Richard Gadd’s long-awaited follow-up to Baby Reindeer has, on the surface, nothing in common with his Netflix mega-hit. All of the formal experimentation and ricocheting wit has gone, making Half Man hard to immediately love in the same manner. While the series opens with Niall (Jamie Bell) being confronted threateningly by his stepbrother Ruben (a shirtless and beefed up Gadd), the story is then told in flashbacks.
In episode one we return to 1980s Glasgow to meet the teenage Niall, a bullied and bookish boy who’s situation changes when the troubled son of his mum’s girlfriend is released from a young offenders unit for, frets Niall, “biting off someone’s nose!” Ruben is a terrifyingly tough older boy who is moved into Niall’s room at home and immediately dominates the smaller boy, physically and psychologically. He’s just another bully it seems, but as the trust builds between them, Ruben takes a Stanley knife to Niall’s bullies and his life seems to be transformed into new popularity at school.
