Move over Bridgerton, Netflix has a new number one show

Eric starring Benedict Cumberbatch has knocked Bridgerton Season 3 off the Netflix top spot to become the streamer’s most popular TV show globally.

It’s no small feat to kick one of the most popular Netflix TV shows ever off its perch, but Eric managed it with 24 global number one spots, including the UK, according to Flixpatrol.

Eric is a dark psychological thriller with an unusual high-concept twist.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Vincent, a puppeteer for a TV show. His 9-year-old son goes missing. And in his search, he needs the help of Eric, the giant blue monster who lives under his son’s bed

This isn’t some Pixar movie. Eric is a hallucination that comes from the broken recessed of Vincent’s grief-ridden mind, not a strictly real creature.

The wider setting also plays an important part in the show. “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,” says show creator and writer Abi Morgan.

Morgan also wrote 2011’s The Iron Lady and 2018’s The Split.

Is Eric a must-watch? It has achieved a solid 71% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but reviews for the show are genuinely mixed.

On the positive end, Empire’s 4-star review says Eric “successfully balances true-crime realism with child-like awe and wonder” and calls it “one of the most original Netflix Originals in some time.”

Right on the other side of the spectrum, IGN gave it 3/10. “Eric bites more than it can chew. 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,” says the review.

Both Cumberbatch, who voices Eric as well as playing Vincent, and Gaby Hoffmann, who plays Vincent’s wife, have earned plaudits largely across the board. The Evening Standard’s 4-star review says Cumberbatch’s performance is “totally absorbing in its utter vileness.”

There are six episodes to Eric, each around 50 minutes long, and they are fit for a binge-watch if this show sounds up your street.

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