Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
3.5
I expected Richard Gadd’s project, after Baby Reindeer, to receive the same acclaim.
But given that people sometimes like to cut down successful people, I ignored the critics who didn’t hate Half Man but didn’t love it either.
But after spending four weeks with the show, I’m beginning to see why someone can get frustrated with how this story is crafted.
Something about Niall and Ruben’s relationship is elusive, and at this point, it doesn’t seem like a creative choice.
Relationships between stepbrothers come in all shapes and sizes, so there are no preconceived notions about what one is supposed to look like.
When the show drops us into the middle of Niall and Ruben’s lives, it reveals a complicated relationship between them.
But in Half Man’s first half, all we see is the story of an incredibly violent man and his obsessed brother.
However, the question becomes, why?
Why does Niall care so much about Ruben? Is it boredom? Inferiority complex? Incestuous desires?
Half Man doesn’t say. That has been incredibly frustrating. Trying to decode why anyone should care about his story has been harder than watching all the violence.
Most of what happens here feels unjustified.
Half Man Season 1 Episode 4 amplifies this feeling by exposing this storyline’s hollowness. We have another time jump, this one over a decade, and the younger cast has been phased out.
They did such a great job, and this episode continues that trend as Gadd and Jamie Bell fully take over.
It takes a while to adjust to this new Niall, who is jumpy, reckless, and loud. While I didn’t mind previous time jumps, this is the most jarring.
For one, Bell does not look the part. He somehow appears younger and older than he’s supposed to be. The constant sex escapades also prove that we are in adult territory, as Niall’s life is now punctuated by random encounters with strangers.
Life has not played out how he thought it would. He’s a struggling writer who has nothing to show.
I certainly did not expect this and have no idea how to feel about it. Maybe it’s because I missed the 15 years leading up to that time jump.
Niall has not been the most defined character in this show. He boils down to artistic and gay.
So seeing this much agency in his life feels like we’re watching a different person.
But the most disappointing thing is that the person we meet this hour is unlikable and we have no reason why.
In my Half Man Season 1 Episode 3 review, I anticipated a development where Ruben spills Niall’s secret to justify why they are embedded in each other’s lives.
But after over an hour, I feel exposed to so much, yet I’ve learned nothing.
Apparently, Niall is now a professional victim.
He blames everyone for how his life turned out, including Ruben, who has been away for years.
This obsession with Ruben still feels unjustified because the genesis of their codependency is not something we know or will ever be aware of.
His petulant behavior after learning that his half-brother is no longer in prison and has made a life for himself makes me cringe.
Why is he obsessed? Is this the character flaw that we’re supposed to see?
Because surely that doesn’t justify the violence and the sexual confusion between them.
The funniest thing is that if there had been a sexual or romantic thing, this episode would have landed a bit differently.
Niall’s behavior plays out like that of a jilted lover or ex who never quite moved on.
And the justification is not even that strong. Who cares that Niall feels like Ruben destroyed his life over a court case fifteen years ago?
If anything, Alby should be the one making this claim and going to all those therapy sessions on Ruben’s dime.
It makes no sense.
And maybe that’s why the episode relies too much on dialogue and screaming matches — to manufacture intensity.
The screaming match between Ruben and Niall in the hospital goes on and on and on, and it starts to become a chore to keep up with whatever exposition the writer is aiming for.
Instead of showing how these characters affect each other after fifteen years, they scream it out. And that’s after Niall has screamed at his mother, librarian, and Joanna, but to varying degrees.
That scene reinforces everything we know so far: Niall and Ruben’s relationship is weird, but no one knows why.
And why is the most important detail in this whole affair. So when it is revealed that Niall kills Ruben in that barn, it doesn’t carry narrative weight.
It feels like a shocker because, at the end of the day, Half Man is buoyed by violence.
Gut Check
Episode 4 is the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I’ve given this show the benefit of the doubt, but now that we’re in the second half, it doesn’t feel like we’re getting any return on our investment.
Part of me keeps hoping that minor details like the fact that we don’t see Niall’s book, or that they make up and talk about Niall being blackmailed, mean something good is coming.
Intrusive Thoughts
- Rock bottom’s new definition should be seeing your high school bully getting slutted out. What were you doing there?
- Where the hell was everyone in that hospital?
- They should have had Tom Holland play Niall in this episode; maybe Jack O’Connell for Ruben.
Over to you, Half Man fanatics. Unburden. What did you feel about this episode? Does this story have a clear roadmap, or is it just throwing stuff to the wall and nothing is sticking?
Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.
Say something in the comments, share if you’re moved to, and keep reading. Independent voices need readers like you.
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