Half Man; Saint-Pierre

“Baby Reindeer was to 2024 what Adolescence was to 2025: a Netflix breakout hit that dominated the discourse and evoked strong opinions, even in people who had never seen it. The semi-autobiographical tale of one man and his stalker, it was television that dared you to look away. Now its writer and star, Richard Gadd, is back with a new project. And where Baby Reindeer was horribly compelling, Half Man (BBC1/BBC iPlayer) is mostly just horrible. It’s a drama about men. Male violence, male vulnerability, male sexuality and shame. The violence dominates. “Toxic masculinity” is a phrase applied to everything these days, but here it is bone deep.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“If you found the serial stalking and creepy terror of Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer a bit stressful and difficult, then strap in. His next drama — following two men from adolescence to adulthood in the cold, grey, neon-lit streets of Glasgow — makes that feel like a CBeebies programme by comparison and will probably have you wanting to head to a dark room and put a towel on your head. Half Man (iPlayer) is many things, but I wouldn’t call it a date-night watch.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“As a writer, director and actor, Gadd has been in high demand ever since his breakout Netflix drama, Baby Reindeer, fictionalised his own struggles with a stalker. That show was based on his personal experiences, which he stress-tested in an acclaimed Edinburgh stage show and then successfully translated to the screen (though a messy fall-out followed). It’s not easy to follow such an intensely personal project. Do you try to repeat the formula, drawing again from your personal life, and run the risk of confining your pony to a single trick? Or do you push back against your breakthrough and do something completely different? With Half Man – produced for the BBC in collaboration with HBO, the world’s most prestigious broadcaster – Gadd appears caught in two minds. It feels like a show in search of meaning, a plot looking for a story – and frankly, it’s a huge misfire.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“Half Man is a bleak and brilliant thing. It has its weak spots – the women are underwritten, with Niall’s mum (Neve McIntosh) seeming particularly obtuse regarding Ruben and his relationship with her son, and I’m not sure I buy the final detonation, which sets up the scene in the barn – but these are quibbles. Gadd’s drama is brave and blazing. It leaves you with that rare and precious feeling that everyone involved – Gadd, of course, who has once again pulled out his viscera, spread them over the page and taken a scalpel to every bloody organ, but every actor too (Bell is on career-best form and then some here) – has given us the very best of themselves. You cannot, in any meaningful sense, find it wanting. If Jack Thorne’s Adolescence is to be shown in schools, Half Man needs to be shown in any place men gather. Ruben is an extreme case of – well, everything – but the fact that he exists anywhere on a scale for 48% of a population suggests that none of it can be OK. Let Gadd show them why.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“With shades of Shetland as well as Death In Paradise, this promising series has a dash of darkness to offset the cosy sweetness. You’ll recognise Josephine from two stints on the Caribbean show, as DS Florence Cassell. Her character was permanently written out: pursued by vengeful drug traffickers, she entered the witness protection scheme and vanished. Could Arch really be Florence under her new identity? They certainly look alike…”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail