Half Man - on BBCiPlayer from the 24th

[fundamentallyauthentic]

Anyone else looking forward to seeing this new show from the writer and star of Baby Reindeer that begins tomorrow?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002j18t/half-man?seriesId=trailers

The six episodes in the series will be dropped weekly from tomorrow morning at 6.00 on iPlayer and will be broadcast on BBC1 the following Tuesday at 22.40. I want to be clear that this thread is for people who won't be waiting to watch when it's broadcast. So, this is the spoiler thread, and it's OK to talk about what we've seen as soon as it's been shown on iPlayer!

Mundane is not how I'd have described it

Oh god I didn't even realise it was Mona who Niall took back with him that time in episode 1! 🙈

#Reuben took back with him, not Niall

I’m currently half way through binge watching all the first 5 episodes in preparation for the final one tomorrow so everything is all fresh in my head!

I have been scanning the guests at the wedding and no sign of Mona or the ex-girlfriend who was pregnant yet 🤣

Returning to say that there was a possible inclusion of his ex-girlfriend in the wedding scene at the start of Episode 3, who was looking very happy for Niall and Alby (if indeed it is her) 🤣 There was also potentially a boy with her at the sit down dinner who looked about 9/10 who I assume would be the son she shared with Niall.

I’m loving watching it all back…..there are so many little things that make so much more sense now that didn’t even register at the time as having any meaning.

Ooh thanks for the tip off - I just had a look and yes she's there looking very happy in the wedding scenes at the start and end of episodes 3 and 4.... not looking a day older than the scenes when she's Niall's partner! I also spotted Joanna.

And Gus was there too - the boy who bullied him at school (and were then reunited when they caught each other dogging) 🤣

As much as I scanned the wedding guest scenes I definitely didn’t see Mona so my guess is that things certainly ended badly somehow. My guess is that Ruben found out about Mona and Niall sleeping together and that’s why he’s back (and Niall knows it).

I’m still looking forward to finding out why when Ruben was wheeled out on the gurney all the other guests were still there in their wedding attire but Niall’s mum was wearing her pyjamas.

Part of me thinks they will have a big emotional scene in the barn, kind of similar to the one they had in the hospital, and it will come out that Ruben was sexually abused by his father, that he’s secretly always been attracted to men, that all the anger from the abuse is what made him such a monster and then he will kill himself because he hates himself so much and just wants the inner pain and torture to stop.

Or Niall will just stab him in self defence.

However, there were no stab wounds on his chest when he was on the gurney and you’d assume it would take a knife wound to the neck or chest for it to cause death…. but there were no stab wounds or blood on his upper body at all, and no blood on the sheet covering his body either, so who knows.

Maybe he did kill Niall and his body will also be found in barn and Ruben had suffered a heart attack when the realisation had kicked in about what he’d done?

A total mystery!!

I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds!

Oooh I hadn't noticed about the mum in PJs until you said, then I went back and had a look - yes how odd... I can't imagine how they would explain that!
Hoping that I'll get chance later today to watch the finale.

I have watched it.

I’m going to withhold on making comments for now.

Just finished too. Would like to hear thoughts!

It made me think of a sex session…

…..but where there is 55 minutes of utter thrill and excitement, where the anticipation just builds and builds, and you can feel the pleasure rising and you know what you’re running towards…..

…..but just when you’re on the absolute cusp of the ultimate peak, the ultimate pleasure, where you’re about to find out the answers to all the questions you’ve ever asked, your 5 year old comes running into your bedroom and everything has to come to a very disappointing and sudden stop.

And then if that’s not bad enough, you’re told you’re never allowed to have sex ever again 🤣

That’s how it felt.

A huge, disappointing anti-climax.

Just finished it. That was quite something.

Male rage and male dysfunction is something I go faaaar out of my way to avoid these days following past experiences so I really expected to hate this but it was really compelling. I didn't agree with some previous posters about the acting and the script- I thought they were all round excellent. I do think Gadd was very much enjoying showing off his physique but the def tracks with Rueben the character!

Took me far too long to realise that the point wasn't to root for Niall. Sympathise with both at times but there were no heroes or redemption. They were both lucky anyone put up with either of them ever.

Overall I thought it was brilliant but fucked up and I can't wait to see what he does next.

Haha! This made me chuckle.

Spoiler:

why did Niall tell him?! So unbelieveable.

Such a frustrating series. So close to being brilliant but actually just feel like I wasted my time.

I spent a whole lot of time just saying 'what the fuck' and 'for god's sake' and rolling my eyes and shaking my head in bewilderment.

Apart from a very small handful of people and the fact that he was in prison, why the fuck did everyone seem to think Reuben was an ok person?!?

When Reuben says to Niall 'do you think less of me' I just thought who gives a fucking shit

When Niall tells Reuben he's his hero.... What the fuck

Never mind the fact that Reuben sexually assaults Niall multiple times

I thought there might be a slice of some sort of satisfaction in the last episode where Niall might live and him die but no we didn't even get that

And no I do not know why I watched this now. I'm not someone who needs a happy ending each time or one that ties everything up but I just got emptiness and disappointment from this one.

One of the best series I've watched in a while. Difficult watch at times but captivating and intriguing. I started off feeling affection for Niall and rooting for him but with every episode began to dislike him more.

Jamie Bell's Scottish accent slipped too much though, as often is the case with non-Scots actors, he slipped from one odd accent to the next, mixing odd turns of phrase and east and west coast dialect and accents. The young Niall had a completely different accent from Jamie.

The ending was far too abrupt. So did Reuben kill himself? Why was Niall's mum in her PJs? How did Reuben get out of prison so quickly after the attack on Benji? It left too much unanswered.

And I don't know why Jamie Bell would want to accept this part

I thought it was terrible! Clunky script, I didn't think Richard Gadd was a good enough actor to carry it off at all. Every character made stupid decisions. The confession scene was ridiculous and not at all in keeping with niall and Ruben's characters.

I wish they had clarified how soon before the wedding Ruben had been out of jail for.

Had he already been out for a few years and if so, why hadn’t he come looking for Niall beforehand?

Was it always his intention to wait until the wedding day ? And if so it implies he remained in touch with Niall’s mum during and after his prison sentence to even know Niall was getting married, let alone where and when.

I also found it interesting that for someone so violent as Ruben whose previous murders had been absolutely horrific and violent and involved brutally beating someone up and smashing their brains in, why he took a more gentler approach with Niall and only suffocated him? Was that meant to mean something? Was it meant to show that underneath it all, he still felt some kind of love for Niall that he didn’t want to brutally kill him and disfigure him?

Why did Ruben want/need to know how and where Niall felt love for him? Did he need to feel like Niall felt more than just normal brotherly love for him?

Do we think Ruben knew he was going to die from that stab wound and so just sat in the barn until he collapsed and died? That was probably a survivable wound if he’d gone out and got help. But I suppose he knew he’d only end up back in jail, and without his mum, Mona or Niall in his life anymore, and knowing Baird wasn’t his, what did he have to live for? I would like to think the paramedics found him cuddled up to Niall’s body in the barn…..a last act of their dysfunctional brotherly love…..but the look on Ruben’s face on that gurney didn't imply he’d passed peacefully. He looked scared/shocked.

So many questions left unanswered and I hate that.

Especially the most important question: why was Niall’s mom in her pyjamas?

Money and to get back in the spotlight I imagine.

So much grunting! I just read a thread on Reddit where people reckon Reuben actually ejaculates on Niall at the end 😳If you look at the shot of Niall's body in the final 10 seconds, there is an obvious white fluid on his kilt. (I'm really sorry to lower the tone, when it's dark enough anyway! 😔)

On a slightly lighter note, it was never explained whether Niall's pregnant girlfriend had the baby - I think she did, as there's that brief shot of her with a child at the wedding, but Niall doesn't mention having his own kid in any of the scenes set after her pregnancy. Perhaps a sign that he becomes a very absent dad.... that would be in keeping with his weak character. I really don't know what Albie would see in him to want to marry him!

Niall's ex does have the baby

In the scene where Niall is visiting Reuben in prison at the end Reuben says something like 'look at us both dads'

Oh yes, thanks - I had forgotten that. I wonder why it never shows Niall engaging with his own son - maybe there's too much else to fit in to the plot, or maybe it's a deliberate way of showing how disengaged he is. He makes so many poor choices... that scene where he first reunites with the lovely Albie and is told not to go to the chem-sex place anymore, but then still does. 😞

I imagine he must be an engaged dad otherwise why would his ex and the child be at the wedding? Especially with his ex-girlfriend looking so happy for him?

At one point I also thought Ruben was ejaculating (even penetrating) Niall during the final scene.

One thing that I found bizarre was that in the prison scene when Niall was coming out to Ruben, Ruben said, “They can call US gay and proud”

So was that also Ruben admitting he was sexually attracted to men too? (Which I had always suspected anyway)