Mr. Bean is a British sitcom starring Rowan Atkinson as the titular character. It spans fourteen half hour episodes over the course of five years and it is one of Atkinson's most iconic roles. The structure of each episode is that it it split into multiple skits. It usually depicts Mr. Bean in a normal-ish situation but since he himself is unusual, this leads to humorous situations. There isn't much of a story and we only learn a little bit of Mr. Bean throughout the whole series.
The funniest part about the series is Mr. Bean himself. He doesn't think or act like your average person. He's a lot more naive and Atkinson's description of him as "a child in a grown man's body" is one that fits perfectly. Despite that, he does have a girlfriend (even though he cannot take a hint at all), owns a car (that familiar olive green Leyland Mini) and travels quite a bit.
The humor relies heavily on Mr. Bean's unusual antics and his quirks. He also has a few novel solutions for the problems he encounters, although they're not usually what you would do... For example, he arrives in a park and sits next to a guy on a bench who is casually eating his lunch sandwich. Mr. Bean is here for the same reasons but instead he decides to make the sandwich from scratch, pulling out ingredient after ingredient from his coat. It's so ridiculous that it's funny.
Despite the humor, you do feel sorry for Mr. Beans sometimes. He tends to find himself in unfortunate situations that a normal person would feel flustered and panic at what to do, let alone such a quirky person. His naivety constantly puts him into new situations. The episodes cover a variety of scenarios, from going to the beach to going on holiday, including events such as Christmas and New Years. On the flipside, as Mr. Bean is portrayed as such a selfish person, he's happy to take candy from a child, that you can't wait until he gets his just desserts that you know is coming. Sometimes though, you feel the retribution may be just a tad bit too harsh for him, especially when Mr. Bean puts on his sad face as he realizes his loneliness or the loss of one of his treasured item.
Atkinson has done a great job at giving his character a soul. From the weird mannerisms and body language to the limited dialogue, it paints a distinct type of character that's both memorable and endearing. Atkinson's gestures and facial expressions are perfect. Mr. Bean does speak from time to time but a lot of the gags and context is told via body language. This works wonderfully well and makes the series timeless. The best part is how everyone else around Mr. Bean thinks he is weird. You don't feel that Mr. Bean is stupid; rather, he can be clever, thinking up of ingenious (if a bit socially unacceptable) solutions to his problems.
As the series never had much of a story beyond what was in each self-contained episode, the ending just sort of ends. There's no send off for Mr. Bean, it was just another normal day for him. Overall, Mr. Bean still remains funny and enjoyable to this day. The gags and humor being more reliant on just being funny themselves rather than on pop culture has allowed the series to age gracefully and remain relevant.
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