TV Pick of the Week: Eric - review by Yvette Huddleston

Cumberbatch plays talented but irascible puppeteer Vincent Anderson who is the lead artist and creative force behind popular Sesame Street-style children’s TV show Good Day Sunshine. He is outspoken and uncompromising in his work life, which is increasingly causing tension with his colleagues, and his home life is pretty turbulent too. He is clearly a controlling narcissist with anger issues which his long-suffering wife Cassie (Gaby Hoffman) and sensitive nine-year-old son Edgar (Morris Howe) have to deal with on a daily basis.

Then one day Edgar goes missing on his way to school. Shortly before his disappearance the boy had been working on an idea for a new puppet, a large fluffy creature named Eric. He had mentioned it to his father, who showed little interest. As Vincent deals with his guilt – he was supposed to walk Edgar to school the day he disappeared – and despair, self-medicating with alcohol, his life starts to unravel. He becomes convinced that if he makes Eric and puts him in the TV show, Edgar will come back. Then Eric starts to appear to him, offering his opinions and admonishing him in a gruff voice (also Cumberbatch).

Gradually it transpires that Vincent hasn’t been entirely honest about his movements on the day of his son’s disappearance and Cassie is also withholding some information that might be useful from the police. Meanwhile, the detective in charge of investigating Edgar’s disappearance, Michael Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III), has secrets of his own. He is gay and while his boss tries to set him up with a suitable young woman, a colleague in the missing persons department, he is tenderly caring for his dying lover in the home they share.

Working long hours, Ledroit painstakingly goes through hours of CCTV footage and piles of police files while also scrutinising the dodgy business of sleazy ex-con Gator (Wade Allain-Marcus) who runs a nightclub called Lux which may be a front for more nefarious activities and pulling in the Andersons’ suspicious-acting building janitor George (Clarke Peters) for questioning.

Morgan’s accomplished script covers a range of themes and issues including marital breakdown, generational trauma, racism, corruption and mental health alongside the central crime thriller storyline and while Cumberbatch is undoubtedly the star, he is surrounded by an excellent ensemble cast.