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Man vs. Bee
UK 2022
produced by Chris Clark (executive), Will Davies (executive) for HouseSitter Productions/Netflix
directed by David Kerr
starring Rowan Atkinson, Claudie Blakley, Jing Lusi, India Fowler, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Tom Basden, Daniel Fearn, Gediminas Adomaitis, Christian Alifoe, Greg McHugh, Chizzy Akudolu, Aysha Kala, Phil Cornwell, Daniel Cook, Hannah Bourne, Yasmine Holness-Dove, Brendan Murphy, Ruth Clarson-Horrocks, Lee Byford, Matthew David McCarthy, Neil Alexander Smith, Tony McCarthy
written by Will Davies, created by Rowan Atkinson, Will Davies, music by Lorne Balfe
TV miniseries
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Trevor (Rowan Atkinson) has never achieved much in his life, and of
late he has set himself modest goals - like going on a camping trip with
his daughter Maddy (India Fowler), who lives with his divorced wife
(Claudie Baker). And to be able to afford this, he has accepted a job as
housesitter in Christian (Julian Rhind-Tutt) And Nina's (Jing Lusi) home -
which is not just any home but a high tech mansion full of priceless works
of art, and which Trevor has to share with a dog with all sorts of food
allergies. At first everything goes reasonably fine, even if Trevor
accidently butns the manual that explains the inner workings of the house
and now has to rely on his own (modest) wits to navigate around the place
without causing too much damage. And then a bee somehow gets into the
house, a bee that's quickly driving Trevor crazy, and he goes to more and
more extremes to kill it - in consequence destroying most of the works of
art in the house, as well as a prized vintage car, and ultimately burning
the place down. That he somehow also catches a trio of burglars (Daniel
Fearn, Gediminas Adomaitis, Christian Alifoe) along the way happens more
by mistake than design, and doesn't save him from going to prison once the
home owners return, catching him torchin the place with a flamethrower.
But there still is a silver lining on his horizon ... When
Rowan Atkinson hit the TV screen with Mr. Bean in 1990, he,
already well-established in his native UK, became a household name pretty
much over night on an international level for basically bringing slapstick
comedy back to television. And while the series was at least in parts
undeniably funny, it limited Atkinson to just making silly faces and
neglected his dramatic abilities, while the Mr. Bean skits
were always somewhat random and without consequence. Man vs. Bee
tries to an extent rectify this as it gives Atkinson's funnyman character
a dramatic background, motivation, and also a voice - and Atkinson carries
the role very well, giving his character the right amount of heart. And
the slapstick in this movie is well-conceived, in its best scenes even
reminiscent of Buster Keaton's output. And yet this (circa feature
film-length) miniseries fails to hit all the right spots: For one,
the film's titular concept man vs. bee is to little to expand to a series
of this length (even if many of the ideas to drive the concept to new
heights are pretty good), and also Trevor's basic motivation is driven
home a bit too strongly. But this said, this is still a fun series, one
just can't but admit that it fails to reach full potential.
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