Netflix's Eric TV show puts Marvel's Benedict Cumberbatch on the other side of a Sherlock-style mystery thriller
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Netflix has revealed some first-look images for Eric, a new mystery-thriller series starring Marvel actor Benedict Cumberbatch that'll aim to subvert your genre expectations.
Created by Abi Morgan (Suffragette, Sex Traffic), the 80s-set drama – which I picked out as one of four exciting Netflix shows that were teased at a recent Next on Netflix UK event – sounds like it become your next mystery-filled TV obsession. Before I get into what it's about, though, you'll want to check out the aforementioned images, which provide a taste of what's to come from the new Netflix show in the gallery below:
If you think Cumberbatch is looking rather bedraggled in those images, it's all part of the design of his character Vincent, a New Yorker who becomes increasingly desperate and delusional when his child suddenly goes missing. It's an aesthetic that's a far cry from his more dapper days as Doctor Strange in the MCU and even more disheveled than Cumberbatch's spell as iconic British detective Sherlock Holmes.
But I digress. Here's the full story synopsis for Eric, courtesy of Netflix: "Set in 1980s New York, Eric is a new emotional thriller [that] follows the desperate search of a father when his nine year old son disappears one morning on the way to school.
"Vincent (Cumberbatch), one of New York’s leading puppeteers and creator of the hugely popular children’s television show ‘Good Day Sunshine’, struggles to cope with the loss of his son Edgar. Becoming increasingly distressed and volatile, and full of self-loathing and guilt around Edgar’s disappearance, he clings to his son’s drawings of a blue monster puppet [called] Eric.
"Convinced that if he can get Eric on TV then Edgar will come home, Vincent’s progressively destructive behaviour alienates his family, his work colleagues, and the detectives trying to help him. It’s Eric, a delusion of necessity, who becomes his only ally in the pursuit to bring his son home."
The six-part limited series also stars Gaby Hoffman (Winning Time, Girls), McKingley Belcher III (The Passage), Dan Fogler (The Walking Dead, The Offer), and Clarke Peters (Da 5 Bloods, The Irregulars). Cumberbatch joins Morgan, Jane Featherstone, Lucy Dyke, and Lucy Forbes on Eric's executive producing team.
Will Eric have enough about it to join our best Netflix shows list once it makes its debut on the world's best streaming service? Without seeing a trailer, let alone a full episode, I can't say with any certainty that it will. But, with an A-lister in Cumberbatch at the helm, plus the fact that it straddles two popular entertainment fields in the mystery and thriller genres, I'm going to put my neck on the line and say it should be successful enough. Don't make me eat my words, Benedict.
Eric will exclusively launch on Netflix on May 30.
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