Half Man Season 1 Episode 5 Delivers This Show’s Most Effed Up Hour Yet — Review

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

4

In an interview with AV Club*, Half Man’s creator Richard Gadd said he doesn’t want to tell people what to take away from his latest work.

“To me, art is at its most interesting when it’s left open to interpretation so people can take what they need from it,” he said.

“How anyone receives this show emotionally or politically is because that’s their perception of it.”

It’s certainly an interesting take, but it helps explain why no one can pin down the show’s message.

I’ve explored thoughts from across the internet, and people seem to be picking one thing or the other as the main point.

For that, Gadd has succeeded, but at best, that can lead to a lot of confusion.

If you’ve followed my coverage of the past four episodes, you know my biggest issue is that it doesn’t feel complete. It wants us to make a lot of assumptions or fill in the gaps, which can get old really fast.

So we are at the point where when I realize something is not working, I try to come up with fixes.

Euphoria, You, Desperate Housewives, Dexter — these are shows that are largely successful because of narration.

The presence of a narrator ensures that you’re not scrambling for the first ten minutes to piece together clues while a fresh arc is unfolding.

If Half Man Season 1 Episode 1 had started with a voiceover, think “You’re wondering how we got here,” it would have helped with the jarring time jumps that usually lead to a complete change of tone. In the show’s fifth hour, much has changed as Ruben and Niall settle into their regular lives.

It’s possibly one of the most revealing, but also the messiest, that once again changes how we view both characters.

Finally, we also get closer to nailing down the meaning of the title “Half Man.”

We Are All Performing

You’ll hear phrases like “men are supposed to be like this,” or “women don’t do that.”

It’s the great gender performance that has existed since time immemorial as humans try to categorize each other in neat little boxes. Life is simpler when you know what you’re supposed to do and what your neighbor should do, too.

But reality doesn’t care what you expect.

On Half Man Season 1 Episode 5, Ruben and Niall are fighting battles against a reality bent on ending their performance.

It’s the first time there has been a semblance of equality between them, and maybe that’s what Niall was gunning for with his heteronormative facade.

For someone who could articulate the complex relationship between society and homosexuality, I didn’t expect Niall to go down this route.

Even when he became addicted to anonymous sex, I attributed it to his general failures in life. But again, that’s our Niall — he will use everything and everyone to avoid making a decision in his life.

With Ruben’s return, he resolves to abandon anything and everything gay.

Some conversation therapy and a girlfriend convince him he’s fixed, but when a baby enters the picture, reality starts to crack.

Suddenly, he’s forced to confront the responsibilities of being a father and partner. 

And with that, the performance breaks. He’s back to engaging in risky sexual behaviors while burning down the world around him.

Elsewhere, reality also breaks Ruben.

He’s a man with a girl. That means she’s supposed to stay home and wait for him to bring back the bread. He’s supposed to give her children and make sure he keeps other men away.

He fails in those counts, and suddenly, masculinity breaks for him. He’s no longer a complete man; he’s half a man. Meanwhile, here’s Niall — queer, jobless, scared — and he has the other half that Ruben can’t get.

That’s my read of the situation. Both are half men in two ways, and as fate would have it, they happened to cross paths and become codependent.

That codependence showed up in weird protectiveness and crossing of sexual boundaries.

But then it got fucked up as they grew older.

We Are Back, Violence and All

Those fucked up parts — the ones that make this show feel so overwhelming and uncomfortable to watch — are on full display here.

While the last few episodes have taken a break from the violence and broken sexual dynamics, 65 minutes provide plenty of time to dive back in.

I did not miss it one bit.

Here’s where I begin to fill in the gaps, because Ruben’s behavior simply doesn’t make sense at a very basic level. With Niall, one can understand growing up gay in a homophobic world, so he’s almost what you’d expect, but what happened to Ruben?

The strongest theory is that he faced multifaceted abuse from his father.

Ruben’s father has been a subject, albeit remotely, but we never really learn about him. Yet he feels important enough to keep mentioning.

Children get shaped by early childhood experiences a lot, and with Ruben, it feels like every idea he has about masculinity and relationships comes from a specific place.

And I suspect it has nothing to do with society, because it’s too messed up.

If he were abused sexually, it would explain the blinding anger that makes him stomp on a man’s head like it’s a watermelon.

It would explain why Maura kept defending him, even though he was what people would rightly call a monster.

Coupled with ideas about what men are supposed to be, he took the role of protector with Niall seriously, but protection comes with expectations.

He expected Niall to submit to him in every way, and would get that submission if it was the last thing he did.

Niall reciprocated and became the support system — the anchor.

Years later, he demands the same from his wife.

Cheating on the exams for Ruben’s sake turned into college roommates and eventually into sleeping with Ruben’s wife.

In a fucked up way, I think Niall was trying to save Ruben by giving Ruben’s wife what Ruben couldn’t: a baby.

Jesus, this is just too much. And I think the worst is yet to come.

Gut Check

Episode 5 feels like something has finally clicked, at least for me. Not because the show offers the missing piece but because time has passed and I’ve fallen into the show’s rhythm and gotten comfortable enough to start making assumptions.

Intrusive Thoughts

• If someone was passing while Ruben was groping and assaulting Niall, it would be traumatizing.

• You couldn’t pay me enough to do what Gadd does to his body for this role.

• Honestly, Niall, I’d pass out too.

Over to you, Half Man Fanatics.

How are you feeling about this episode? Ruben’s death: murder or accident?

Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.

Say something in the comments, share if you’re moved to, and keep reading. Independent voices need readers like you.

^{*AV Club Interview}