Rowan Atkinson is back in his latest comedy series on Netflix. A blend of some of Atkinson’s most famous and hilarious characters have all come together in Trevor. These short episodes are exactly as the name suggests, it's Trevor fighting against one bee, and the outcome is a lot of hilarious disasters. Yet, you could question, did the bee do anything wrong, and was Trevor just a clumsy idiot?
Trevor is a housesitter, in a very large and apparently wealthy family. However, things go wrong when a bee gets inside the house. It can be annoying when you notice a fly or bee inside your house and they won't just fly out the window. Yet, Trevor takes this one step further and almost declares war on the bee.
This series shows you that you cannot trap a bee in a microwave and that when you are in a rush to take a dog, whom you happen to put in a coma, to the vet, don't take the time to take your shoe off and swat the bee.
It is surprising how much comedy can come from a man and a bee. In all 9 episodes of this series, Atkinson is naturally funny in this role across every episode. Although, no wonder, Atkinson was made for this role, considering he was the writer alongside Will Davies. Trevor is a very simple man who got fired from Asda after an incident with a trolly. Alongside that, his wife has recently divorced him and his daughter wants him to start doing well for himself.
On the surface, Trevor doesn't look like the kind of guy you want to look after your voice-activated house. The Owners are constantly phoning in and checking on him, right in the middle of some sort of disaster in their house.
Atkinson has been many classic slapstick characters over time. From Mr. Bean to Johnny English and the characters Atkinson portrayed in Blackadder. Therefore, Atkinson had plenty of comic characters to draw inspiration from. Yet it feels as if he has become his own Baldrick. A helpless man, who is trying his best but clearly he is a fool.
Overall, Man vs Bee is a decent comedy. However, it isn’t without its faults as well. Rowan Atkinson may be a comedy legend, however, the bee aspect of this series feels really underdeveloped in places. There is no real reason why the bee is supposedly attacking Trevor.
In addition to that, the 9 episodes felt quite long. Some of the episodes felt too reparative and didn’t add anything to the overall story. Therefore, I feel that the overall season could have been 1 or 2 episodes shorter. The final episode was the best episode as it was full of twists that I didn't expect coming.
Man vs Bee is a great watch that you can binge in one night. It may not become a comedy classic, however, it does deliver you with a good laugh.
Performance | 4.5/5 |
Enjoyment | 4.5/5 |
Overall Rating | 4.5/5 |