So once again, we all get to see Trevor Bingley at the very center of the mess, although “mess” may be too generous of a word for a story that is so determined to sand down every rough edge. The world-renowned Mr. Bean actor Rowan Atkinson makes his return to a holiday comedy in Man vs Baby, but for anyone who was hoping for the return of the frantic Man vs Bee will find something far more interesting than Christmas wrapping paper.
The miniseries consists of four episodes, which end on a very wild turn. We see Bingley sharing his DNA with Mr. Bean, and suddenly, both men obsess over trivial nuisances. Both of them march towards disaster with oblivious sincerity, and both of them carry Atkinson’s signature physical twitchiness.
A lost job, a found baby
The story is simple with no such complications because on one hand, we see Bean, who always introduced himself as a being who came down through the light beamed in from another dimension. On the other hand, we see Bingley, who was always meant to be human.
He can speak, he can express tenderness, and he endlessly refers to his daughter as “Sweetpea,” which is, by the way, a detail that once felt earnest, but it eventually becomes the plot that leans harder on sentiment than a typical slapstick.
We see and get an obvious hint that Bingley has just lost another job as a school caretaker. The reason for losing this job is kinda sad because, while helping with the nativity play, he discovers a baby on the doorstep and, assuming it belongs to the production, goes looking for its rightful parent.
From there, it’s basically a ruckus as he finds the local police are too busy, and social services conclude the baby is imaginary after Bingley briefly misplaces it. And suddenly, he does the only thing this script will allow, as we see him dragging the infant into a luxurious London penthouse he has been hired to house-sit for Christmas.
Every time he thinks it’s over, something else goes wrong
In the last episode, we see Petra telling Bingley that plans have changed and the penthouse owners are coming back for Christmas. With no house help, he whips up a meal and decorates the tree as he hopes to welcome the couple generously. But obviously, they never came, as Petra had forgotten to inform him that the owner’s flights were diverted at the very last moment.
Now he has a feast in front of him with no one to serve, and suddenly, unannounced guests show up. But those weren’t guests in technical terms, as we see Bingley’s ex-wife and his daughter showing up at the penthouse, after their fights got cancelled. And suddenly, the feast that was prepared for the owners is being served to the social service workers and the homeless couple with their baby.
What we thought was the end didn’t end the way we hoped. As everyone finally got the closure after all the mishaps that had happened in the last couple of days, someone rang the bell of the penthouse. And surprisingly, it was the owners who had returned home after their fight was diverted. This concludes that Bingley’s bad luck never ends, and whenever he believes everything is okay, something bad happens to the other.
