Richard Gadd on how much Half Man is influenced by the manosphere
The synopsis for Richard Gadd’s new drama Half Man says that it explores “brotherhood, violence and the intense fragility of male relationships” – and it arrives at a time when those topics are front and centre of a societal and media conversation. Last year, Netflix hit Adolescence looked at violence among young men and touched on the manosphere and incel culture, while Louis Theroux’s most recent documentary, Inside the Manosphere, tackled the internet subculture head on when it was released in March. In spite of all this interest in the topic, Gadd has revealed that he didn’t intend Half Man to be a specific exploration of either toxic masculinity or the manosphere – and was instead based on a “general male problem” he wanted to look at. When speaking at a Q&A for the series, Gadd was asked whether he was inspired by toxic masculinity or the manosphere when writing to which he said: “I’m aware of them. I’m kind of aware of them even more now than I was when I was writing it. …
