Half Man is a breathless, brutal drama that puts the fear of Gadd into you

Half Man is a breathless, brutal drama that puts the fear of Gadd into you6 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePete AllisonCulture reporterBBC/Mam Tor Productions/HBO/Sebastian NevolsBBC One drama Half Man was created and written by Richard Gadd (R), who plays its lead, Ruben, opposite Jamie Bell (L), who plays NiallIf Ruben Pallister - the ferocious lead in BBC One drama Half Man - was in a room with any of TV's most brutal creations, you'd back him to leave it alive.The adult version of Ruben is played by series creator and writer Richard Gadd, who had his TV breakthrough with Netflix hit Baby Reindeer.At times Half Man is a searing hot take on masculinity - but there is far more in Gadd's smelting pot here.Its release comes a year after Adolescence, which posed questions about why teenager Jamie Miller became a killer, leading viewers - and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer - to question the influence of the corrosive impact of social media and misogynist influencers, on some teenage boys.Earlier this year, Louis Theroux's Inside the Manosphere documentary offered a glimpse at what content creators are like away from young men's algorithms.But Half Man starts long before smartphones and streaming, while the questions it poses are broader, with a focus on fear.This article includes discussion of Half Man but does not contain major spoilers. BBC/Mam Tor Productions/Anne BinckebanckThe younger version of Ruben is played by Stuart CampbellFor Ruben, his rage bubbles and boils over into wild acts of violence - an anger too hot for authorities to handle.Half Man waits to spell out precisely what Ruben experienced as a child, but plenty of dots can be joined as the story swings back and forth through time.His father is a swaying shape, yelling slurs into shadows from beneath his son's bedroom window.His mother doesn't acknowledge that Ruben is a loose cannon loaded with vast quantities of gunpowder.And so he continues bursting...