Spoilers for Half Man below
Watching Half Man, without question
one of the best shows of 2026, two different thoughts occur to me. On a
creative level Richard Gadd has with this follow-up series to Baby Reindeer established
himself as one of the unquestioned breakout talents of this decade as a
creative force and a rival to such other current masters as Vince Gilligan and
Noah Hawley for sheer genius in writing. And on a thematic level it proves to
me at least why Adolescence struck me as a derivative story that had
nothing really interesting to say about the subject of toxic masculinity while Half
Man actually does have something to say and unlike the latter
series, doesn't shy away from every aspect of it: the filthy sexual talk, how
much it filters down at every conceivable level and most horrifyingly the
reality of the violence, something Adolescence never even hinted at.
Richard Gadd's work as Rueben is
extraordinary. Buffed up, with every sentence out of his mouth the kind of
braggadocio and sexist talk, groping men's genitals through their clothes, with
violence in every moment about him, talking what makes a man a man you could
see Rueben as a living, breathing incarnation of any of those from who we
consider part of 'the manosphere'. And all the more astonishing because the
show begins in the late 1980s and ends in 2014 when the truly toxic portions of
that subculture were barely known beyond the cultures of the dark web. Gadd's Rueben is a living, breathing argument
that the problems with masculinity starting long before the internet even
existed and have always been there beneath the surface. If he's not able to give a real explanation
at any level as to how Rueben got that way, that's not a flaw considering how
much of our culture is just as uninterested in dismissing their problems even in
a far less politically correct era and an area of the U.K. that would have been
more disinclined to ignore.
What's all the more remarkable is how Gadd
makes it clear that at every level Niall is the other side of Rueben, a young
man who is perpetually bullied as a teenager and is so filled with
self-loathing about his homosexuality that as the world becomes more accepting
of it, he feels more determined to hide it – and not from those around him, who
make it clear that they all know but from himself. After his college
relationship with Alby ends in Rueben's horrific beating of the young man, an
event that eventually leads Reuben to prison, Niall seems more determined to
hide his true self, having sex with men in the library where he works trying to
self-publish novels, then ended up marrying and even impregnating Joanna and
using money to engage in conversion therapy. Considering all the horror stories
we've heard about in America over the 21st century, there's
something rather shocking about a man at that same time voluntarily deciding
to engage in it rather than face who he is.
Niall and Reuben both have a deep-seated
self-loathing: Reuben takes out his rage on those around him but Niall punishes
himself. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Half Man is how openly
Niall's mother seems to prefer Rueben to
her own son, despite the fact of his clear sexual preferences which mirror her
own. She's never physically abusive to him in the series but at every level we
can see a kind of emotional abuse that began in his childhood and has always
been there. Gadd never has her state it
directly but its possible she sees Niall as a living, breathing embodiment of
her experiments to be part of 'normal society' and she has been taking it out
on him ever since. She always seems more interested in her relationship with
Rueben's mother then anything Niall does and the fact that she essentially
wants to bully him into perjuring himself as his trial is telling. The fact
that Mona has cancer is something of a beard: she cares more about her lover
then her son's well-being.
Even as Niall mentally degenerates to the
point of having to be institutionalized she seems to think less of his
emotional well-being. She doesn't bother to tell him Rueben's been released
from prison and she hides from him that she's been borrowing money from him all
this time to pay for her sons wellbeing at any level. She clearly thinks her
son doesn't deserve any respect and has no problem arguing he's got no gifts.
Our sympathies should be with Niall but the
moment Jamie Bell starts playing him as an adult we see him as a needy little
man who can't get over the fact Rueben is doing so well after getting out of
prison. He's worn himself into an emotional panic and insanity sure that Rueben
would go after him even when he was behind bars and when Rueben basically
chooses to ignore him and even help him financially, this actually enrages him
even more then if he'd chosen to take revenge. He eventually stalks him
on social media, finally going to his home and is outraged to see Rueben is
doing well financially and has married his childhood sweetheart (who as we saw
took Niall's virginity) The best thing for Niall to do would be just to walk
away but the two are drawn together like magnets.
By the penultimate episode Niall seems
determined to destroy Reuben and take away everything he does. When Rueben asks
for the money back he lent him years ago Niall takes it as a sign of him
bullying him again, while ignoring the fact he used the money he was supposed
to return for the ill-fated conversion therapy.
Reuben is angry because Mona wants to take dance classes mainly because
he thinks she's cheating on him. Niall starts hanging out with her and
basically says she should, pushing her. Niall then gets Mona drunk, learns that
Rueben has fertility problems (which for a man who cares so much about being a
provider is a blow to his masculinity). After that he deliberately tells Reuben
that's he going to be a father which is clearly to goad him. Eventually Rueben
explodes at her and it's only through intervention that Niall stops him from
going to back to prison – after which he and Mona have sex on the kitchen
floor. When Niall learns Mona has been cheating on Rueben with someone from
dance class, it's not clear what bothers him more than Rueben was right or that
she doesn't seem bothered about having sex with her brother-in-law. Niall then
seems determined to tell Rueben what happened just so he can piss him off – and
then he learns not only has Reuben lost his job as an oil-rigger because of his
violence but he needed the money back because he has told Mona he's lost
everything. Niall's reaction is to have
sex with a male prostitute – and then when Reuben comes back and demands to
know the meaning of a voicemail, he takes the blame away from himself. This
leads to Reuben going to the home of the man Mona was having an affair with –
and basically beating him nearly to death just as Niall arrives.
The series finale plays all of these things
out in a horrible fashion. Niall has finally achieved literary success by making
a fictionalized version of Reuben's behavior and yet it's only Reuben that anyone's
interested in. Reuben is back in prison now for the second assault and by this
point Mona's had a child – but she has no idea who the father is. She's ended up backing in Rueben's orbit which
paralyzes hum further.
Rueben is now addicted to cocaine and is
regularly going to bathhouses where it’s the only place he can confront his
sexuality. After one of them he ends up at Mona's deathbed where's she finally
passing and he ends up vomiting on her. Reuben is allowed out on compassionate
release but not before he makes it clear he hates that he's been robbed of
everything.
During this period Niall reencounters Alfie
who's recovered and has even become a nurse. Niall is still in such denial he
can't even acknowledge his sexuality on a hospital form. Even after admitting
he immediately goes to another bathhouse and this time everything goes wrong.
He crashes into a police car where someone who recognizes him takes photos and
sends to his agent. This all happens on the day of Mona's funeral which he
shows up late to and can't get through without cocaine. Rueben ends up giving a eulogy in which he
acknowledges his horrible failures, including that his mother was never proud
of him and that he knew he'd failed her. He wanted to apologize.
Even at her funeral all Niall cares about
is keeping his secrets which are really about him. When he finally goes to see
Alfie after everything that happens he admits why he's terrified to come out –
he's afraid of what Rueben will think.
Its in the penultimate scene of the series
where the biggest conversation comes out and its behind prison walls. Niall
finally confides his greatest secret – and Reuben tells him he's always known,
ever since they were kids. When Niall tries to argue how much Reuben's talk
affected him Reuben says "I'll accept ten to fifteen percent of the blame.
No more. The real homophobe, it was you."
And its there Reuben gives his biggest secret
about his father, how the beatings were the best of it and in fact he was
sexually abused. Because there was some part of it that almost seemed to enjoy
he has spent his entire life unable to accept who he is and has been acting out
ever since. This is a variation on the story Gadd told us that affect Danny in Baby
Reindeer but in his case we see a man who has spent his entire life acting
out. The title 'half man' comes from what he's felt himself as..
It's at this moment of pure honesty that
Niall and Reuben are by the far most open: they reveal that they hated each
other's mothers, all the things they've done – and Niall lets slip he had sex
with Mona. This explains why Niall knows why Rueben has come – at the start of
the episode he promised he was going to kill the man who was responsible for
keeping him away from his mother all these years and he came back to just that.
And in the final moments we see him do
that. Reuben rapes Niall and suffocates him, and despite his biggest struggles
Niall ends up dead. We also know Reuben will die of his wounds
Gadd admitted this ending would be
polarizing to viewers but from the moment this story began the viewer knew it
couldn't end with both of them alive.
Throughout the ceremony Reuben said of Niall Kennedy "He knows what
he wants and he takes it." As we've seen throughout the series that's
exactly what Niall has done. He's seen Reuben as the cause of all of his suffering
when it was at most 10 to 15 percent and he has spent the second half of the
series taking as much of what Reuben had as he could. Some of it Reuben did by
himself but as we saw throughout the series Niall has done everything he can to
push Reuben there, directly or indirectly. The only thing Niall could take from Reuben
was his life and he manages to do just that - even though it kills him in the end.
Half Man is not an easy watch by any means; Baby Reindeer seems
like a feel-good romp almost in comparison. But it is a necessary one and it
more than demonstrates that maybe there is no such thing as toxic masculinity.
Perhaps just the idea of masculinity can be toxic for men to embrace. Niall and
Reuben are two sides of the same coin, two men who each destroy their own
lives. In Reuben's case he takes his aggression out on the world; in Niall's he
takes it out entirely on himself and in both cases it leads to other wreckage.
The sad part is by the end of the series Niall says that Reuben is the only
person in the world that fully understands him, the best and worst thing that's
ever happened to him. And Reuben agrees.
Half Man will be a major contender for Emmys in a few months' time but
I can't say whether it deserves to win. There have been many strong limited
series over the 202-5-2026 season. I still believe All Her Fault deserves
to win and I could argue just as strong for Love Story. Season 2 of Beef and The Beast In Me
are likely to be the other major contenders and while I haven't finished
either both are more than formidable.
I can't say whether Richard Gadd deserves
to repeat for Best Actor; this is already a formidable field which includes
Matthew Rhys, Oscar Isaac and Paul
Anthony Kelly all of whom are more than deserving. I do believe Jamie Bell, who
has submitted himself for Best Supporting Actor even though he's technically a
co-lead, probably should win in that category although at this point my
personal preference remains Jake Lacy for All Her Fault. (Lacy portrays
a different and more frightening kind of toxic paternal and fraternal figure.)
And Half Man truly needs to be
applauded for targeting several subjects that are difficult viewing and that
our society is still struggling with even now. And it is a truly more realistic
portrayal of violence among males in a way that Adolescence for all its
technical marvels refused to. Adolescence struck me as false because it
only told us the consequences and never showed us the brutality. Half Man shows
us the consequences in more detail then the viewer may be comfortable with but
that is necessary that we as a society look at if we are try to understand the
lost lives of Reuben and Niall.
Final Score: 5 stars.
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