Netflix’s trailer for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Eric reveals the puppet-based thriller is even more bizarre than I expected

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The first trailer for Netflix‘s Eric, a new crime thriller series, has finally been released – and, honestly, it looks even more surreal than I expected.

Starring Marvel actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Doctor Strange in the comic book giant’s cinematic universe, I thought Eric would be another typical mystery-thriller from the world’s best streaming service. As it turns out, it looks like it’ll be anything but that. Why not see for yourself, though, by viewing the official trailer below:

See what I mean? The teaser suggests it’ll be another quintessential story set in this genre space but, as it progresses, there are genuine moments of levity and hope, as well as some thematically dark and unexpectedly bizarre moments, that indicate it’ll be more genre-bending than people realize.

Alright, so what’s Eric actually about? Here’s an official plot synopsis, courtesy of Netflix: “Set in 1980s New York, Eric is a new emotional thriller from Abi Morgan following the desperate search of a father when his nine-year-old son disappears one morning on the way to school. 

“Vincent, 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. Full of self-loathing and guilt around Edgar’s disappearance, he clings to his son’s drawings of a blue monster puppet [named] Eric, convinced that if he can get Eric on TV then Edgar will come home. As Vincent’s progressively destructive behavior 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.”

Joining Cumberbatch on the six-part series’ cast list are Gaby Hoffmann, McKinley Belcher III, Dan Fogler, and Clarke Peters. Morgan (Sex Traffic, Suffragette) acts as its head writer, creator, and executive producer, while Lucy Forbes (This Is Going to Hurt, The End of the F*****g World) is on directing duties.

Eric won’t just focus on one father’s increasingly desperate attempt to find his one and only child. In a statement accompanying the trailer, BAFTA and Emmy Emmy winner Morgan revealed that her new project will explore real-world issues that impacted New York in the 80s.

“When I pitched the idea of a New York puppeteer on a quest to find his missing son, with a 7ft blue monster in tow, it’s to Netflix’s eternal credit that they jumped on board,” Morgan said. “Eric is a deep dive into the 1980s Big Apple, grappling with rising crime rates, internal corruption, endemic racism, a forgotten underclass, and the AIDS epidemic, exposing the divisions rife between parents searching for their child, a detective battling with a system that is broken, and a lost boy who may never come home, and asks where the real monsters lie. With puppets…lots of puppets.”

When Eric‘s first-look images were released in late March, I claimed that it would put Cumberbatch on the other side of a Sherlock-style mystery thriller. You know, because he played the legendary detective in a new BBC adaptation in the early to mid-2010s. Based on the show’s first footage. I get the impression, however, that the limited series will subvert all our expectations of what a crime thriller can be. We’ll find out if Eric has enough about it to join our best Netflix shows guide when it’s released on May 30.

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