Half Man Final Analysis

Richard Gadd Shows Two Sides of Toxic Masculinity in The Same Coin

Spoilers for Half Man below

Watching Half Man, without question one of the best shows of 2026, two different thoughts occur to me. On a creative level Richard Gadd has with this follow-up series to Baby Reindeer established himself as one of the unquestioned breakout talents of this decade as a creative force and a rival to such other current masters as Vince Gilligan and Noah Hawley for sheer genius in writing. And on a thematic level it proves to me at least why Adolescence struck me as a derivative story that had nothing really interesting to say about the subject of toxic masculinity while Half Man actually does have something to say and unlike the latter series, doesn’t shy away from every aspect of it: the filthy sexual talk, how much it filters down at every conceivable level and most horrifyingly the reality of the violence, something Adolescence never even hinted at.

Richard Gadd’s work as Rueben is extraordinary. Buffed up, with every sentence out of his mouth the kind of braggadocio and sexist talk, groping men’s genitals through their clothes, with violence in every moment about him, talking what makes a…