Rowan Atkinson delivers his strongest comedy in years with 'Man vs Baby'

Highlights

• Atkinson returns as Trevor Bingley in Netflix’s new comedy Man vs Baby, a follow-up to Man vs Bee.
  
• The four-part series leans on his trademark physical humour and offers sharper storytelling.
  
• Set at Christmas, the show is lighter, warmer, and widely seen as a clear improvement on its predecessor.
  

Atkinson returns with a sharper sequel

Rowan Atkinson steps back into the role of Trevor Bingley for Netflix’s Man vs Baby, the successor to 2022’s Man vs Bee. The earlier series baffled viewers with its thin premise and awkward CGI, drawing comparisons to Atkinson’s past work without the same comic spark. Reviews at the time were scathing, with some calling it one of the most bewildering projects of his career.

The new series pares things down to four episodes and shows a marked improvement. Trevor is now a divorced father living in a quiet market town and struggling to keep warm as Christmas approaches. He is facing redundancy, overdue bills, and a £9,000 promise to help his daughter study at the Sorbonne.

All episodes are now streaming on Netflix.

A baby changes everything

The story shifts when Trevor’s primary school hosts a nativity play featuring a real infant. Once school breaks up for the holidays, the baby is unexpectedly left behind. Played by identical twins, the infant becomes the centre of the chaos that follows.

Trevor soon receives a call from the housesitting agency that once sent him to a high-tech mansion, unaware of the mayhem he caused last time. He is dispatched to an extravagant London flat where the generous pay could solve his mounting problems. Predictably, Trevor and the baby begin dismantling the luxury property one mishap at a time, with brand-heavy props adding to the mayhem.

A more grounded and enjoyable outing

Man vs Baby is directed by David Kerr and written by Will Davies and Atkinson. The cast includes Susannah Fielding, Steve Edge, Sunil Patel, Robert Bathurst, Ellie White, Angus Imrie, Sunetra Sarker, Alanah Bloor, and Claudie Blakley.

The new show benefits from small but meaningful changes: more grounded stakes, better emotional beat,s and a baby replacing the CGI bee. The chemistry between Atkinson and the child adds warmth, with less of the unsettling tone the title might imply. The condensed runtime also works in its favour, even if it raises the question of why it was not simply made as a feature-length film.

A festive watch that works

The comedy still rests squarely on Atkinson’s physical performance, his familiar expressions, bumbling panic, and instinct for visual humour. Whether he is best served by this format is debatable, but his skill remains undimmed.

As a Christmas watch, Man vs Baby offers an easy, amusing escape and lands more laughs than Man vs Bee ever did, though you may finish it with an odd craving for a glass of Dom Pérignon.