Rowan Atkinson in Man vs. the Bee.
Rowan Atkinson’s comedy series joins the list of “cancelled” series for 2023 man vs beethat it will not return for a second season on Netflix.
Released on Netflix in June 2022, Rowan Atkinson, best known for his characters Mr. Bean and Johnny English, starred as a house keeper who arrives at a lavish mansion only to find his time there spent hunting down a rogue bee.
Claudie Blakley, Jing Lusi and Julian Rhint-Tutt starred opposite Atkinson in the series, which garnered generally favorable reviews from audiences.
In his review, Decider gave the series a “Stream it” rating concluding that while you need to be in the right frame of mind, “nobody on the planet clowns better than Rowan Atkinson and this series showcases all the skills that have made his career so successful.”
man vs. Bee has been canceled after a single season
sun first broke the news today in their rather clickbaity style titled “Netflix Show With A-List Star Eliminated After Just One Series,” in which they revealed there are “no plans” for an additional second season.
There’s no telling why the show ended, but usually, it all comes down to Netflix’s interpretation of the title.
News of a cancellation doesn’t necessarily come as a huge surprise given its short format and Netflix’s spate of cancellations in the comedy genre. It still counts as a cancellation, given that the show was never labeled as a limited series (or a miniseries, as they’re sometimes called) in press releases or within the Netflix app, even to this day. That certainly left the door open for more, even if the show concludes very well at the end.
Total, man vs bee it spent two weeks in the global top 10 collecting 43.61 million hours in total, which is commendable given its shorter runtime:
| week period | Hours seen (M) | Range | Week in the Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 19, 2022 to June 26, 2022 | 18,210,000 | 10 | 1 |
| June 26, 2022 to July 3, 2022 | 25,400,000 (+39%) | 7 | 2 |
Perhaps most impressive were the YouTube views the initial trailer garnered, which clocks in at 15 million at press time. That makes it one of the best-performing trailers in Netflix history (oft-cited to translate to high viewership on Netflix), putting it in front of Crystal Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Elite, Enola Holmes, and Our planet.
Do you wish we had more than man vs bee on netflix? Let us know in the comments below.
