Half Man from Baby Reindeer creator scores 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, new episode airs Thursday

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• 🔥 Quick Facts
• Baby Reindeer Creator Takes on Male Relationships in HBO Drug Drama
• Ruben versus Niall, Two Halves That Cannot Be Made Whole
• Critical Reception Mixed But Intrigued by Show’s Unflinching Approach
• Episode Release Schedule Spaced Weekly Through Late May
• What Makes Half Man Different From Baby Reindeer, and Why That Matters for May
  • Watch the Official Trailer:
  • Sources

Richard Gadd’s new HBO series Half Man has arrived with a surprising 76% Rotten Tomatoes score. The Baby Reindeer creator stars alongside Jamie Bell in this brutally intimate drama, and episode 3 drops Thursday, May 7.

Baby Reindeer Creator Takes on Male Relationships in HBO Drug Drama

Richard Gadd exploded onto the cultural map with Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, which dominated streaming in 2024 with a near-perfect 99% Rotten Tomatoes score. That show explored stalking and trauma through a deeply personal lens. Half Man dives into different psychological territory, examining how two men from very different worlds become brothers after their mothers fall in love in 1980s Scotland.

According to Gadd, the show isn’t about toxic masculinity so much as it is about repression and the difficulty of male emotional connection. The series spans approximately four decades, flashing between the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and present day to reveal the cost of silent suffering.

Ruben versus Niall, Two Halves That Cannot Be Made Whole

The central conflict drives between two polar opposites. Ruben, played by Gadd himself, is volatile and physically intimidating, a man who spent time in juvenile detention. Niall, portrayed by accomplished actor Jamie Bell, is quiet, sensitive, and self-doubting. The show documents their complicated love over 40 years, a relationship neither can express through healthy intimacy.

During the interview with NPR, Gadd explained that he deliberately cast himself against type, bulking up significantly in the gym to embody the hyper-masculine Ruben. He described the relationship between his character and Bell’s Niall as one where the boxes people meet in become increasingly blurred as the narrative unfolds, challenging every expectation about masculinity and brotherhood.

Critical Reception Mixed But Intrigued by Show’s Unflinching Approach

Rating Source	Score
Rotten Tomatoes Critics	76% (54 reviews)
Audience Rating	76% (50+ votes)
IMDb User Rating	7.3/10
Critical Consensus	Certified Fresh

The Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads, “Richard Gadd delivers a broodingly bleak sophomore effort that dares to plumb the depths of toxic masculinity and repression.” Variety’s Aramide Tinubu called it “a devastatingly brutal watch,” while The Times praised the dialogue as “unexpectedly dazzling.” However, The Spectator warned of “relentless misery,” signaling this is not easy viewing.

“I like to think, as the show progresses, the boxes in which we meet them in become a bit more blurred and a bit more complicated.”

— Richard Gadd, Creator and Star

Episode Release Schedule Spaced Weekly Through Late May

Half Man follows a one-episode-per-week rollout strategy on HBO Max, building anticipation rather than flooding the platform all at once. Episodes 1 and 2 have already aired on April 23 and April 30 respectively. Episode 3 premieres Thursday, May 7 at 9 PM ET, with episodes 4, 5, and 6 following on May 14, May 21, and May 28 respectively. On the BBC side, the show airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer simultaneously with slightly different scheduling.

For HBO Max subscribers, episodes become available the morning after air in certain regions, though the main Thursday evening release remains the global standard. The measured pace has allowed critics to binge early and voice their reviews, but casual viewers get time between episodes to absorb each chapter’s emotional weight.

What Makes Half Man Different From Baby Reindeer, and Why That Matters for May

While Baby Reindeer mined one man’s personal trauma (stalking, sexual abuse) with documentary-like precision, Half Man expands the lens to explore universal masculine struggle. Gadd constructed a narrative that moves backward through time, using the violent eruption at Niall’s wedding as a catalyst to unearth decades of unresolved tension. The show examines how masculinity is performed, how fear operates differently in male relationships, and what happens when vulnerability is coded as weakness. Will the final three episodes deliver on this psychological promise, or will darkness without redemption leave audiences exhausted?

Sources

• NPR – Richard Gadd interview on Baby Reindeer, Half Man, and toxic masculinity (April 30, 2026)
• Rotten Tomatoes – Half Man Season 1 critic and audience scores (76% certified fresh)
• Cosmopolitan – Episode release schedule and cast information (April 24, 2026)