Review by AnAveragePerson

A main character who gets treated like dirt all the time may be a format you have seen before, such as Duckman, another show produced by Klasky Csupo. So perhaps Stressed Eric could work, right? Nope. If you have seen one episode of Stressed Eric, then you have seen it all. Past reviewers here have stated the show's humor flew past the heads of American audiences, when that's not necessarily true. Stressed Eric's fatal flaw is that it never bothers giving Eric a break at all. Eric accomplishes absolutely nothing; even when things turn out right for him, there will always be a short twist that completely botches it, and I can name one example in particular.

The episode, "Potato", revolves around Eric inviting his boss over for dinner in hopes of getting a raise, and Paul suggests making a lot of potatoes as he invites the. Chairwoman of the Potato Development Board. After going through a lot of unbelievable struggles to buy one potato, the table is organized, the food is freshly prepared...and Paul nonchalantly says the chairwoman actually can't stomach potatoes. Do you see how that makes absolutely no sense? How was anybody supposed to see that coming?

With that, the show's formula is very repetitive, giving The Loud House a run for its money: Eric starts his day with everything already going wrong, Maria pukes, Claire goes through an allergic reaction, Brian does something dumb, Eric goes to work, a problem arises, he goes home for a bit to do something about the conflict in question, he passes by the old lady trying to send mail, everything works out for him for a few seconds, there's a cruel twist, and Eric dies.

All of the characters besides Eric are either incredibly stingy or incompetent morons. Maria only cares about alcohol and the money Eric is paying her. Claire always ignores her father's warnings about eating anything she's allergic to. Brian cares about nothing other than eating whatever's in his field of vision. Paul will happily demote Eric to the lowest rank possible. Eric's coworker never contributes to anything. The Perfects are nothing more than the generic 'spoiled rich family'. Eric's ex-wife constantly gaslights Eric.

So how would I improve this series? There are two ways:

1) Make Eric a character who deserves what's coming to him. With characters like Squidward Tentacles or Daffy Duck, they deserve their bad luck because they're egomaniacs who overestimate their talents, intelligence and maturity, constantly talking down to the people around them. With Eric, he does nothing to deserve his bad luck as he's a normal guy fighting through a harsh life, and you're always rooting for him to win by the end of the episode, but it just never happens.

Or 2) Have Eric win once in a while. This show is way too unfair, and while there may be some people who welcome its pessimistic tone, it's nothing more than a detriment here. I don't mind cartoons that are way too cruel, but the ones that are at least give a reason for the world to be so terrible. There is nothing to brighten the mood in Stressed Eric, because as I said, all of the episodes are just a sequence of miserable events aimed at a character who doesn't deserve it. I don't see where I'm meant to be laughing, especially when the situations that cause Eric to lose are forced and predictable, spoiling any attempts at comedy.

There's no logic to anything in Stressed Eric. There are no jokes or satisfying payoffs to make up for the show's depressing tone. If you're having a bad day, Stressed Eric is not the show to watch because all it will do is remind you of how unfair things can be. If Eric was a character who either deserved to be miserable or managed to score success every once in a while, I'd be more than happy to give it some leeway, but unfortunately, neither of those are the case here.