Most people in the United States were first exposed to Rowan Atkinson in the Britcom hit black viper, 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 global star in 1990, when he displayed his gift for physical comedy as the awkward and silent mr bean. A lot of what she’s done since then has been Bean-adjacent, and that goes for his latest project, where his character practically destroys a high-tech mansion because of a bee.
MAN VS. BEE: TRANSMIT IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening shot: In a courtroom, a meek little man named Trevor Bingley (Rowan Atkinson) is found guilty on 14 counts ranging from carjacking to arson. He explains himself by apologizing and saying “There was this bee…”
The essence: Trevor is a clumsy but well-intentioned father to his daughter Maddy (India Fowler). He eventually found work at a house-sitting company for the likes of Nina (Jing Lusi) and Christian (Julian Rhind-Tutt), who own a modern mansion with art and other memorabilia worth thousands, if not millions, of pounds. Trevor comes to watch the house when the couple’s regular babysitter is reassigned; Nina quickly shows Trevor the “simple” setup, saying that it’s all in a “manual” that she had put together and bound like a book.
They also have a very friendly sheepdog named Cupcake, who immediately latches onto Trevor’s crotch. She is allergic to nuts and follows a very specific diet, if not followed, there will be “doggy doo-doo everywhere”, as Christian puts it.
There is also a bee, which Trevor accidentally lets into the house when he walks in. He accidentally breaks a statue while he is greeting the bee. He then catches her 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 neck, then turns on the wrong burner while he’s making soup and completely destroys the manual, which he left on top of the stove for a while. reason.
Why do you need the manual? Because the dog toys he accidentally dropped got stuck in the library door, which is usually locked by the security system, with codes corresponding to years of unpronounceable battles. There’s a priceless manuscript in there, among other expensive items that make it out of Cupcake’s reach. But when the bee annoys Cupcake, then flies into the open library door, Cupcake follows, and the door closes behind her. Trevor now has a destroyed manual, no idea what the security codes are, and a dog with gastric issues trashes 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 man Bee is as close as Atkinson can get to mr bean while playing a different character.
Our take: the episodes of man vs man Bee, created by Atkinson and William Davies, written by Davies and directed by David Kerr, plays out more like a movie than anything else. It may be because, with 9 episodes that are between 10 and 19 minutes each, the total running time of the series is 108 minutes. It makes us wonder if the man vs man Bee it was a movie at one point, but then it was split into these short episodes on demand by Netflix.
Regardless, as we said earlier, it’s a showcase of the kind of unique physical humor that Atkinson has been showing us for over 30 years, from mr bean first appeared on the screen. She’s great at playing the guy who rolls her eyes and can go overboard while his characters reap the repercussions of his silly mistakes. and all in man vs man Bee he’s classic Atkinson, from his physicality to the fact that he plays so convincingly.
It helps that his character Trevor is tasked with housing a mansion that’s basically a massive trap for a guy like him, from the complex ways of turning a faucet on and off to breakable items worth millions and a relatively inexperienced dog prone to making poop. Do people really live like this, with a crazy 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 serious damage.
And, let’s be honest: some of the situations are very fabricated. You know the “manual” would be destroyed at some point, but who puts a book on top of a stove, even if it’s not on? But those are the kinds of accidents that 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 that Trevor has with Maddy and of course the moments when Atkinson gets very physical, like when the bee shoots up in his pants just as a police officer (Tom Basden) answers the question. alarm that sounds in the episode. 3. Trevor will have to deal with thieves and Cupcake getting really sick before it’s all over, but that damn bee is what’s going to make Trevor more destructive, and we can’t wait to see it.
Sex and skin: None. In fact, this is a show that the whole family can watch.
Parting Shot: While desperately trying to open the library door, Trevor comes face to face with his nemesis, the bee.
sleeping star: In the few scenes she does have, Jing Lusi is hilarious as the nosy Nina, who doesn’t particularly like it when you can’t pronounce her complex last name, Colstad-Bergenbatten, correctly.
Most of the Pilot-y line: “Have you never been home before?” Nina asks, to which Trevor replies, “Not as such. But I have a house, or rather, I Dyed a house, so this is all family territory.” What a loaded lie that sentence was.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. You certainly need to be in the mood to laugh at the antics in order to enjoy man vs man Bee. But there’s no one on the planet who does antics better than Rowan Atkinson, and this series showcases all the skills that have made his career so successful.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he’s not kidding himself: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, vanityfair.comFast Company and elsewhere.
Reference-decider.com