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!

In Baby Reindeer he expresses not only shame about wondering if he's gay, but deep confusion about whether that desire is "real" or a trauma response to being groomed and sexually assaulted. I do think these themes are what he's working through in Half Man, and I feel sorry for him. But I don't particularly want to watch it!

I’m sure I read that he was assaulted by another man, which is horrendous, perhaps the impact on him has understandably been huge

Yes he was - a whole episode of Baby Reindeer was devoted to his experience of being groomed and sexually assaulted. No doubt he's had a huge amount of trauma to deal with

Wow. Just finished Ep 6 and this thread has been a cathartic read to unload my feelings.

For me, some of the acting was brilliant and it had a wonderful sense of time and location in eg the 1980s/1990s uni scenes/youth clubs/uni.

It worked for me A BIT in exploring how repression and inability to be yourself (Niall) turns in on itself to self-hatred. It worked for me A BIT in exploring mesmerising, dangerous, bad-boy-magnetic relationships and how some people just have charisma - the young Reuben.

But it failed to tell any coherent story about the things Gadd says he covers eg toxic masculinity and homophobia and there was way too much unnecessary violence, casual sex, abusive sex and minimisation of women.

re the character of Niall’s mum, I dont think I have ever scene such a central character in a 6 part series be so under-explained/inconsistent/baffling. She was like an outline of a person doing and saying random things. Did Gadd write her in afterwards?

I like difficult gritty memorable TV but this was flawed and pretty sickening and missed the mark and the message.

I wonder if Gadd was under pressure to produce another series quickly after the success of Baby Reindeer. This one should probably be renamed Half Baked, I'm sure he will look back on it with mixed feelings and I hope he can produce something better formed at some point in the future.

Only seen two episodes ( late to this)
The actor playing young Ruben is amazing isn’t he.

He is. He manages to create a character who is terrifying but also occasionally likeable in a way that Gadd fails to as the older version.

The young Ruben is charismatic and really dangerous and toxic all at once. He dominates the screen in a way I haven’t seen on a tv drama in a long time. A character you would definitely avoid irl , but you see why people are drawn to him as well ( but not in a good way )

I have to say I didn't see the charisma that people are talking about on here in the young one

The young actor is incredible! Saw an interview with him on This Morning, so hard to remember it’s him

What I took from this rather disturbing series was that his mum hated Niall for being bi . I can understand why she didn’t like his behavior, but she obviously couldn’t get past the fact that he was like , he liked men and women. She wasn’t a nice person.
Both of them were a complete mess. Two car crashes, spending 30 k and being scammed , drugs and the Chem sex place , so seedy. As for Ruben, where do you start ? Felt sorry for Alby and Baird too. Living with the fall out of all this forever. Alby going back to Naill , I agree you would run a mile from him.
I stuck with it to find out what happens and young Ruben was very good , but I found it so grim and disturbing. We will never find out why his mum was in her pjs at the end either , she had a dress on at the start of the wedding.