‘Half Man’ Stars on That Twisted Brotherly Bond & the Tragic Side of That Sex Scene

Things get off to a raucous start in the premiere of Half Man. The new miniseries, from Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd, begins with an all-too-brief introduction to the elder versions of Ruben (Gadd) and his “brother from another lover,” Niall (Jamie Bell), wrapped up in a tense, but perplexing exchange that turns violent. Warning: Spoilers for Half Man‘s series premiere ahead!

More is certain to come from this scene, as Ruben has promised he’ll “lose [him] forever,” but the action quickly moves back in time to the ’90s to show them in younger forms (with Stuart Campbell portraying Ruben, while Mitchell Robertson plays the mousy Niall) and at the start of their relationship. Here, we learn the reason for their uniquely intense bond.

Ruben, who was sent to jail for his violent actions as a child, is welcomed to live in Niall’s home by their mothers, who have quietly become life partners. Niall has been cruelly bullied at school, and, given Ruben’s past, he is petrified of what his return will bring. However, his vulnerabilities are soon revealed when Ruben’s father arrives outside the house in the middle of the night with a threatening outburst, leaving Ruben shivering and clinging to Niall in his bed all night long. Plus, Niall catches Ruben in a moment of rare vulnerability as he dances without abandon.

For Stuart Campbell, that onslaught of fear informs his entire portrayal of the character throughout his portion of the story. “It’s quite subtle, but it was like an ever-present thing for me to feel [that] because I needed to understand, as an actor, my job during rehearsals is, ‘Why? What is the violence that he’s perpetrating? What is the fear? What is the intensity?’ So I kind of had that in the back of my head, pretty much in every scene,” the actor tells TV Insider. “With the dad, it’s a terrifying moment seeing him.”

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Soon, the swagger-emanating Ruben becomes Niall’s personal bodyguard and fiercest advocate, silencing his detractors with the power of his fists.

As the boys forge their initial bond, Niall is pressured by their mothers to help Ruben keep his place in school by helping him to take a crucial exam, and Niall obliges by grabbing his test after Ruben creates a distraction and putting the right answers down for him.

As for whether it is the mothers’ pressure or his own desire to have Ruben stick around that guides his hand, Mitchell Robertson guesses, “I think it leans more instinctually. I want to say I feel like it leans more towards Niall wanting Ruben to stay in school. I think it’s more to do with his own protection … because it’s quite an instinctual moment that he has in order to pick up [the test]. And I think it comes from a place of wanting that safety, that physical safety, and maybe also there’s a part of it as well where he actually maybe just wants him to stay.”

“It’s quite subtle, like in the dancing scene and others … It’s not so much that we’ve just immediately completely gelled, but I feel like there’s almost this unspoken energy between us,” Campbell agrees.

What really brings them together, though, is the moment when Ruben brings home his girlfriend to have sex in their shared room and knows that Niall is awake and watching. Instead of lashing out at him, he encourages Niall to sleep with his girlfriend while he talks him through it. Ruben has a light heart about the whole thing, but for Niall, the moment of losing his virginity in this way is monumental … and not necessarily in a good way.

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“It’s a tricky one because it does clearly seem to bring them closer together. But I think also the flip side of that also reinforces to Niall his lack of autonomy that he has, which is quite apparent throughout Episode 1 and throughout the series in general,” Robertson says of the scene. “So, really, there’s two sides to that for Niall for sure.”

However, Campbell thinks that for Ruben, he’s just being impulsive and unaware of the significance of the moment. “I don’t think Ruben thought it would be as big a deal as it became, or in the aftermath, it was. I think it’s sort of a jokey thing that he thought that he would do, which is obviously, clearly crazy, but then only in the aftermath, in the smoking weed scene afterwards in the bedroom that we kind of — I don’t know. It’s my feeling that he didn’t think it was going to connect them, but then it did.”

Indeed, as the two then march into school, Niall’s head is held high and on top of the world with Ruben by his side.

The premiere is bookended, though, with a return to the warring elder versions of the two, as Ruben grunts over Niall’s now-broken body. He assures his “Bambi” that he’s going to be “fine” and guides his breathing just like he did when they were boys in that intimate moment. But then, he promises “it’ll be over soon” before shoving his hand over Niall’s nose and mouth. Where did it all go so wrong?

Half Man, Thursdays, 9/8c, HBO & HBO Max