Even the over-the-top product placement isn’t the most shameless part of this attempt to cash in on cosy, “British Christmascore” vibes. The whole thing is dripping with sentimentality and barely makes sense.

Trevor Bingley isn’t Mr Bean, but the two share several traits. Both are obsessively determined to conquer tiny irritations in life, even if it leads to chaos. In Netflix’s 2022 show Man vs Bee, Bingley went so far as to construct a fake, bomb-rigged beehive to defeat the insect that refused to leave the luxurious home he was hired to watch. Bean, meanwhile, spends his days inventing bizarre solutions to trivial problems.  

Each character is somewhat pitiable: Bean because he’s a disaster waiting to happen, and Bingley because he’s lonely, financially struggling, and constantly losing jobs due to his own incompetence. And of course, both characters come to life through Rowan Atkinson’s signature, animated clumsiness. 

But there are big contrasts too. Bingley is a real person with the ability to speak, some social awareness, and an actual backstory—mainly involving a teenage daughter he adores and annoyingly calls “Sweetpea.” Bean, by contrast, feels almost extraterrestrial; several episodes from the 1990s series even show him descending from the sky in a mysterious beam of light.

Still, Man vs Bee—created by Atkinson and writer Will Davies—was basically Mr Bean adapted for a streaming audience: a slapstick comedy set against a backdrop of aspirational wealth, delivering the kind of anxiety-inducing, cleverly interconnected farce that modern viewers rarely get anymore. It also carried a touch of sentimentality. We were clearly meant to sympathize with Bingley, who cancelled a camping trip with his daughter for his new job. Hardly a tragic story—until he landed in jail—but it still tracked emotionally.