TV REVIEW: ERIC - Miniseries

4/5

Looking For Eric.

6 Episodes. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Gaby Hoffmann, Ivan Morris Howe, McKinley Belcher III & Clarke Peters. Screenplay: Abi Morgan. Director: Lucy Forbes. Created By: Abi Morgan. On: Netflix.

If you thought Deadpool rolling around Coney Island with a bunch of imaginary friends was weird (what's in that chimichanga?) for Ryan Reynolds' latest family film. Then just you wait until you see Doctor Strange sleuthing around Manhattan like 'Sherlock' with a seven-foot-tall puppet named 'Eric'. That's the premise for the new Netflix miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch, with a Strange accent intact, for this look at the real New York City in the 'Stranger Things' 1980s. 

Strange days indeed, as this British psychological thriller set in a rotting Big Apple pulls all the strings. That's thanks to Abi Morgan's ('The Iron Lady', 'Shame', 'Suffragette') scripted classic creation of a dark drama being directed by the pure poetic lens of Lucy Forbes. But even with his hands up a puppet's backside like a muppet, Benedict is at his best once again as a distraught father named Vincent. Just like the ever versatile actor (we're still screaming for his Khan in 'Star Trek: Into Darkness') was in Netflix and Wes Anderson's adaptation of iconic author Roald Dahl's short-story 'The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar'. Or fellow TV serials, for 'The Imitation Game' and 'The Hobbit' star, like 'Patrick Melrose' or that BBC deerstalker. Here, he gets into the grit and grime of NYC and a home life that doesn't match the television career he set alight. Mastering the world of puppetry, but not what goes below and behind the scenes in his own.

Bearded, bespectacled and in a dank coat heavier than the burdens he bears. Not once do you accuse him of taking his missing son (introducing Ivan Morris Howe), even if he bears a resemblance to Stanley Tucci in 'The Lovely Bones'. Some suspicion is thrown the way of the great Clarke Peters, but 'Da 5 Bloods' and 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' scene-stealer excels once again, as he elicits more sympathy than the strained situation in a sleepless city that moving a mile a minute could care less. Thank goodness for the cop on the case in McKinley Belcher III. The 'Mercy Street' actor is already a beat cop veteran thanks to the outstanding 'Ozark' (also on Netflix), but after his police pursuit here, you'll never want him to turn in his badge and gun.

Vincent's volatile behaviour abuses substances and his co-workers for a toxic workplace that doesn't play out on the screens that sing 'Good Morning Sunshine'. The 'Idea Man' of Jim Henson on a Disney Plus documentary, this is not. No more is this felt than at home with a long-suffering wife who has also lost a son, even if the law enforcement even dismisses her two cents when trying to gauge the whereabouts of the boy she birthed. The great Gaby Hoffman, in a role just as real, earned and felt as Benedict's, really evokes all this. She's not standing next to some trippy, tricked-out puppet, but on her own two feet. Even if she's sick to her stomach with all of this as she vomits on the sidewalk. Hoffman began her Hollywood career being taken care of by the likes of the late, great John Candy's 'Uncle Buck'. But recently she's made her own name, more than just one birthed in 'The Andy Warhol Diaries'. Whether it be in the 'Winning Time' with the Los Angeles Lakers in an executive position, or holding her own in black and white with Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix. C'mon, C'mon, let's see whose really making this puppet talk. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Sherlock', 'Maniac', 'IF'.