Richard Gadd managed to make quick work riding the coattails off his success frm Baby Reindeer. This time he took his story to HBO with the drama, Half Man. And what another strange story it was.
I do believe this time around the narrative is based a little less in Gadd’s reality, but there were probably some truths weaved throughout it. In this series we meet two “brothers” (in fact, claimed in the show to be “brother from another lover”), Niall and Ruben, on Niall’s wedding day. Ruben is all grunts and unsettling stares, and we don’t get too much into that interaction before we’re propelled backwards into their lives as teens in school. Niall is fearful of Ruben, who’s come back in his life after a stint in juvie. He has no choice in the matter really, because his mom has been in a romantic relationship with Ruben’s mom for quite some time. Forced to share a room, Niall makes himself small in order to avoid Ruben’s flairs of anger and violence.
Ruben quickly begins to trust in Niall after helping him cheat to pass an exam, and in return he offers up his version of kindness. For instance, he almost nearly puts his bully in a coma, and assists him in losing his virginity to his girlfriend. Despite being uncomfortable with all of these acts, Niall knows that staying close on Ruben’s good side will yield the best outcome for him. But come time for college, he recognizes it as a chance to get away from Ruben. This thought is short lived, however, and Ruben makes himself a semi-permanent staple is his dorm. After acting on feelings for gay student, Alby, Niall panics and gets Ruben to brutally attack Alby. He gets arrested, and when it comes time for Niall to lie to the court to get Ruben out of prison time, Niall can’t bring himself to do so.
Fifteen years later we meet a spiraling Niall, whose problems seem to stem mainly from him not being able to come to terms with his sexuality. He learns that Ruben’s been let out of prison early, and sprials further when he sees how successful he’s become while he’s failed at being a writer. The two evenutally put their differences aside and Niall further buries his desires by entering a relationship with Ava, who’s recently become pregnant with their child. This angers Ruben in an extremely petty way, who is apparently himself sterile, but also because Niall owes him a fair bit of money. This leaves Mona wanting, and one day, possibly out of spite, Niall sleeps with her, resulting in a pregnancy that Ruben thinks he’s successfully done himself. His jealousy gets the best of him and lands him in prison again.
Fast forward another six years and we are where we meet the brothers: at Niall’s wedding to Alby. It’s clear that Ruben has crashed it, having just gotten released from prison. It’s also clear that he has some things he needs to get off of his chest. Niall had revealed to him in prison that his son is not actually his. Add this to the lying about the man he almost killed and the money he owes him, and well, his anger gets the best of him. As unhinged as Ruben is physically, Niall really is the biggest piece of shit on this show. Despite his complete fear of being himself, he also uses people until they are basically shells. What’s worse is that Ruben is somehow the person that trusted him most in the world, and time and time again Niall threw him to the curb.
This was a really complex show from an emotional standpoint, and it was fun to sort of disect the real problems with these characters. As I said, it was neat to see that Niall was perhaps worse than Ruben because he played a mental game, whereas Ruben’s was a physical one. You can usually see Ruben’s actions coming, but Niall’s will slowly chip away at your sanity. The first episode really had me awed with it’s strangeness, but all in all this was another well delievered show from Gadd.