TV review: Eric on Netflix is a hard watch — in more ways than one

"It doesn’t work for me. My wife loves Eric, so I could be wrong – she’s hooked by Vincent’s awfulness, how it seems to gobble up our capacity for any empathy. I just think he’s a pain in the arse."

Benedict Cumberbatch as Vincent and Ivan Howe as Edgar in Eric, on Netflix.

It’s hard to watch Eric (Netflix). Not because you feel terrible after an eight year old boy called Edgar vanishes on his way to school. It’s because you don’t feel terrible enough. And it’s all Benedict Cumberbatch’s fault.

He plays Edgar’s father Vincent, the creator of a kids' TV show in 1970s New York city, And he’s so good at playing this narcissistic man-child, that there isn’t room to notice much else going on in the show.