Eric, a new series starring Benedict Cumberbatch, premiered on Netflix on Thursday and fans have already praised the star for his role.
The show follows the story of New York puppeteer Vincent (Cumberbatch), who is also the creator of a fictional children’s television show, Good Day Sunshine.
However, he struggles to keep himself and his life together after his nine-year-old son Edgar disappears on the way to school.
Vincent’s inner demon, fueled by his childhood neglect and current problems, manifests as a 7-foot-tall furry hallucination named Eric.
While the series is not based on a real-life story, the inspiration for the show comes from creator Abi Morgan’s own life experiences in New York.
Eric, a new series starring Benedict Cumberbatch, premiered on Netflix on Thursday, following the story of noted New York puppeteer Vincent.
Inspiration for the series’ plot is said to come from creator Abi Morgan’s own life experiences in New York (Abi pictured on May 15).
Inspired by missing children cases across the UK and USA.
Speaking in an interview with RadioTimes Before the show’s launch, Morgan, 56, cited personal experiences of finding cases of missing children in the United Kingdom and the United States as something that helped her write the show.
Morgan said: “Well, I mean, actually, in a strange way, I think when I was growing up in the UK in the ’80s, I remember being haunted by these stories of children who had gone missing, and then when I went to New York, I babysat a young man in New York in the mid-80s.
‘While I was there, I saw the milk carton children and the missing people. “That has always been very disturbing.”
She added that Eric was not based on a real or specific case that she herself had witnessed, but rather wanted to explore the period of the 1980s in New York.
Morgan also said he wanted to draw attention to cases of missing children not only in New York, but in towns and cities around the world.
He continued, “I guess that’s the kind of central claim of the show, that we all want to live in that world, but unfortunately, there are monsters in the most surprising places.”
“I guess that’s what’s at Eric’s heart, this quest of a father to find his son, but also a man who then has to explore the monsters in himself and in the town he grew up in.” “.
Fans have already been quick to praise Benedict Cumberbatch for his performance in the new series, which premiered on Netflix on Thursday.
In Netflix’s production notes for the series, Morgan also informed the platform of the research he had conducted on pertinent social issues in the ’80s, highlighting the AIDS outbreak and topics such as homelessness and institutional racism.
He also made a comparison between the contemporary struggles faced by citizens living in 1980s New York, such as strikes and corruption within the New York Police Department, as evident, in his eyes, with those of the United Kingdom Metropolitan Police.
Morgan also praised Netflix for being open to streaming a show that explores a missing person case.
She explained to Netflix: “When I proposed the idea of a New York puppeteer on a quest to find his missing son, with a seven-foot-tall blue monster in tow, it’s to Netflix’s eternal credit that they came on board.”
Morgan added: “Eric is a deep dive into the Big Apple of the ’80s, dealing with rising crime rates, internal corruption, endemic racism, a forgotten underclass and the AIDS epidemic, exposing the divisions that abound among parents who They’re looking for their children,” said a detective. fighting a broken system and a lost child who may never return home, and questions where the real monsters are. With puppets… many puppets.’
Speaking about the show in an article published on Netflix’s official website, Cumberbatch said that he perceived Vincent’s journey as a “great odyssey that will unfold over six episodes.”
Elaborating on Vincent’s character, he added: “He starts to bring home his vanity, his idiosyncrasies, his ego and all kinds of toxic behavior, which affects the way he overlooks his son and how abrasive he is in a marriage that he has (already) had 10 years of quite tumultuous moments of infidelity, arguments and disconnection.’
Elaborating on the decision to make Benedict unrecognizable from more familiar looks in his previous roles, director Lucy Forbes said: “That’s why his hair has grown out, he has a beard and we put glasses on him.”
“Not just for the time period, but also to make him feel like Vincent as much as possible.”
Eric is now available to stream on Netflix.
Speaking about the show, Cumberbatch said he perceived Vincent’s journey as a “great odyssey that will unfold over six episodes.”