Eric

I recently watched the show and found it to be a captivating and well-crafted series. The characters were well-developed, and the themes were thought-provoking. However, I couldn't shake off the feeling that the show was slightly overstretched. Could have been made atleast 2 episodes shorter..

Sometimes I felt that the pacing dragged in a few places, and some scenes could have been trimmed or condensed to maintain a tighter narrative. In each episode the sideway scenes make you do fast forwarding.

Despite this, the show's strengths outweigh its weaknesses, and I would still recommend it to fans of the genre. The acting was superb, the writing was clever, and the overall story arc was satisfying.

Frankly, I don't understand the mediocre reviews.

It can be a product that some might not like and deserve a poor rating based on personal taste, or it can be liked and then be a true rare gem.

There are very few standalone series like this, so well narrated, that can boast such a good performance from all the characters involved. Therefore, it definitely cannot be considered a mediocre product deserving of a 5, 6, or 7 rating.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a character with whom it's really difficult to empathize; all the characters are so human that it's hard to see them as purely positive, all with their light and shadow.

Try it, it's a special series.

I was reminded of the movie "Harvey" going back many, many years with Jimmy Stewart playing an alcoholic accompanied everywhere by an enormous six foot rabbit named Harvey.

Here we have Vincent, played by Cumberbatch, accompanied by Eric, a monster blue puppet originally imagined by his missing son Edgar.

There are many layers to this story, far too many which is unfortunate as they took away from the central story. Of multi-generational father-son relationships and the concept of monsters lurking underneath them.

I won't get into spoilers, but suffice to say it's all very gripping, showing the under belly of homelessness and corruption in 1980s New York.

A unique ending is satisfying and unexpected if a little too saccharine.

8/10.

I agree with mostly all of the low reviews.

It's long, and it might become tedious.

The characters are unlikeable.

The unwinding of the plot point seems to be a middle finger to the viewers.

There's way too much going on to even make it into the agenda.

Nobody seems to care or noticed the bad CGI, or the incongruence of ambient.

It's supposed to happen during the mid 80's but everything looks as the 70's in the beginning and then of the 90's by the end.

And there's something called perspective, you can't have building far away looking as clear as the objects nearby.

Those are 6 hours that I will consider a long nap, just because I don't want to be upset.

It feels like the purpose of this show was to adress as much societal issues as possible, and weave that all into a story.

It adresses; mental illness, addiction, gay discrimination, AIDS neglect, pedosexuality, gentrification, institutional racism, parental neglect and abuse, homelessness, corruption,....and I'm sure I missed a few.

When you strip it down though, to the centre of the storyline, the boy who's missing and what's going on with him, you're left with not a whole lot of substance to that.

Whether you like the show or not, it's strength will have to be working all those societal issues into one show, one story.

For me, I would have liked more substance to central storyline about the boy, and not all the sidesteps to add moral value.

And the show is a bit too long.