No doubt you have heard of, or at least seen, Rowan Atkinson. Off screen, he’s apparently quite the wanker. On the big screen, he’s known for small, yet hilarious parts in movies such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hot Shots! Part Deux and Love, Actually. But it’s on the small screen where he truly made his mark, first as several different Edmund Blackadders in ‘Blackadder’, and then as the silent, childlike lead in ‘Mr. Bean’.
This column is not about any of these things. Rather, it’s about the lesser known (and rightfully so) ‘Mr. Bean: The Animated Series’.
As you can tell by the title, the show does feature Mr. Bean, but in animated form. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as animation allows you to do things that you couldn’t normally do with real actors. Unfortunately, ‘Mr. Bean: The Animated Series’ doesn’t try to push many boundaries. Rather, it’s pretty much the same thing as the original series, plus “dream sequences” that let us see what Bean is thinking, minus the acting of Atkinson.
And that’s really where this show goes wrong. Part of the appeal of ‘Mr. Bean’ is Atkinson himself, and the lengths he is willing to go to for the sake of comedy. In animated form, Bean actually seems toned down, and is actually more of a jerk (or is that a wanker?) than he is in the original series. Without the live antics of Atkinson, there is a lack of connection with the viewer, and as a result, a lack of laughs. No joke there.
So if you feel the need for some Bean, do yourself a favour and get “The Complete Bean. Don’t get this clunker of a series.
IP Linkage
Daron and Jim present the all-new, all-different Ultimate Marvel Handbook. Well, actually, it’s pretty much the same, but there’s more shiny pictures.
Mathan and Tim talk DC.
Mike Kaye talks about severed heads.
What I Watched:
Thursday:
‘Survivor: Panama’ (CBS, Global) – See Below
Friday:
‘Olympics’ (CBC) – Hey, I had to watch the Canadian men win the gold medal in curling, right?
Sunday:
‘Iron Chef America’ (Food Network Canada)
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (CTV, ABC) – Perhaps predictably, “George and Meredith” was just a tease, which naturally leads to George moving out.
Monday:
‘Deal or No Deal’ (CanWest, NBC) – I keep finding myself watching this despite my attempts not to. And of course, the world’s biggest opportunist, Donald Trump, makes an appearance, which I’m sure had nothing – NOTHING, I tell you – to do with ‘The Apprentice 5’ debuting immediately after.
’24’ (Fox) – Intense episode, with the CTU worker bees leading the revolt against Lynn, Jack getting played like an idiot for once and Logan as usual looking like one. And let’s give a round of applause to Agent Aaron Pierce, who like Jack has apparently ingested the super-solider serum.
Tuesday:
‘American Idol’ (Fox) – I only saw the first hour of this due to the live Race recap, which is why Josh did the review. But the girls were, for the most part, pretty bad.
‘The Amazing Race’ (CBS) – Watch for commentary in next week’s recap.
Wednesday:
‘American Idol’ (Fox)
Survivor: Panama – Episode 4 In Hindsight
Survivor has become a very physical game in recent seasons, and Episode 3 was proof of that. The end result of this is the near-elimination of pure mental challenges in favour of ones that have a mental aspect to it, or require more than just pure strength to carry a tribe through.
Reward Challenge – Water Puzzle – This is what I’m talking about here. Physical strength gave way to agility and a hint of thinking required to complete the puzzle. Interestingly, the twist in episode 2 has worked to the benefit of Casaya. The inclusion of Bruce and the need for La Mina to beat a tribe of seven twice has somehow turned the dysfunctional tribe into a force at challenges. Think of how this challenge would’ve gone had Cirie been forced to compete.
Immunity Challenge – Reach for the Top – An interesting challenge that focused on the agility of the competitors instead of strength or mental ability. The turning point here was Dan’s slip. I don’t buy lackadaisical pouring as the reason the team lost. They were in the lead and Dan’s slip put them in a position where they needed to catch up.
Castaways:
Casaya
Aras – I think that if you keep talking, the tribe will turn on you instead of backing you. Yeah, you’re in a bad position with your so-called alliance, but hey, it’s early in the game and if you lose the next challenge, well that’s one less person voting against you on the jury. Think about that.
Bobby – You were both brilliant and stupid at the same time. Brilliant because while the “alliance” was talking about one use for the commode, you went for option number two. Stupid because you made yourself a target that the “alliance” could rally behind.
Bruce – We didn’t hear much from you, and that’s a good thing.
Cirie – You’ve played brilliantly so far. You’ve worked hard to prove yourself to your teammates, you’ve stayed in the background while the “alliance” implodes, and you retain your catty comments for the confessionals.
Courtney – I think there should be a phrase where the camera catches you doing something, and then you say something that clearly contradicts what we see. So congratulations, Courtney, you’ve just been “Weavered”…
Danielle – Sometimes, I wish you’d just keep quiet.
Shane – Here’s the thing – what you do with the Product Placement Latrine isn’t the most important part of your reward. You’ve been supplied with FIVE GALLONS of fresh, clean, presumably drinkable water, and you said nothing about that.
La Mina
Austin – Good work to swing Terry over to your side in voting out Ruth Marie. Or did Nick do that?
Dan – Sadly, keeping your word to Ruth Marie means buptkus at this point. All it does is provide an opening for Sally to get Naustin over to her side. Which ironically, would prove you right about her betraying you.
Nick – Good work to swing Terry over to your side in voting out Ruth Marie. Or did Austin do that?
Ruth Marie – You got complacent, and it came back to bite you in the ass.
Sally – Now is the time to work on Naustin to get you one more step further into the game.
Terry MVP – Three weeks running as MVP. Again, you were on the losing side, but you made use of your exile to find the Immunity Talisman. I guess we HAD to know that you’d be the one to find it, right?
Bits and Pieces
– From the guys that brought you the 24 best moments of ’24’, here’s “I’ve made a huge mistake – the 25 best ‘Arrested Development’ moments.
– Comics:
Infinite Crisis #5 – felt like a setup for One Year Later
Marvel Team-Up #18 – shows me that Kirkman can write New Warriors, but needs to work on Speedball’s characterization
Squadron Supreme Saga – basically a clipshow combined with Marvel Handbook-style biographies.
Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #5 – The regular series isn’t gonna be the same without Kyle.
Nextwave #2 – The recap page is hilarious.
New Excalibur #5 – Still not sure why Lionheart turned heel. I need to reread this
– Purchases:
Transformers Alternators Prowl and Skids. What, you don’t like Transformers? Bite me, poozers.
That’s it for this week.
