Though extremely difficult to watch, “Eric” is outstanding. .... But there is one glaring issue. As Vincent becomes unhinged, he begins to visualize a real-life Eric who taunts him and follows him around. Though the furry blue monster is a manifestation of the puppeteer’s inner torment, it’s a distraction.

Eric packs a punch right where it hurts in the most thought-provoking of ways. It's brave and forthright in the themes it explores and hey, the inclusion of a puppet may stump many at first but it truly makes it a one-of-a-kind series.

There’s a lot to love in Eric, a show in which the whole cast and crew are dedicated to creating something unique. Sadly, all this effort is often hampered by how the series leading star, Cumberbatch, is stuck in a story loop that gets in the way of everything else.

There’s a lot about Eric we didn’t love. But, boy, we loved Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as the troubled, grieving father of a missing child. It’s so good it might actually paper over most of the show’s flaws.

While there are a lot of individual aspects that are easy to admire, the series is a bit of a mess as a whole, a collection of ideas crammed into six hour-long episodes that Eric tries to wrap up too neatly by the final scene.

“Eric” is filled with enough important issues — and one big hairy quirk — to make it seem like a series filled with fresh, serious ideas. But they’re really just window-dressing around another bad-dad saga that’s too distracted chasing a long shaggy tail.

The six-part series melts into a CSI-like procedural with aims to tackle race, sexuality, and mental health, but can only muster the most superficial treatment of these subjects. Eric’s characters are as hollow as the puppets of its show-within-the-show – but, crucially, lack a skilled puppeteer to successfully bring them to life.