Eric spoilers – including its ending – follow.
Netflix's new original series Eric stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Vincent, a troubled man whose nine-year-old son has gone missing in the hustle and bustle of 1980s New York.
By the end of episode one, it's revealed that he is also being plagued by a giant monster puppet called Eric. Yes, really.
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Born from the sketches of his son Edgar, Vincent becomes increasingly obsessed with incorporating Eric into his Sesame Street-style show Good Day Sunshine.
Up until this plot-twist moment, Eric had existed only as a concept. But then a bleary-eyed Vincent was awoken by the sound of an ET alarm clock in his son Edgar's empty bedroom and with a vodka bottle next to his head.
He rolled over and fell to the ground, only for Eric – walking and talking, now his own entity – to come along and kick him.
"Wake up," said the deep, gravelly voice. "Wake up, pathetic f**k..."
But who and what is Eric, and what does he symbolise?
First let's see what lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who donned the costume, thinks.
"He is a manifestation of a cracked psyche. He's a form of psychosis. A very real thing to this creator of a world of puppets," he told Digital Spy in an exclusive interview.
"He's the hope. He's the linkage between a child that's lost and the child's imagination, and attempt to speak and communicate and be seen and heard by his father, and his father's retro-engineered attempt to do that to try and bring his child back home. And however crazed and desperate that seems, it kind of becomes a very beautiful and potent part of that relationship."
The truly brilliant thing about show creator Abi Morgan's writing is that, when it comes to the portrayal of the puppet, a lot is left open to interpretation.
What is clear is that Eric, with his gruff tones, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch himself, is an integral part of the story. He is deeply intertwined with the journey that Vincent is going on, both there to help bring his son home and also for more personal reasons, which become clearer as the story unfolds throughout Eric's six episodes.
Related: Abi Morgan's new Netflix crime drama is an impressive must-watch
Perhaps the most obvious read of Eric is that he's a tangible representation of Vincent's conscience. A somewhat scary Jiminy Cricket, if you will.
It is clear from the off that Vincent isn't exactly about to win Dad of the Year. Towards Edgar, he is critical, dismissive and downright mean at times – an atmosphere that builds to Edgar's disappearance.
But we also later learn that Vincent's involvement was more hands-on. After becoming a suspect in the missing-person investigation, he finally confessed that he had been the last to see Edgar. Their confrontation had also become physical, explaining why Edgar's found item of clothing was blood-stained.
Vincent was carrying a lot of guilt and shame around his own behaviour, no doubt driving his desire to "fix it" and be the one to deliver Edgar back home. Eric's boisterous and often condemnatory narration of Vincent was undoubtedly born from this inner turmoil.
And then we come to the making of Eric, the puppet character that was to join the cast of stuffed critters on Vincent's popular children's show.
Vincent was meticulous in how he wanted that version of Eric to look and sound. He was trying to recreate the version of Eric that he was seeing and hearing, and he felt that if he could do so, it would bring his son home.
The more we come to learn about Vincent, it becomes apparent that he's entangled in a toxic generational cycle. His relationship with his father is strained (to say the least), and not only has he been carrying that baggage around with him since childhood, but it has no doubt informed his relationship with his own son and the way he shows up as a parent.
For Vincent, Eric holds a mirror up to this as well, perhaps verbalising the critical voice he once internalised as a child. Eric is the tangible manifestation of the "monster" that Vincent grew up under – the unresolved trauma that he has, up until this point, been unwittingly passing down to his own son.
Let's not forget that it was Edgar who initially drew Eric. He may have been drawing his father, Vincent, as he saw and experienced him. And so the cycle comes full circle.
As Vincent works towards building the Eric costume, externalising him in a different way, we see his own work on himself represented.
By the final episode, Vincent's growth is displayed in the emotional plea he delivers to his son through the television lens. He takes his mask off (quite literally, as he's wearing Eric) and expresses himself vulnerably to his son, in a way that he probably never has before.
Ultimately it is this, not the physical puppet itself, that brings Edgar back home.
Eric is available now on Netflix.
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TV Editor, Digital Spy Laura has been watching television for over 30 years and professionally writing about entertainment for almost 10 of those. Previously at LOOK and now heading up the TV desk at the UK's biggest TV and movies site Digital Spy, Laura has helped steer conversations around some of the most popular shows on the box. Laura has appeared on Channel 5 News and radio to talk viewing habits and TV recommendations. As well as putting her nerd-level Buffy knowledge to good use during an IRL meet with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laura also once had afternoon tea with One Direction, has sat around the fire pit of the Love Island villa, spoken to Sir David Attenborough about the world's oceans and even interviewed Rylan from inside the Big Brother house (housemate status, forever pending).
