REVIEW: ‘Man Vs Baby’ Is About As Safe As You’d Expect

If you’re familiar enough with Rowan Atkinson‘s work, particularly in the comedic realm, you know roughly what you’re going to get. In diving into his latest Netflix holiday series, Man Vs Baby, Atkinson’s usual comedic beats are present throughout, making many of the gags predictable over the series’ four-episode run. Even with its predictability, it still renders some laughs, providing a sense of nostalgic comfort to distract yourself whilst wrapping presents in front of the TV. 

Serving as a follow-up to Man Vs The Bee, Man Vs Baby focuses on Trevor Bingley (Rowan Atkinson) living a much quieter life in the countryside. However, with his contract at the local school ending and bills mounting, Trevor is stressed about where his next job will come from. To make matters worse, an infant has been left at the school without a word or clue about where it came from, and no one is available to take the child due to the holidays.

So he does what anyone might do: he takes the infant with him when he lands an amazing opportunity to housesit in London the same day. In this economy, who can blame him?

What is meant to be an easy enough gig, despite the many ridiculous rules to maintain whilst sitting for his wealthy patrons, quickly descends into chaos. Babies go missing, dogs consume shoes and key fobs, and his clients threaten a last-minute return. What’s a man to do? Well, in the case of Trevor and the comedy that unfolds, all he can do is pivot, pivot, pivot. 

The gags in Man Vs Baby still land, but some do run their course upon repetition.

There’s a certain modicum of silliness to be expected across the episodes from Rowan Atkinson, who handles every single thing thrown at him as Trevor. From gags involving missing babies, the physical constraints imposed by missing key fobs (seriously, what happened to good old-fashioned keys, guys?), and a long-running joke surrounding how impossible it is to give a baby to Social Services, it’s all orchestrated and executed in good fun.

However, some of the jokes in Man Vs Baby do teeter on the edge of running their course. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still moments that managed to surprise. There’s one joke in the final episode involving the key fob that literally made me say, “Come on,” before having expectations upended. 

Still, if given more episodes (which, given the final reveal at the end of Episode four, the case is made for at least one more), the jokes might have gone from funny to annoying real quick. And that’s not to say that the humor deployed in Man Vs Baby won’t annoy, depending on the kind of comedy a viewer is into. In this case, it’s more about being family-friendly, with all the ridiculousness you’d expect from that.

When the baby is real, it is okay. The CGI baby, though, is obvious and weird. Burn it with fire.

Rowan Atkinson’s humor relies heavily on physical comedy, making good use of his expressive features and voice to Muppet-like levels of hilarity. He does his job well here, in the comedy he’s made his home in over the decades, bringing a comforting nostalgia that feels welcome right around the holidays. However, when he’s left to act off the script and handle a CGI baby instead of a real one, it slightly disrupts both his performance and the scenes themselves.

Part of this is due to how obvious the CGI baby is in the more physically intensive stunt moments. Of course, you can’t use a real baby in those scenes, but the visual effects work is jarring. The baby itself doesn’t look like it fits into the scenes when either flying through the air or being handled by Atkinson.

If the visual effects work had been handled to lean into the scene’s campier elements, it might have worked. Unfortunately, it just takes you out of these scenes, which isn’t what you want in a comedy.

Despite the CGI issues, Man Vs Baby creates a passable, funny holiday comedy to enjoy while you turn your brain off for a bit. It’s not reinventing the wheel in storytelling or humor, and Rowan Atkinson seems perfectly fine with that here, filling in the gaps with his familiar comedic beats that will have you rolling your eyes by series’ end.

All episodes of Man Vs Baby are exclusively streaming now on Netflix.