Mr. Bean

"Mr. Bean", starring the legendary Rowan Atkinson, was a huge hit during its run in the 1990s, and I probably first saw it when I was around ten, shortly after it ended, so I was seeing reruns. I certainly wasn't much of a fan at the time, and didn't see too many episodes. I didn't really get into the show until my late teens, just a few years ago, which was when I finally watched every episode. Unlike before, it made me laugh many times, and since then, that has always been the case during repeat viewings of episodes!

Mr. Bean is a mysterious, self-centred, antisocial, extremely naive buffoon whose best friend is his Teddy! He is pretty much isolated from society, and life is not easy for him, as he constantly struggles with very simple things! This is because he lacks some fairly basic knowledge, and has the mind of a child. He finds himself in various kinds of trouble wherever he goes, and comes up with very bizarre ways to try and solve the problems he faces! Not only does he often cause trouble for himself, but sometimes for other people as well, which he often doesn't tend to realize! In other words, Mr. Bean is a walking disaster!

The humour in this show is very visual, and there is very little dialogue. The gags are almost always sight gags, which is mostly what the show is about. While there may be an occasional lacklustre gag, I would say the vast majority of them are funny, often hilarious, (there are so many highlights)! While "Mr. Bean" is certainly not the most sophisticated comedy ever made, it's still great for many of those who like visual humour, and due to the very limited dialogue, you don't even have to speak fluent English to enjoy the show, which is why it has received such a world-wide reputation! The show ran for a few years, but the episodes were made very gradually, so only fourteen were made in total. Nonetheless, it is a classic series, and deserves its wide appeal!

I can understand why Rowan Atkinson doesn't make more Bean TV shows--he's probably rich as can be (based on his car collection) and the movies (which are far inferior) make a ton of money. I still wish they'd make more of these delightful shows, as they are possibly the funniest show ever made--it's THAT good.

One of the reasons I enjoy Bean so much is because my daughter is deaf and we can both equally enjoy the shows, as you really don't need closed captions for it. And, importantly, this makes the show amazingly easy to export abroad. It's so amazing how the show is able to make you laugh even without the use of much language--just wacky situations and terrific pantomime by Atkinson.

The bottom line is that if you don't like this show, you are either dead or have absolutely no sense of humor! I have not only watched the episodes repeatedly but have shown them to my students and they never fail to elicit tons of laughs--and the teens want to see them again and again. And who can blame them? The show is so clever and well made.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Mr Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is in this world, but not of this world. His mind simply doesn't seem to comprehend things the way an average person would and his life is one long disaster because of this, getting himself into constant mishaps and far out, zany situations, which he is left to sort out on his own as he doesn't seem to mix with anyone and he rarely speaks. But he never gives up and, despite the simplest of tasks being a constant struggle for him, applying his own zany methods of solving the problem always pays off for him in the end.

To look at the sorry state of modern British humour, with all it's focus of sex and general vulgarity, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that a show like Mr Bean was made at one time. There's nothing unsuitable going on here, just good, clean U rated humour of the type Tommy Cooper and the like made in the 50s. And I find it just as laugh out loud funny now in my early 20s as I did when I was a young boy in the early 90s.

Although I can look at it a little deeper now and see there must be more to this character than than meets the eye. There must be a reason why he does things the way he does and things seem to keep going wrong for him. As others have noted, it looks like he may have a type of autism. In fact I'm so convinced about it that I really think were a professional psychologist to analyse him, I think Mr Bean could be the first famous, fictional character to be diagnosed with something like Asperger's Syndrome.

If you'd like to see some truly hilarious British humour at it's very best before it all became obsessed with sex and vulgarity, then this would come highly recommended. Shows like Little Britain do work because it's well realised but it's really just as vulgar as the rest. Shows like this show we were more restrained and civilised once, and hopefully we might start putting out this type of humour more again sometime soon. *****

"Mr. Bean" is one of those shows that you couldn't forget even if you tried (not that you'd want to try). The title character (Rowan Atkinson) is a perfectly ordinary man who either never seems to do anything right, or always finds the hardest and most inefficient way to do it. Rarely speaking, he gets himself into all sorts of wacky situations.

One of the funniest predicaments was at a hotel. Mr. Bean was following a man in the restaurant, taking twice as much as the other man. Sitting down at a table, Mr. Bean began wolfing everything down, only to learn that the food had gone bad. Feeling ill, he goes back to his room and falls asleep. He wakes up a few hours later and accidentally locks himself out of his room. Now he has to wander around the hotel naked.

Actually, he ends up naked a lot, and usually there are other people around. But the point is, Mr. Bean is completely cracked. Whether going swimming, trying to tend to a baby, going to the beach, or hosting a New Year's party, he always manages to do everything in a way that most people would never imagine, and most often ends up embarrassing himself.

As the British say, smashing.

"Mr. Bean" is one of the funniest shows ever created. American shows need to be more like the British ones. Rowan Atkinson is a very creative actor and this is the role that he was made to do. Whenever I see a car similar to his' now, I'll just remember it as the best supporting object that's never won an Emmy (sadly).

But anyways, everybody should watch this show no matter what. Because of this show, I now have new ways of doing things and such.

And last, but not least, is the teddy bear Mr. Bean always carries around. He's another one that should win an Emmy for his performance.

So for anybody reading this, go to the nearest video store and buy "Mr. Bean."