do as parent. Viewers are use to see Cumberbatch as the good guy, the Dr. Strange who is complicated and narcissist but still saves the universe. Vincent character at times felt very repetitive since you would expect him to do something worst every time he shows up so it was a lot of ups and downs, so this is the hard part where production could not get things to work together
- Series about a missing kid - Benedict Cumberbatch as the main face but nobody likes his character - Best character is not himMcKinley Belcher III as Detective Michael LeDroit
Hands down the best performance in the series is offered by Belcher in his role of LeDroit, he plays LeDroit with much intensity and makes the audience feel every single of the struggle he goes through as well as his determination to find every kid he has been assign to, a man who is proud of his work and later on take hands on the subject leading the NYPD. For part of the critics and audience his character is a very sensitive one, there is a lot of contracast from how things were back in those time with the entire homophobic atmosphere comparing to now days its totally normal, although there is a continuation on the rotten and corrupt system he fights back. Going back to Cumberbatch, should Belcher be on the poster of the series? I guess that would not work neither same as it didn't work with Cumberbatch, thats the balance that some viewers talk about online.
Ambitious Themes
Eric (2024) covers a lot of social issues including mental illness, racism, homophobia and injustice, with all this topics at hand on six episodes is hard to cover them all, the series falls into the same problem of having multiple side stories with little time to develop all at once looks like an overkill. The show would have benefited from more of a cohesive story to be told so that each of these topics could be develop into in more detail
Visuals, Production and Environment
One of the most unique aspects of Eric (2024) is the production design, the setting of the series in the 1980s New York and the environment painted during the series is quite realistic with all the details and effort they put on describing New York City during those times. It also plays a major role in the theme of the series and brings a certain realism to the events, even going a bit far with the entire underground population but it was probably not too far from reality. Everything from having part of the story develop around a puppet show studio that were very popular back in the day, from the locations how buildings look from outside and inside makes me thing how much of this was AI or physically recreated, with today's technology it will turn easier for production to let us go back in time building a profile to every single detail of how certain period in time look like from clothe, buildings, cars, hair cut, the series really scream 80s.
In my opinion Eric (2024) felt quite ambitious and wont live up to what it could have been for a big part of the audience, the series try to address multiple issues and stories at the same time but due to the constant shift in mood it falls short to deliver at least one strong message. Vincent was probably suppose to be the star of the show with his complex story making think the audience at first hand that he is the focus of the story, he is the one that will blow their mind but he did not, so that's another fail, a lot of potential wasted. Then comes the most unexpected Michael LeDroit and stole the show, doing a great job with an almost impossible investigation case that was going nowhere because of how corrupt it was been push down every time LeDroit gets closer, he becomes the most interesting and emotionally driven part of the series.
While not a perfect series I do believe Eric (2024) is worth watching for McKinley Belcher III’s performance and the relevant social issues that the series tries to bring to light, it is a very entertaining series that has given the audience an insight on the challenges of telling a story especially when one wants to combine different genres and themes. The Mini series may not entirely achieve the goals it sets out to accomplish, it provides flashes of brilliance and food for thought on social problems.
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