Stressed Eric (BBC, 1998-1999)IMDB LinkI loved this British cartoon from the first scene from the first episode. Eric is in his bed, under the covers, and muttering, “Please don’t let it be morning, please don’t let it be morning, please don’t let it be morning”, and then the alarm goes off. It reminded me of my own mornings, hoping it’s not morning when I wake up before the alarm.
Eric has a stressful life. He is always late for work, is divorced with an ex-wife that is annoyingly hippy (she never takes care of the kids because she constantly moans about how she needs to think about her own life for a change), he has drunk, lazy au pair (this is like a live-in maid), his six year old daughter is allergic to everything, his ten year old boy does not talk and puts everything in his mouth, his boss hates him, his secretary is always on the phone, and the neighbors, the Perfects, are well, perfect.
I’m guessing your life is better than that.
In each episode, we get to watch poor Eric be placed under different stress related situations, and no matter how he tries to resolve problems, it just gets worse. And none of the episodes turn out well for Eric, so after a few episodes, even you’ll feel a bit stressed out! Only the British enjoy putting their poor characters through constant failings without any positive outcomes ever. At least in American comedy, there is always an ending or an episode that gives us a nice payoff, but here, it never lets up.
It starts off very funny, but I have to admit that after the first few episodes, the show does get a bit repetitive and well, just too stressful, haha. It got to the point that I was watching it hoping ONE episode would end with Eric Feeble having the last laugh. Even “Tom & Jerry” had a few episodes where Tom came up at the top in the end, and it was always a nice change. But in “Stressed Eric”, no matter what Eric does or how much he tries his best, he fails. And that’s just mean.
3/5
