A bean, a bean, a half a bean, a bean, a bean and a half... (Mr. Bean)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Mr. Bean
Date:	05/02/04 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny

Disadvantages: Tight

How many blue beans make five? All the brain cells in Mrs D's fatuous old head...

Rowan Atkinson is best known for his extraordinary performances in the Blackadder series as the most cynical, sarcastic and spiteful man in British history, but he has other notable strings to his bow and among the most tuneful was his creation of the ultimate heir to the throne of the great silent comedians like Buster Keaton ... the answer of course is Mr Bean, but you'll know that if you've found your way to reading this review.

This is one of the most internationally popular of all British comedy series, and it's easy to see why, with its almost total dependence on visual humour rather than quick witted repartee. Now in that, there could hardly be a series which is more diametrically different from Blackadder. Blackadder relies on witty scripts and acidic, spiteful sarcasm ... Mr Bean is all silent comedy and an appreciation of the bizarre outcomes awaiting those who come into contact with the dumbest, most naive loser in the world. It's extraordinary that Atkinson seems equally at home in either role. Now it's evident that Atkinson gets the most kicks out of playing Blackadder because he seems to relish poking fun at others, but certainly it would be difficult to imagine anyone else better equipped at bringing Mr Bean to life.

There were a whole series of half hour TV featurettes in the 90's devoted to the antics of Mr Bean, and the character eventually graduated to adventures on the big screen with that bland Americanised and sanitised version, but the less said about that the better. Indeed, the movie version of Bean was as bad as the TV version was excellent and it all felt distinctly embarrassing and uneasy ... you could have predicted the outcome at the start of the enterprise because the appeal of Mr Bean is strictly small ... small screen, small humour, small emotions, small brain, small antics, whereas films appe
al to wider environs and deal in enormity.

But enough of the film, and we've already said too much because the very memory certainly makes me feel extremely nauseous...

Mr Bean the TV series was an extraordinarily successful and surprised most of those associated with it when it made it big. It set its sights low and didn't attempt to do too much ... instead it concentrated on situation comedy in the most literal sense of the world, pitting its naive and puny anti hero into a world in which he struggles to survive with his little boy lost outlook, his mean and self obsessed nature, his anal reaction to the world around him and his utter contemptible disregard for any of his fellow human beings.

Of course, bean is only a slight parody of characters we all know ... the train spotter, the anorak, the carol singer, the warden of the community centre, the camera enthusiast, the fell walker ... apart from the fact that Bean has no interesting outlets to his life, no extraordinary hobbies or pursuits, just an inward focused preoccupation with himself and the little teddy with whom he shares his dwelling ... his sometime girlfriend in many of his shows struggles to gain any acknowledgement or even tolerance from him and is more inclined to the role of doormat than paramour. Bean finds it enormously difficult to relate to other people, apart from in the context of enjoying meaningless small victories over them and making himself feel good. But Atkinson positions Bean just close enough to the real world and real people to keep some sincerity and meaning alive in there.

Now with a collection of naff tweed jackets, banal corduroy trousers, a very orthodox haircut and a customised Mini equipped with a padlock and bolt, Mr Bean is ready to hurl himself, grunting and mumbling into our consciousness and leave us never quite the same again. It's bizarre and uncomfortable and claustrophobic and pernickety and intricate and twitchy,
like all those odd people you find in offices and libraries and parks and on the bus or in the market or feeding the ducks ,,, except Bean would more normally be stealing bread from those canards.

The humour comes from the imbecilic stupidity and uncharitable outlook on life of its main character and his struggles to contend with real life, which is somehow at the same time both dangerous and powerless before the gaze of the geek with no redeeming qualities. He's clever-dumb and confident-scared all at the same time, bumbling and unimpressed and helpless, weak and brave and spiteful and in need of some mothering and good old fashioned sorting out, with a lick of spit and a tissue on his sallow little cheeks and sneering squirm ... he makes you shudder but you can't help feeling sorry for him, but even sorrier for those around him.

No this all seems terribly serious and deep without being very attractive but Mr Bean is wonderfully inventive and contrived, hilariously funny and absurd, stupid enough to be funny without being stupid enough to detest. It's extremely watchable but thoughtfully embarrassing, a real rough diamond of a comedy series which in its own unambitious way is well on its way to being almost as good as Blackadder. Mr B had Baldrick, Mr B has teddy, and the little one smells more pleasant and has nicer turnips...

The world of the Bean is extraordinarily unsympathetic and unpleasant, but eminently funny and obsessive. Its small scale and limited ambition is what makes it great or at least a real rib tickler.

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