I'll admit that, since I have been running perenially behind on watching new episodes of Richard "Baby Reindeer" Gadd's latest televisual masterpiece Half Man, that I began this post this morning thinking that the final episode was on tonight -- then I double-checked and no, the sixth and final episode drops on Thursday night. Who knew? Probably everyone watching it, save me. Anyway I did finally catch up over the long weekend so I am ready, so so ready, to see how Mr. Gadd lands this extraordinary ship. As with his previous series it's a helluva tonal tighrope he's traversing (alliteration!) but I've found every second of it alive and fiery and dangerous-feeling -- I think it might be even better than the Baby Reindeer program? Gadd and Jamie Bell...
... are giving tremendous performances and I hope that this show proves as popular with the awards bodies as Reindeer did, although its hook of this tortured homo-erotic (homo-deranged?) friendship ("friendship"?) between two extremely damaged boys to men isn't as hooky as that earlier show's was for a wide audience, I don't think. Still it speaks very clearly to me, and I think a lot of queer men -- the self-hatred and abuse we're willing to not just accept but even eroticize... it's a show that's saying a lot very clearly and efficiently and with great humor and I hope that Gadd keeps dropping truth bombs every couple of years on us like this. What a talent. All that and I wanna climb right up and mount him there on that bench-press -- feeling fortunate and thankful for you, good Gadd sir. So what is everybody thinking of Half Man?
11 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Thursday, not Friday, Jason. And I'm mostly loving it. (Where are the Jamie gifs from Episode 4?!?)
As someone who was born into a family in which physical and mental abuse were constant (I was, gratefully, eventually adopted by the best parents ever) ... As somebody who grew up constantly bullied through nine years of school to the point that I had to seek out a reasonable jock to walk me home … As somebody who managed to drop most of the inherent baggage and landed, at 15, in Central Park for my first Gay Liberation Day (what it was called before it became commercialised as Pride) in June 1972 …
I have found myself sitting in front of a blank screen unable to move or breathe for the last five Friday mornings (“Half Man” screens at 03:00 in the morning in my time zone). Yes: all well and good with Jamie and Mr Gadd, but the writing is nothing short of sensational, and one has to really – I mean REALLY – call-out the performance of Mitchell Robertson as the younger version of Jamie. Was the courtroom scene at the end of Episode 3 not his equivalent of Ilya Rozanov’s total breakdown – in Russian – on the phone in Episode 5 of one of the those shows about hockey players?
Yes excellent call on Robertson -- both he and Stuart Campbell are every bit as good as their older counterparts and shame on me for not mentioning them. There is something so specific that this series is attuned to, such small nuances of growing up a terrified gay boy, something I've never seen portrayed this way before, with such specificity. Gadd has really proven himself anything but a fluke with this -- he's a wonder of the world.
I think I’m getting soft in my older age, but the brutal scenes are too much and I end up closing my eyes. Ruben brings back a lot of fear as a kid for me, something I’ll surely discuss in my next iteration of therapy 🤣
Your comment made me think about the violence we have to come to accept in everyday life, especially in what has been transpiring in America in the last years (I don’t live there and last visited in 2003), when government agents kill people on the streets, shoot their guns into children’s bedrooms, and send people to horrible and often life-threatening conditions in concentration camps.
I don’t have a television connection (I almost never watch TV shows; I find a way to view online the rare programmes that have attracted my attention), so I can’t speak about how much violence is shown in that medium. Surely you have seen far more graphic violence in films, in horror and sci-fi movies, crime films, domestic tragedies, and historic epics.
Why is it that the violence shown in “Half Man” has made you close your eyes? Is it too close to something in your own life experience? Or your fear of what could happen?
I am honestly curious. I would love to read more comments from viewers as to why they find this show so disturbing. I hope I am not stepping too far into Mr Adams’ hallowed territory, but this would be a great forum to exchange thoughts on “Half Man” and they way it affects us.
"I too quit smoking (2013) AND find this type of pictures cool. Also, PSA: if you're feeling like you want to start smoking again, just remind yourself "I do not want my body and house to stink like stale horseshit", then go drink one more glass of water to entertain your hands and lips. Congrats, btw."
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11 comments:
Thursday, not Friday, Jason. And I'm mostly loving it. (Where are the Jamie gifs from Episode 4?!?)
LOL how hysterical that I got the date wrong. Anyway thanks, I fuxed it, and also I added the gift of one gif per your request ;)
Thankyouverymuch (and speaking of "fuxed" how about that scene in the car...)
JFC what is with my typos -- "fuxed"??? I need to go back to bed lol
"fuxed" - fixing someone by fucking some good sense right into him - f-u-x-e-d - "fuxed"
As someone who was born into a family in which physical and mental abuse were constant (I was, gratefully, eventually adopted by the best parents ever) ... As somebody who grew up constantly bullied through nine years of school to the point that I had to seek out a reasonable jock to walk me home … As somebody who managed to drop most of the inherent baggage and landed, at 15, in Central Park for my first Gay Liberation Day (what it was called before it became commercialised as Pride) in June 1972 …
I have found myself sitting in front of a blank screen unable to move or breathe for the last five Friday mornings (“Half Man” screens at 03:00 in the morning in my time zone). Yes: all well and good with Jamie and Mr Gadd, but the writing is nothing short of sensational, and one has to really – I mean REALLY – call-out the performance of Mitchell Robertson as the younger version of Jamie. Was the courtroom scene at the end of Episode 3 not his equivalent of Ilya Rozanov’s total breakdown – in Russian – on the phone in Episode 5 of one of the those shows about hockey players?
Yes excellent call on Robertson -- both he and Stuart Campbell are every bit as good as their older counterparts and shame on me for not mentioning them. There is something so specific that this series is attuned to, such small nuances of growing up a terrified gay boy, something I've never seen portrayed this way before, with such specificity. Gadd has really proven himself anything but a fluke with this -- he's a wonder of the world.
Perhaps Favourite Moment: Wallace & Gromit socks (Episode 4)
I think I’m getting soft in my older age, but the brutal scenes are too much and I end up closing my eyes. Ruben brings back a lot of fear as a kid for me, something I’ll surely discuss in my next iteration of therapy 🤣
Your comment made me think about the violence we have to come to accept in everyday life, especially in what has been transpiring in America in the last years (I don’t live there and last visited in 2003), when government agents kill people on the streets, shoot their guns into children’s bedrooms, and send people to horrible and often life-threatening conditions in concentration camps.
I don’t have a television connection (I almost never watch TV shows; I find a way to view online the rare programmes that have attracted my attention), so I can’t speak about how much violence is shown in that medium. Surely you have seen far more graphic violence in films, in horror and sci-fi movies, crime films, domestic tragedies, and historic epics.
Why is it that the violence shown in “Half Man” has made you close your eyes? Is it too close to something in your own life experience? Or your fear of what could happen?
I am honestly curious. I would love to read more comments from viewers as to why they find this show so disturbing. I hope I am not stepping too far into Mr Adams’ hallowed territory, but this would be a great forum to exchange thoughts on “Half Man” and they way it affects us.
Deeply fascinating, upsetting show.
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