Eric is a gripping and emotionally devastating six-part limited series from Netflix, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Vincent Anderson, a volatile and brilliant puppeteer whose nine-year-old son Edgar goes missing in 1980s New York City. As the police investigation unfolds — led by the detective played by McKinley Belcher III — Vincent's already-fragile grip on reality begins to disintegrate, and he becomes convinced that his salvation lies in bringing to life a giant, shaggy monster puppet he calls Eric, a character Edgar had sketched as a friend he desperately wanted to see on television.

Created by Abi Morgan, the series weaves together several distinct narrative strands: the immediate thriller of the missing child; the portrait of a marriage under extreme strain; an exploration of the policing of New York's underground communities of homeless people and gay men during the AIDS crisis; and a surrealist interior drama as Vincent's psyche begins to fragment and Eric himself becomes an on-screen presence visible only to Vincent. Cumberbatch's performance is extraordinary — physically committed, emotionally raw, and willing to be profoundly unsympathetic without ever losing the audience's complicated investment.

Eric is a series that trusts its audience to hold complexity — to see how one person's unraveling connects to larger social failures, how grief and guilt can warp a mind beyond recognition, and how a city's most vulnerable people are too often erased by the systems meant to protect them. It is haunting, beautifully shot, and driven by performances of the highest order. For viewers willing to embrace its demanding emotional register, it stands as one of the finest limited series of 2024.