Eric TV Mini Series 2024 | Review & Summary

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Eric TV Mini Series 2024 | Key Facts & Characters & Ending Explained

Eric TV Mini Series 2024 tells the story of a child who goes missing in the 1980s but that’s just the tip of the ice berg here.

Straight away we are thrust into a broken home, almost child neglect due to a couple of adults so caught up in their crumbling relationship they let their son walk out and walk himself to school after a horrific drunken arguement.

When the son doesn’t return home the stories and themes within are slowly peeled away and we see various topics tackled. Drug and alcohol abuse, mental health – namely schizophrenia/personality disorders, 1980s aids pandemic, child abuse, homophobia and police corruption.

Detective Mike Ledroit, a black gay cop in charge of finding missing people, must conceal his sexuality and love for his partner, a much older man dying of AIDS and he is pressured by a lot of angry frustrated people to find young boys that continue to go missing.

The world-building that Abby Morgan has created is truly phenomenal. When a show runner/director brings you full throttle into a completely different world with some similarities to our world, it’s a winner. She really has captured the roughness and the griminess of the 1980s.

It’s certainly not an easy watch, especially for those who have children. But it is an important one. It’s really about the toxicity of fathers and how that affects their children. About being true to oneself and fight for justice rather than just stand by and ignore everything.

Best of all is the redemption of Benedict Cumberbatch’s character. He is a great actor and his skills are on full display here. His demons drive the series and he is fully able to make every bad decision and awful utterance believable and “true” to his character. Of course he has to reach rock bottom in order to face up to his failings and so he does because of the disappearance of his son.

The imaginary Eric is crucial to this journey and our understanding of it, so although Eric seems a little forced and unnecessary at first, these doubts soon fall away as you buy in to the power of the story that Benedict Cumberbatch is giving us.

The depiction of New York in the 1980’s is also satisfying, in the sense that it feels real and truly dreadful.

Characters

Benedict Cumberbatch should win an Emmy for his portrayal of redemption and overcoming all adversities that he created. Excellent cast and story about the love of family and the relationships, between a father and his son. Watching him slowly fall apart was just heartbreaking, his demons surfacing, self medicating with drugs and alcohol, trying to fight all those inner demons whilst searching for his son – just fantastic work to portray all of this.

The way they showed Eric’s character and the process of making it real were terrific. The way Vincent starts to contact Eric, sees it everywhere in his life, and how it helps him find his son and understand the problem with their relationship is so emotional.

Ending Explained

As the show went on, more details emerged about Edgar’s (Ivan Howe) abduction. It turned out that he had just accompanied Yuusuf (Bamar Kane) into the subterranean tunnels rather than being abducted.

There, Vincent’s fantasy of Eric awakens him, and when he wakes up, he sees Yuusuf and the recognizable Edgar sketches behind him. Vincent is informed by Yuusuf that he knows Edgar from what Edgar has told him, and that Edgar accompanied Yuusuf into the tunnels because he was too afraid to return home.

After Eric confronts Vincent with some hard home facts, the two get into a brawl. Yuusuf eventually forced to leave Vincent since he is running from the police.

Next comes the report of a body discovered and the recovery of Edgar’s red jacket from the remains of a woman, identified as Raya. Edgar is seen straining to force his way out of the manhole cover as Ledroit is breaking the news to Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann).

After his ‘battle’ with Eric, Vincent ultimately comes to and uses the manhole in front of The Lux to exit the tunnels. He observes a large gathering of homeless individuals in Central Park as he moves across the city, demonstrating against the city’s homelessness regulations.

However, Vincent finds his way to the Good Day Sunshine set, where he gets Eric’s full body costume and wears it while strolling through the park.

Gaby notices Eric on stage when she is in the park as well. Inside the disguise, Vincent is attempting to attract everyone’s attention and get captured on camera for the news. He takes advantage of the chance to talk to Edgar face-to-face, who is currently enjoying pancakes in a diner.

After apologizing for his actions, Vincent tells Edgar that they ought to race one another home. Both of them succeed, and Cassie joins Vincent and Edgar outside their building in tears.