Half Man BBC iplayer

I started watching it yesterday but it made me a bit sad.

It did me but it got better albeit still being very violent. I hate watching anything where someone is being bullied at school. I balance it out by watching Beyond Paradise as well.

Watched episode two yesterday. It doesn’t lighten up I’m afraid. Trouble is I’m committed to watching it now to see how it pans out but I wish I didn’t have to. Hayley Campbell on Must Watch said she binge watched it over two days but ‘wouldn’t recommend doing so’ to anyone else.

Well I stuck with it but that’s six hours of my life I won’t get back. Ended up having to Google what actually happened in the end only to find that the writer struggled with the ending but likes ambiguous endings which, to me, are a cop out. I wonder if he has questioned whether viewers like investing their time watching something to find out what happened only to be no wiser at the end of six episodes than they were at the beginning. I think not.I haven’t put spoiler alert at the top of this by the way as I think I’m the only person on here ( and possibly the world) stupid enough to continue watching this depressing series.

I’ve watched the first episode and really didn’t like it but I want to know what happens.

There’s a radio times review that explains it. I’m ok with watching hard hitting stuff ( eg some of the recent series about The Troubles). But there was a depressing dreariness about this that I disliked. It’s still had rave reviews though but there aren’t many things that I regret watching and this is one of them. Thank goodness it was only six episodes. I didn’t realise that the main character was played by the actor who found fame as Billy Elliott. And there was only one likeable character in the whole series, a guy called Alby. A good series imo is one in which you feel some sort of sympathy for even bad characters but, apart from Alby I didn’t care what happened to any of them….

Thanks MayBee70 I won't watch this. I want to be entertained not depressed.

Someone emailed in to Must Watch to say they don’t mind watching grim things at the cinema but they don’t want to have stuff like that on the tv in their living room. The pundits on Must Watch disagreed with it but I totally get what they meant. I guess that if you want to watch something about toxic masculinity Adolescence is the thing to watch but I can’t access that; I assume that series puts out the same message but in a more palatable way? I did find the first two episodes quite moving because it saddens me that some young people have to hide and suppress their sexuality ( although, thankfully it isn’t as bad now as it used to be) but after that I just found it unpleasant.

Watched the first half hour but couldn’t bear it.
Too upsetting and depressing.

MayBee70

Well I stuck with it but that’s six hours of my life I won’t get back. Ended up having to Google what actually happened in the end only to find that the writer struggled with the ending but likes ambiguous endings which, to me, are a cop out. I wonder if he has questioned whether viewers like investing their time watching something to find out what happened only to be no wiser at the end of six episodes than they were at the beginning. I think not.I haven’t put spoiler alert at the top of this by the way as I think I’m the only person on here ( and possibly the world) stupid enough to continue watching this depressing series.

I have watched it all, I am in a minority as I thought it was excellent, very Shakespearean. The ending wasn’t ambiguous at all, the penultimate episode and the last episode made the outcome clear.

Gave it a go but it wasn't for us; too dark and depressing.

Jane43

MayBee70

Well I stuck with it but that’s six hours of my life I won’t get back. Ended up having to Google what actually happened in the end only to find that the writer struggled with the ending but likes ambiguous endings which, to me, are a cop out. I wonder if he has questioned whether viewers like investing their time watching something to find out what happened only to be no wiser at the end of six episodes than they were at the beginning. I think not.I haven’t put spoiler alert at the top of this by the way as I think I’m the only person on here ( and possibly the world) stupid enough to continue watching this depressing series.

I have watched it all, I am in a minority as I thought it was excellent, very Shakespearean. The ending wasn’t ambiguous at all, the penultimate episode and the last episode made the outcome clear.

But this is what the writer said of it…
SPOILER ALERT
“Gadd is protective of the ending, preferring that people take what they want from it, and he left things intentionally ambiguous. “In a roundabout way, the show has asked you to fill in the gaps between episodes—the years that go by, the things that have happened. Therefore, it felt fitting in a lot of ways, that for a fundamentally contorted and complicated relationship, that there was an ending that was left open to interpretation,” says Gadd”

I don’t see how I could have interpreted the ending any other way but if that’s what he said so be it.