Mr. Bean

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. *****

This show is a classic. Rowan Atkinson is so funny in this role, and Mr. Bean is one funny character. This is one show that you can see again and again and still laugh. I only wish they made more of these because they are great.

"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.

Most Britcom imports that I have seen over the years have always brought laughter. It the mid 90's PBS began running episodes of Mr. Bean.

Rowin Atkinson, far better known in the UK and Europe then here in the States, is one of the most talented actors and comedians anywhere. He has to be. To take a character that is normally mute, always plotting mischief, and goes on more hair brained schemes and adventures then the entire Monty Python crew is,as Mr. Bean would put it," Absolutely Brilliant".

Even the most hardened sceptic will find this series so overwhelming funny that they would scream for more. Alas, there were only 13 episodes filmed. Rowin Atkinson has stated that he felt there was nothing more for Mr. Bean to do. Too bad. I can see a series, such as this going on for hundreds of episodes.

If you want to have a really good time with a wonderfully lovable goof ball, Watch this BBC classic!

Many reviewers here compare the Mr. Bean TV series to "The Simpsons", "King of the Hill", and other comedy shows. Though many shows at times employ slapstick, "Mr. Bean" is very different from the majority of these shows and their characters. The most glaring contrast is between what constitutes as humor in "The Simpsons" and "Mr. Bean". "The Simpsons" can sometime present gory themes in an offhanded way (eg, Itchy & Scratchy), making ethically questionable images and situations funny to the audience. The humor in part lies in the blase way in which the characters treat something like murder, torture, etc. However, I don't find that very enjoyable. That is why I applaud Rowan Atkinson for proving that slapstick humor can still be funny without turning murder and torture into light-hearted entertainment. Mr. Bean maintains an innocence that, for me, is a welcomed relief from the harshness of the TV landscape in general. From reality TV shows where participants backstab each other for money to shows like "South Park" and "The Simpsons" that fuel their comedy with questionable material, TV land can be a harsh place thesedays.

Many people may feel that Mr. Bean is childish and foolish, but his is by far a gentler character than many you would meet on TV nowadays. I don't wax nostalgic for shows like "Leave It to Beaver" or any of those black and white TV shows where everyone is super cheery and pretend death and homosexuality don't exist. But need we go to the other extreme and portray the world as treacherous, dangerous, and continuously in conflict? Maybe what some people want when they get home from work is to sit down on the couch with a cup of hot cocoa and forget all their problems as they indulge in the foolish yet heartwarming character that is Mr. Bean.

Mr. Bean takes you away from your divorcing parents, your backstabbing co-worker, your bills piling up on the table, your annoying household chores, the clogged drain in the kitchen, your sister's frantic wedding plans, and all the depressing murders and robberies on the nightly news. Mr. Bean takes you away from all this for 25 glorious minutes and into his simple-yet-complicated little world where the biggest problem is learning how not to bite off more than you can chew.

It is nice to go to a simpler place where problems don't get more complicated than a stuck fly while trying to impress the queen.