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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
15
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
RogerEbert.comApr 22, 2026
Season 1 Review:
Often, the monologues feel better suited to a play than they do to television. But the density and layered nature of the writing win the day. “Half Man” makes one thing abundantly clear: Everyone else churning out scripts for TV is a writer. Richard Gadd is a bloody artist.
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The GuardianApr 21, 2026
Season 1 Review:
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.
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Season 1 Review:
In “Half Man,” Gadd’s treatment of these themes [internalized homophobia, the sexual assault of men, and the evasion of blame] is richer and more mature. .... The show’s plotting and Niall’s exquisite complexity more than make up for Ruben’s relative flatness. .... The sad but realistic turns in their lives are engrossing, as is their slow convergence.
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TV InsiderApr 21, 2026
Season 1 Review:
Their sordid cycle of disappointment, humiliation and bitter recrimination is riveting, but also at times predictable, as we nervously begin to expect the worst even in rare moments of harmony, and creator-writer Gadd never fails to deliver on that threatened promise.
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Season 1 Review:
Perhaps Half Man‘s biggest flaw is the heavy-handed way in which Ruben menaces over the entire series. There are moments when Gadd is so ominous as Ruben it almost takes you out of the show’s dramatic atmosphere. .... Niall and Ruben’s journey together is worth sticking around for.
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ColliderApr 21, 2026
Season 1 Review:
Despite several flaws, which include the fact that the series barely has any female characters who matter at all (aside from Lori), Half Man is still masterfully tense, shining most when it centers around its two leading characters and their complicated relationship.
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Season 1 Review:
Half Man is most provocatively compelling when it paints in shades of gray, when Ruben and Niall are young and their instincts are unclear to each other and to themselves. But as the miniseries exits adolescence, Half Man feels increasingly afraid of the messiness it initially embraced, and increasingly didactic.
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Season 1 Review:
Gadd has a knack for creating appealing, recognizably human side characters. But they can’t make up for the lack of substance at the center of “Half Man.” .... It’s probably not a good sign when the only people you care about in a show are the ones your hero mistreats.
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