{"id":543003,"date":"2026-04-21T14:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/543003\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:56:09","slug":"richard-gadd-and-jamie-bell-are-outstanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/543003\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Gadd and Jamie Bell Are Outstanding\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere has been much discussion about the male loneliness epidemic. In a world shackled by the tenets of patriarchy, men are still guided by antiquated ideals of masculinity. They are taught to shun vulnerabilities and often turn inward instead of seeking support. In his HBO<\/a> limited series \u201cHalf Man<\/a>,\u201d \u201cBaby Reindeer\u201d creator Richard Gadd<\/a> explores the brittle bonds of male friendship and violence via the relationship between two brothers bound not by DNA, but by time and circumstance. A devastatingly brutal watch, the show explores loyalty, sexuality and how men perceive themselves through the eyes of those they both admire and despise.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHalf Man\u201d begins during a celebration. It\u2019s the wedding day of Niall Kennedy (Jamie Bell<\/a>). Instead of dancing with his guests, he finds himself standing in a barn with his step-brother, Ruben Pallister (a barely recognizable Richard Gadd), who has shown up uninvited. Though Niall tries to calm Ruben, his pleas fall on deaf ears. After forcing Niall to refer to him as \u201cyour brother from another lover,\u201d Ruben sucker punches the smaller man and watches him tumble to the barn floor.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom there, the series goes back to the late 1980s. Niall (Mitchell Robertson), 15, is being mercilessly bullied at school for his frail stature and his perceived sexuality. His teacher then announces that a new student, Ruben, is joining the class. While Niall\u2019s peers are unfazed by the transfer of a boy from Polmont Young Offenders Institute, this is Niall\u2019s worst nightmare. For him, Ruben\u2019s reappearance after two years away is far more horrifying than being called the f-word. What\u2019s worse, when Niall speaks to his mother, Lori (Neve McIntosh), about it, she informs him that Ruben, her lover\u2019s 17-year-old son, will be sharing his room.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs soon as Niall enters his bedroom and sees the volatile and towering Ruben (an outstanding Stuart Campbell), he\u2019s on edge. Ripping down Niall\u2019s \u201cDoctor Who\u201d posters, Ruben instructs Niall, whom he calls Bambi, to do his bidding. A panicked Niall complies, and begins tiptoeing around the older boy as if he were a bomb about to go off. Yet, when Ruben positions himself as Niall\u2019s protector at school and, in turn, Niall risks everything to help Ruben, the pair form an intense alliance fortified by secrets, obligation and obsession. Niall is tortured by Ruben\u2019s hypermasculinity, but it also becomes his shield. Ruben sees Niall\u2019s admiration of him as a chance to be the hero he can never be for himself.<\/p>\n

\n\tAcross six episodes that follow the pair from adolescence through Niall\u2019s college years to adulthood, the duo boomerang in and out of each other\u2019s lives, making decisions that irrevocably alter their paths and their perceptions of one another. Raised by self-absorbed mothers, both men are deep wells of pain. They express this anguish in starkly different ways: One is consumed with self-loathing, and the other is a tornado of ferocious bloodlust.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHalf Man\u201d is an excellent but difficult watch. A viciousness runs through the narrative, and countless acts of violence depicted. For those who stick it out, the final episode features one of the most emotionally shattering scenes on television. <\/p>\n

\n\tLike \u201cBaby Reindeer,\u201d \u201cHalf Man\u201d is riveting and profound. Gadd has a distinct ability to write characters who appear to be exactly who audiences expect them to be, only to shift perspective and shine a new light on them, so they become someone else entirely. As the show barrels toward the present, the audience comes to understand how many people, particularly men who have every privilege and opportunity, are trapped in prisons of their own making.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHalf Man\u201d premieres April 23 on HBO, with new episodes dropping weekly on Thursdays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been much discussion about the male loneliness epidemic. In a world shackled by the tenets of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,41074,1636,41098,41075,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-543003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-half-man","10":"tag-hbo","11":"tag-jamie-bell","12":"tag-richard-gadd","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}