{"id":611613,"date":"2026-05-30T06:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/611613\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T06:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:32:12","slug":"half-man-creator-richard-gadd-breaks-down-shows-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/611613\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Half Man’ Creator Richard Gadd Breaks Down Show’s Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spoilers ahead for the finale of \u201cHalf Man\u201d<\/p>\n

The first \u201cHalf Man\u201d<\/a> script actor Jamie Bell read was its final episode. Immediately, he was invested in the series created by Richard Gadd and started to read Gadd\u2019s scripts in chronological order. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was so surprised to read, in Episode 1, this very mild, meek and innocent young man, who obviously had some issues and was obviously very guarded but had his whole life ahead of him. This collision with this other person, Ruben, affected his life forever, and he never quite got over it,\u201d Bell said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way that either one of them could exist without the other. They are life force for the other person: they are oxygen, they are fuel, they are water. They cannot sustain themselves without the other person, so it only made sense that if one of them was going to die, they would both die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf Man\u201d plays out between two timelines, one that follows the relationship between Niall (Bell) and Ruben (Gadd) from adolescence and another that unfolds during Niall\u2019s wedding day. There is always tension in the wedding timeline, especially when Ruben unexpectedly arrives. By the final episode of the series that tension comes to a head, ending in a barn with Niall\u2019s corpse as Ruben slowly dies beside the step brother he once loved and has murdered. <\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, they can\u2019t live together. They almost can\u2019t coexist. So something had to give; it was inevitable. Even if it wasn\u2019t my intention [for both of them to die] at the start, I would have always circled back to that point,\u201d Gadd told TheWrap. \u201cOnce I\u2019d landed on that [ending], it felt right in terms of the whole nature of the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HalfCharlie de Melo and Jamie Bell in \u201cHalf Man\u201d (Photo Credit: HBO)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an appropriately bleak ending for a bleak series. At the beginning of \u201cHalf Man,\u201d young Niall (played by Mitchell Robertson) is shown to be a smart yet meek young man with a promising future ahead of him, and young Ruben (Stuart Campbell) is a reckless delinquent. Once their mothers move in together, both men forever change. Niall learns to be more confident, and Ruben finds an unlikely friend in his new brother. But as their relationship progresses, it quickly sours into codependence. Adding to the curdling is Niall\u2019s own denial and self-loathing over his sexuality, a whirlpool of shame that leads to Ruben brutally physically assaulting Niall\u2019s love interest, Alby (played by Bilal Hasna and Charlie de Melo).<\/p>\n

As Niall and Ruben get older, they change. A prison sentence forces Ruben to get his life together as Niall drowns in self-harm sparked by his hidden sexuality. But no matter how great or how terrible their lives are, Niall and Ruben remain linked, bound by some unseen cosmic force.<\/p>\n

Though Gadd was clear about wanting his series to end with Niall and Ruben\u2019s deaths, he was less willing to talk about what that ending means. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never write with the intention of wanting people to take any certain thing. I do think a problem with a lot of TV and film \u2014 I guess art in general \u2014 is it\u2019s too clear in its intentions. As a result, it can make viewers feel talked down to,\u201d Gadd said. \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s a creative endeavor for people to take whatever they need out of it \u2026 That\u2019s more powerful than me declaring what [the ending] is.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"half-man-richard-gadd-jamie-bell-hbo\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Gadd may not be eager to talk about the meaning behind the \u201cHalf Man\u201d finale, but his co-stars have thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a real beautiful sadness to it,\u201d Robertson told TheWrap, noting that he was \u201calmost glad\u201d that Niall was out of his misery. \u201cThey both were because, by the end of it, it gets so destructive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout Ruben, I don\u2019t know what [Niall\u2019s] life would be because he draws all of his meaning from Ruben. Even at the wedding \u2014 even though he\u2019s visualized a life where he is honest, truthful and happy with someone he loves and will allow himself to love and be loved by \u2014 when Ruben shows up, he needs his permission,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIn a way, there\u2019s no other ending to this. There is only destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bell, the finale of \u201cHalf Man\u201d speaks to why Gadd\u2019s work is so compelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard\u2019s really good at giving voice to the parts of humanity or ourselves that we absolutely do not want anyone to see,\u201d Bell said. \u201c[\u2018Half Man\u2019] reminded me of my bedroom at home as a kid and the pictures that were on the wall, just these really very private personal things that he somehow manages to bring to the surface \u2026 Hopefully, we could maybe reach into people as well and make them go to their own places.\u201d<\/p>\n

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