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Most people in the States were first exposed to Rowan Atkinson in the hit Britcom Blackadder, where he played the exasperated Edmund Blackadder and his descendants through different time periods. But that was the witty side of Atkinson; he became a worldwide star in 1990, when he displayed his gift for physical comedy as the bumbling, silent Mr. Bean. Much of what he’s done since has been Bean-adjacent, and that goes for his latest project, where his character pretty much destroys a high-tech mansion because of a bee.
MAN VS. BEE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In a courtroom, a meek little man named Trevor Bingley (Rowan Atkinson) is found guilty of 14 counts that vary from stealing a car to arson. He explains himself by apologizing and saying “There was this bee…”
The Gist: Trevor is a bumbling but well-meaning dad to his daughter Maddy (India Fowler). He’s finally found a job with a company that does housesitting for people like Nina (Jing Lusi) and Christian (Julian Rhind-Tutt), owners of a modern mansion with art and other objects that are worth thousands, if not millions, of pounds. Trevor comes to housesit when the couple’s regular sitter gets reassigned; Nina quickly shows Trevor the “straightforward’ setup, saying all of it is in a “manual” she had put together and hard-bound like a book.
They also have a very friendly sheepdog named Cupcake — who latches right away onto Trevor’s crotch. She has a nut allergy and a very specific diet, if not followed, there will be “doggie doo-doo everywhere,” as Christian says.
There’s also a bee, which Trevor accidentally lets in the house when he comes in. He accidentally breaks a statue while waving at the bee. Then he traps it under a cup, but the strong bee manages to escape. While that’s going on, Trevor figures out how to open the automatic cabinets by turning around and scratching the back of his head, then turns on the wrong burner while making soup and completely destroys the manual, which he left on top of the stove for some reason.
Why does he need the manual? Because dog toys he accidentally dropped wedged themselves in the library door, which is usually locked by the security system, with codes corresponding to years unpronounceable battles. There is a priceless manuscript in there, among other expensive items that make it off-limits to Cupcake. But when the bee bugs Cupcake, then flies into the propped open library door, Cupcake follows and the door shuts behind her. Trevor now has a destroyed manual, no idea what the security codes are, and a gastrically-challenged dog ripping apart the one room he’s not supposed to be in.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Given the use of Atkinson’s copious physical comedy skills, Man Vs. Bee is about as close as Atkinson can get to Mr. Bean while playing a different character.
Our Take: The episodes of Man Vs. Bee, created by Atkinson and William Davies, written by Davies and directed by David Kerr, play out more like a movie than anything else. It might be because, with 9 episodes running between 10-19 minutes each, the total running time of the series is 108 minutes. It does make us wonder if the Man Vs. Bee was a movie at some point, but then broken up into these short episodes per Netflix’s request.
Anyway, as we said above, it’s a showcase for the kind of unique physical humor that Atkinson has been showing us for over 30 years now, since Mr. Bean first appeared on screen. He’s great at playing the put-upon guy who can bulge his eyes and make exaggerates experessions as his characters reap the repercussions of their dumb mistakes. And everything in Man Vs. Bee is classic Atkinson, from his physicality to the fact that he plays dim and bumbling so convincingly.
It helps that his character Trevor is tasked to housesit a mansion that’s basically a massive trap for a guy like him, from the complex ways to turn a faucet on and off to the fragile items worth millions to relatively untrained and poop-prone dog. Do people really live like that, with a nutty dog running around a house with priceless items? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s a perfect place for someone as accident-prone as Trevor to do some major damage.
And, let’s be honest: some of the situations are very manufactured. You know that the “manual” would be destroyed at some point, but who puts a book on top of a stove, even if it isn’t lit? But those are the types of accidents Trevor and all of Atkinson’s bumbling characters, have because, well, because the consequences are too funny not to imagine.
Where this show shines is in the relationship Trevor has with Maddy and, of course, the times when Atkinson gets very physical, like when the bee shoots up his trousers just as a police officer (Tom Basden) responds to the alarm going off in Episode 3. Trevor will have to deal with burglars and Cupcake getting very sick before it’s all over, but that damn bee is what’s going to cause Trevor to be his most destructive, and we’re looking forward to seeing it.
Sex and Skin: None. In fact, this is a show the entire family can watch.
Parting Shot: As he desperately tries to get the door to the library open, Trevor comes face to face with his nemesis, the bee.
Sleeper Star: In the few scenes that she has, Jing Lusi is funny as the officious Nina, who especially doesn’t like it when you can’t pronounce her complex last name — Colstad-Bergenbatten — correctly.
Most Pilot-y Line: “You’ve never housesat before?” asks Nina, to which Trevor replies, “Not as such. But I have a house — or rather, I had a house — so all of this is familiar territory.” What a loaded lie that sentence was.
Our Call: STREAM IT. You certainly need to be in the mood to laugh at slapstick in order to enjoy Man Vs. Bee. But there is no one on the planet who does slapstick better than Rowan Atkinson, and this series shows off all the skills that have made his career so successful.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
