HBO's Half-Man Is Officially The Next Baby Reindeer

Published Apr 12, 2026, 10:32 PM EDT

Since Half Man marks Richard Gadd's return to the small screen as both the program creator and leading actor after Baby Reindeer, it has the potential to become as big of a hit as the award-winning Netflix series.

Why Half Man Could Be The Next Baby Reindeer

Before it landed on Netflix, Baby Reindeer was not exactly driven by strong marketing campaigns or heavy promotion. It was fairly obscure before its premiere. However, soon after its release, it became one of those lightning-in-a-bottle shows that thrive through word of mouth. The show's quality alone spoke for itself, prompting viewers to rave about it on social media.

Many other factors contributed to its success, but the piling real-life controversies surrounding its true story elements became the biggest drivers of its popularity.

Interestingly, unlike Baby Reindeer, Half Man is not an autobiographical drama. Owing to this, many aspects that favored Baby Reindeer will not help Half Man. However, after Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd has become a household name. His brilliant performance and writing in Baby Reindeer is already prompting many viewers to look forward to what he will bring to the table with Half Man.

Half Man seems significantly different from Baby Reindeer from a storytelling standpoint. It focuses on a man named Niall (Jamie Bell) whose estranged brother, Ruben, shows up at his wedding. This triggers a chain reaction of violent events that walks viewers through how their relationship has evolved since the 1980s to the present day.

Like Baby Reindeer, Half Man will seemingly walk back and forth between timelines to explore and explain why its characters behave a certain way in the present. As its intense trailer suggests, the show, like Baby Reindeer, will also dabble with themes surrounding identity and the consequences of suppressing it to fit into society.

Richard Gadd seems to be portraying a significantly different character in the show and has also seemingly put on a lot of muscle to portray Ruben. However, with Emmy-winning Richard Gadd and BAFTA-winning Jamie Bell as its leads, the HBO show already looks incredibly promising.

Why Baby Reindeer Had Such A Massive Cultural Impact

Everett

Baby Reindeer is one of the rare few shows that somehow break the prism separating viewers from TV shows. After learning about its partial autobiographical elements, audiences almost went on a witch hunt to find the real Martha, who is played by the talented Jessica Gunning in the series. The real-life Martha even ended up filing lawsuits against Gadd and the hit Netflix miniseries and even showed up on Piers Morgan's show.

Even though it was clarified that Baby Reindeer is only inspired by true events, the show had already blurred the lines between reality and fiction.

In more ways than one, this made the Netflix series even more popular. However, it would be unfair to say that Baby Reindeer only rose to fame because of the controversies surrounding it. The show's portrayal of themes surrounding trauma and identity feels deeply personal and unflinchingly honest. Some aspects of its story can also feel disturbing and a little too hard-hitting, but that is the reason why it earned unanimous acclaim.

Netflix's Baby Reindeer still holds a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 99%, and Half Man is expected to achieve something similar. Hopefully, Richard Gadd's new HBO will not disappoint and prove to be as brilliant as Baby Reindeer.

• 

  Half Man

  Release Date April 23, 2026

  Network HBO, BBC One, BBC Scotland

  Cast

  • 
  • 
  • 

    Mitchell Robertson

    Young Niall

  • 

    Stuart Campbell

    Young Ruben

• 

  Baby Reindeer

  

  10/10

  Release Date 2024 - 2024-00-00

  Directors Weronika Tofilska, Josephine Bornebusch

  • 
  • 

    Jessica Gunning

    Martha Scott