‘Eric’ trailer: Benedict Cumberbatch enlists a puppet to help him find his son in Netflix limited series [Watch]

Netflix is throwing a last-minute Emmys contender into the already crowded limited series field with “Eric,” a psychological thriller that premieres May 30. The streaming service released a trailer for the six-episode series on Thursday.

Emmy winner Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Vincent, a puppeteer for a children’s TV show in early 1980s New York. He struggles with addiction. After his 9-year-old son, Edgar, disappears one morning while walking to school, Vincent decides to turn the boy’s drawing of a monster named Eric into a real puppet and put him on the show, in a last-ditch attempt to send a message to his son. Netflix describes the series as an “emotional crime drama.” 

There’s a lot going on in the show. Here’s how creator Abi Morgan described it to Tudum: “‘Eric’ is a deep dive into the ’80s 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.”

Alongside Cumberbatch, the series stars Gaby Hoffmann (“Girls”) as Vincent’s wife Cassie, McKinley Belcher III (“Ozark”) as lead detective Ledroit, and Ivan Howe as Edgar. 

The series is written and executive produced by BAFTA winner Abi Morgan (“The Iron Lady,” “Shame”) and directed by BAFTA winner Lucy Forbes (“This Is Going to Hurt,” “The End of the Fxxxing World”). 

“Eric” will be released on Netflix on Thursday, May 30.

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