On the review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 76% based on 54 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Richard Gadd delivers a broodingly bleak sophomore effort that dares to plumb the depths of toxic masculinity and repression in a complex and unsettling tale that makes for unsettlingly good TV." On
Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the series holds a score of 67 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Reviewing for
The Guardian,
Lucy Mangan gave the series five stars out of five, stating: "
Half Man is a bleak and brilliant thing. It has its weak spots – the women are underwritten... and I’m not sure I buy the final detonation, which sets up the scene in the barn – but these are quibbles. Gadd’s drama is brave and blazing... If Jack Thorne’s
Adolescence is to be shown in schools,
Half Man needs to be shown in any place men gather."
The Independent critic Nick Hilton was more critical, awarding the series two out of five stars, stating: "It feels like a show in search of meaning, a plot looking for a story – and, frankly, it’s a huge misfire... it’s hard to escape the nagging suspicion that Gadd’s sophomore programme is a calculated attempt to make something brave and startling and important and all the other adjectives that were applied, more authentically, to
Baby Reindeer." In her review for the
BBC,
Caryn James gave the series four out of five stars, writing: "Even when the characters are unrelatable, though, Gadd's power as a writer comes through. He doesn't ask for pity for these damaged men. He successfully asks for understanding and sympathy, and does that in his distinct, jolting, culturally resonant voice."
Accolades == References ==