Amazon.com: Mr. Bean – The Whole Bean (Complete Set) : Rowan Atkinson, Teddy, Robin Driscoll, Matilda Ziegler, Matthew Ashforde, Roger Sloman, Susie McKenna, Nick Hancock, C.J. Allen, Rupert Vansittar

To those who are about to die, of laughter, I salute you! I first encountered Mr. Bean on BBC television in the early 90’s while stationed overseas with the military. Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) is probably one of this last century’s greatest comedians. American audiences have been exposed to him through PBS and through the introduction of two movies in theater’s and on DVD. I purchased this box set when it was first released, joyously, and have been intending for years to write a review for my fellow Amazon shoppers.

If you enjoy revisiting Mel Brooks movies and absurd comedy, over and over again, if you enjoy the best sight gags, physical comedy, and intelligent humor delivered via the medium of a buffoon, then you cannot go wrong with this set. You will watch it uninterrupted, one episode after another straight through and will not go 60 seconds at a time without howling out loud. Mr. Bean does not speak much and when he does, it is mostly unintelligible mumbles. His comedy is universal, relying on the visual but also relying on you to think of all the resulting implications, hence one wonders at the true nature of just what exactly IS Mister Bean? Mr. Bean points out not only how much we take for granted in human behavior and morality, but he points out the absurdities in our day to day life. We rush through our routines without a second thought as to WHY we do certain things and behave in certain ways, unquestioning even the smallest details, but Mr. Bean accomplishes the very same occurrences with baby steps, step by step instructions, painfully accomplishing the most minuscule details without regard to and oblivious to the effects upon those around him, or to the resulting pain to himself. Mr Bean is unquestionably devoid of any common sense or ideas of right and wrong, he is in a sense, a child without adult guidance; sometimes something akin to a blank slate. He is as nonsensical and silly as Benny Hill (though without Benny’s crude and crass humor) or as many Mel Brooks characters. He brings Buggs Bunny and Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin to life in modern times.

“Mr. Bean”s title sequence from the second episode on, depicts Mr. Bean either falling from the sky in a beam of light, or more than likely being thrown to earth literally. The meaning of this has been argued as Mr. Bean being an alien or representing the return of an abductee who’s brain is now addled, or to his being an angel either sent to Earth (not fully baked) or literally being thrown out of heaven (too bad to occupy the heavenly spheres but too good to be damned to hell). The producers of the show claim that it is intended to show his status as an ordinary man cast into the spotlight. However you take the meaning, Mr. Bean is anything other than ordinary!

Rowan Atkinson is both the creator and the deliverer and the personage of Mr. Bean. He created him while still in college, brought him to life in a British comedy series, and has brought him to the big screen, all without a misstep. Atkinson can act in other comedy styles, but his creation, Bean, is the embodiment of mindless or thoughtful (whatever your comedic disposition) pure talented howling funny comedy. I dare you to watch this entire set and not be satisfied it was money well spent. I have watched this entire set at least twice a year since it came out. It makes me laugh at the same jokes in the same places each and every time, even after I know them by heart! Atkinson is a genius. How many people start laughing at a joke they know is coming before it’s even begun in a movie they know well, but already anticipate the punch!
Mr. Bean changes from his street clothes and underwear into his bathing shorts at a public beach, all without ever getting naked. In a public park, Mr. Bean makes a fresh sandwich from raw unassembled and unwashed ingredients with a pair of scissors, a credit card, a drinking fountain, and a sock. Mr. Bean’s new television only works when he holds the antenna in a part of the room where he cannot see the screen. How does Bean finally get to watch it without moving the tv itself? Mr. Bean’s car is a Mini. He is late for a dentist appointment having overslept, so he dresses, washes, and brushes his teeth while driving. You’ll see. Mr. Bean can’t fall asleep, so he counts sheep using a calculator. It’s funnier than it sounds! They don’t sound all that funny, but Rowan’s magic is to make the ordinary bizarre, make the commonplace hysterical, and make the out-of-the-ordinary outrageously comical.

Mr. Bean is obviously smart enough to take a trigonometry examination but when opens up his envelope he finds a calculus exam and panics. He attempts to cheat off his neighbor until, with only a few minutes to go, he discovers that there is a second sheet in the envelope, the trig exam! The lead-in to this fiasco, his preparation to take the exam, the careful extraction of each and every spare pen in his suit, just to annoy the student next to him, would be dumb humor as delivered by a Jim Carey character, but Bean’s facial expressions, his hand and arm and eye movements are all carefully calculated to extract every screaming laugh from your cellular inner DNA, you cannot escape Rowan’s art, try as you might. And if you have never experienced Mr. Bean, you are really missing a treat.

If you are not familiar with Bean the series, go to YouTube and try some of the short bits collected there, you’ll be back here in no time, plunking your money down. [p.s. if you have read reviews pointing out “missing” parts of Mr. Bean episodes in this “complete” DVD set, please be forewarned, it depends upon your point of view: if you never saw a Bean episode it won’t matter much to you, if you watched the series on BBC or anywhere other than the USA, you won’t be missing a thing, but if you have memorized each and every episode from American Television exposure then you are likely to notice something. Rowan Atkinson was forced to re-insert cutting room floor material into the USA airings in order to fill them out for our time blocks we are used to in the States. If you do any research at all on the internet, you will find that Atkinson was rather displeased with having to do so since he considered the material he reinserted for the American audience, which is included in the older VHS versions of this set, he considered the material to be fecal matter, `nuff said.]

Because Mr. Bean is a silent film character in an audible modern world, the comedy crosses language and culture barriers and can be enjoyed by literally anyone anywhere. This is probably one of the most successful “international” series ever! I only recently discovered that Rowan based his character on a French character named Mr. Hulot created by Jacques Tati in the 1950’s and that those French films can be enjoyed by us ignorant Americans without the need of subtitles! I plan on visiting those creations for the first time soon. No matter though, the endorsement here, from me is, anyone with a sense of humor, any sense of humor at all, will not be able to stifle the laughter, the tears of laughter, which will be brought about by watching this incredible character. All hail, Mr. Bean!