‘Man vs. Baby’ Netflix Series Review - Rowan Atkinson's Latest Will Test Your Patience

For people like me who grew up laughing at Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson's face will always remain nostalgic. In that British sitcom, Atkinson's character never speaks (he just says "Bean" once or twice), which is why my first reaction is often a mix of shock and surprise whenever I hear the actor's real voice. I doubt I will ever fully adjust to the fact that Atkinson can speak. No wonder, then, that as soon as I heard him in Man vs. Baby, I sat up in my seat, astonished. Mr. Bean speaks! How fantastic! But there is something else that also left me stupefied. The opening scenes of Man vs. Baby, in which Trevor's (Atkinson) family life is concisely summarized, are so sharply dramatic that I thought the actor wanted to reinvent himself as a melodramatic thespian with this series. Maybe Atkinson is tired of being labeled as the guy who can only do comedy. Maybe with Man vs. Baby, he wants to tell the world that there is more to him than the persona of Mr. Bean.

Given the kind of sentimental drama we are served in this series, I am glad Atkinson still essentially wants to stick to comedy. In its message and tone, Man vs. Baby resembles many Christmas-themed stories. Once again, a lonely fellow finds joy in the company of strangers and people close to him, who initially consider him weird or simply have no time for him. Man vs. Baby, though, makes things more literal and slightly mushy with the presence of Baby Jesus—a mysterious infant who becomes responsible for pulling other characters into Trevor's orbit: sometimes directly (like a policeman and a social-services employee), sometimes indirectly (like a couple who return to the penthouse to thank Trevor and give a gift for the titular baby). I am not sure the title of this series is right. Man vs. Baby serves as a follow-up to Man vs. Bee, and the "vs." made sense in that 2022 comedy, since it was about Trevor trying to kill a bee. Here, Trevor simply takes care of the baby (he has no other choice). Don't you think "Man and Baby" or "Man with Baby" sounds more fitting?

Anyway, nothing should matter as long as the series makes you split your sides laughing, right? Well, the problem is that Man vs. Baby is not even remotely funny—or rather, the best it manages is a few minor chuckles courtesy of a fart joke and a list that won't stop printing. If someone had caught me watching this series, they would have seen a bloke pulling his hair in frustration and screaming. I just had a hard time accepting many scenes. For instance, why didn't Trevor buy diapers when he went out shopping with the baby? Later, after ordering them online, one thing leads to another, and when Trevor enters the lift, he finds the bag containing the diapers placed at a distance. What does he do? He uses a shoe to stop the lift from closing—a plan that, predictably, doesn't go smoothly. Couldn't he have just gone to the penthouse, fetched the fob, and then returned to pick up the bag of diapers? Yes, I know this is slapstick comedy, and making statements like these is practically a crime. But my point is this: should you not judge a scene logically if it fails to do its job properly? My sentiments, you see, are a direct result of the exasperation I felt while watching Man vs. Baby. Here is a character so incompetent that instead of laughing, you wish he would simply improve himself and stop fumbling. His incompetence is not amusing.

To give you a clearer idea of exactly how irritated I was with this series, let me tell you that I became annoyed when Trevor crossed his arms to feed two babies—meaning he fed the baby on the right with his left hand, and the baby on the left with his right. It's never good news when you start asking a character in a comedy to behave normally. I guess there is something here about how rich people treat their workers poorly (Trevor cooks for the inhabitants of the penthouse, but they go to New York at the last minute, and Trevor's employer fails to pass the message to him). Man vs. Baby, though, is not interested in going towards that dark side. What's worse is that it ends just when things are about to become hilariously chaotic. The ending is a cop-out; it's aggravating. 

In one of the scenes in Man vs. Baby, a character mishears Trevor's name and calls him Mr. Bin. We, of course, think of Mr. Bean, which is undoubtedly a thousand times better than Man vs. Baby. Does Atkinson know this, too? Perhaps there is a deeper meaning behind this reference to that 1990s series. Atkinson is probably telling us that the jokes here were written by Mr. Dust Bin. Don't judge him based on this four-episode slapstick comedy. And don't judge me for that little "Mr. Dust Bin" joke — I just couldn't resist.

Final Score- [2/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times