Netflix’s Eric is so good because Benedict Cumberbatch plays his Sherlock more disturbingly than ever before

Last week, an unusual new Netflix series called Eric was released: Benedict Cumberbatch plays a puppeteer in 1980s New York in the 6-part miniseries. When his son disappears and he goes looking for him, he is unexpectedly assisted by an imaginary monster. It is the ideal role for the star who became famous as Sherlock and Doctor Strange, because he can now develop his iconic characters in a disturbing direction.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a slightly different Sherlock in Netflix’s Eric

Since his breakthrough with the hit series Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch has Role model as arrogant genius perfectedWe know and love him as a private detective or Marvel magician – as a man who is completely confident in himself and who offends people, but ultimately has his heart in the right place. His character Vincent in Netflix’s Eric seems to be exactly the same.

Good Day Sunshine is the name of the Muppets-like TV show of Cumberbatch’s character Vincent Anderson. A ray of sunshine is the swearing children’s program creatorswho is the self-proclaimed most creative force on the set, is less so. But he loves his 9-year-old son Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe), who looks up to his father and emulates him in his drawings. When the boy disappears without a trace on the way to school, Vincent does everything in his power to find Edgar again.

It is not that Vincent is unsympathetic as a fallible character from the start. Rather, it is that every newly revealed facet of his character gives us our Questioning sympathy for the desperate father And we have Benedict Cumberbatch’s previous roles to thank for that, as well as his strong acting in Eric.

Netflix’s Eric reveals Benedict Cumberbatch’s dark side

All the roles Cumberbatch has ever played seem to contribute to his Vincent in Eric. But it is above all the dark facets of his previous characters, which now stand out more: In sum, Sherlock’s ignorance of human nature, Patrick Melrose’s drug use, Doctor Strange’s arrogance, Louis Wain’s loss of reality and his The Power of the Dog sadism
not a flattering pictureThe star even gets to use his deep dragon voice from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to give his monster puppet the necessary menace.

The fact that Cumberbatch’s Vincent is soon accompanied by the imaginary creature at every step undoubtedly gives his character a tragic touch: his mental health is clearly not in good shape. Nevertheless, his delusion does not excuse his behavior when he drags all of his colleagues’ TV ideas through the mud and even verbally attacks his son in the ugliest way. Here is the actor no longer the lovable sociopath Sherlock, whom we can forgive a lot in favor of his eccentricity.

Although Vincent is Eric’s main character, our loyalty shifts more and more to other characters like the secretly homosexual detective Michael Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III), Vincent’s wife Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann) or the more sensible puppet partner Lennie (Dan Fogler). Benedict Cumberbatch, on the other hand, skilfully plays himself between fear and guilt towards the abyss – and not only when his Vincent really does descend into the sewers at the end.

Human Monsters: Eric gives Benedict Cumberbatch – and Netflix – a series highlight

What Eric ends up doing when the series increasingly merges its creepy doll with the creepy man is not going to be revealed at this point. Just this much: The Netflix series takes a very realistic path despite hallucinated companions. And in real life there are no classic villains. The results are captivating complex figuresthat are not easy to understand or love.

It is also fitting that Eric, with his grainy 80s color scheme, stands out pleasantly from the otherwise smooth, uniform look of other Netflix series. Just like Benedict Cumberbatch, who has developed further for this new role: He plays in a way that we have never seen him before, despite his previous facets, and proves Courage to be ugly in character.

And that’s something worth experiencing on Netflix – especially for Cumberbatch fans.

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