In recent years, as the booming streaming bubble began to slowly deflate, Netflix gained a sub-reputation for canceling its original series after only a single season aired, from the lore-building horror mystery Archive 81 to the sci-fi wackiness of 1899 to Neil Patrick Harris’ adult dating comedy Uncoupled to many other examples. (The latter was luckily rescued by Showtime after it was first axed.) That trend hasn’t exactly stopped, with the news that Rowan Atkinson’s hilariously cringe-friendly comedy Man vs. Bee will not be returning for Season 2, and while this latest one-and-done cancellation reveal probably does make sense, it’s still quite dour to hear about for those with Netflix subscriptions.
Having premiered back in June 2022, Man vs. Bee marked Rowan Atkinson’s first large-scale TV comedy arguably since The Thin Blue Line in the mid-’90s, admittedly not accounting for Mr. Bean: The Animated Series or the series of Handy Bean shorts from 2018-2020. Not to mention his first TV co-creation since Blackadder. The series gained a sizable number of viewers and fans from the jump, with CinemaBlend enjoying the show’s stressful hilarity as much as any.
