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| 16 Shows Like 'Half Man' You Need to Watch Next If HBO Max’s Brutal Friendship Drama Left You Reeling. (Credits: HBO) |
Half Man has landed with the sort of emotional punch that lingers long after the credits. Created by Richard Gadd, the HBO Max drama tracks four decades of loyalty, chaos, resentment and affection between Niall Kennedy and Ruben Pallister — two men tied together by a bond that feels equal parts brotherhood and slow-motion disaster.
If that messy mix of violence, tenderness, memory and masculinity got under your skin, there are plenty more series ready to ruin your week in the best possible way.
Viewers online have called Half Man “painfully honest”, “hard to watch but impossible to stop watching”, and “the kind of drama that makes you text your oldest mate at 2am”.
Others were split by its darker turns, with some saying Ruben is unforgettable and others saying he’s exactly the mate you’d block forever. Fair enough.
16 TV Shows Like Half Man With Twisted Friendships and Emotional Drama
If you want more stories about damaged men making baffling decisions, difficult friendships, loyalty gone sideways and families held together with string, start here.
ICYMI: Is HALF MAN Based on a True Story?
1. Gomorrah
If Half Man shows friendship curdling over time, Gomorrah does the same through organised crime.
Set in Naples, the Italian powerhouse follows Ciro Di Marzio and Gennaro Savastano as ambition, survival and shifting loyalties drag them through one brutal chapter after another. Their relationship changes constantly: allies, rivals, almost-brothers, full-time headaches.
It is ruthless, stylish and emotionally sharper than many expect. Fans still praise it for showing how power destroys trust. If Ruben and Niall felt toxic yet strangely loyal, this is premium viewing.
2. Top Boy
Few shows capture pressure, pride and survival quite like Top Boy. Set in East London, it follows Dushane and Sully, two men whose friendship survives business disputes, ego clashes and enough tension to power a city block.
Like Half Man, it understands that men often say “I’m fine” while clearly being one inconvenience away from collapse. It is sharp, humane and never romanticises the damage around its characters.
3. Brotherhood
This underrated gem follows brothers Tommy and Michael Caffee, one in politics, one in crime. Naturally, this creates a calm and healthy family environment. Not.
Brotherhood excels at showing how blood ties become burdens. If you liked Half Man exploring how love and resentment can exist in the same room, this one delivers in spades.
4. Kingdom
Set around an MMA gym in California, Kingdom uses fighting as backdrop for family dysfunction, addiction, insecurity and emotional wreckage. Alvey Kulina tries to run a business while barely keeping his own house standing.
It shares Half Man’s interest in male identity and violence as performance. Tough men, fragile interiors, terrible communication skills — the usual.
5. Ray Donovan
Ray Donovan fixes rich people’s problems while failing magnificently at fixing his own life. The arrival of his father Mickey Donovan turns everything messier.
If Half Man worked for you because affection and damage kept arriving hand in hand, this series hits similar notes. It is slick, funny, tense and packed with family wounds no plaster could cover.
6. Animal Kingdom
After his mother dies, Joshua Cody moves in with a criminal family led by the unforgettable Janine “Smurf” Cody. That decision goes about as well as expected.
This series thrives on loyalty tests, emotional manipulation and family ties that feel more like traps. Viewers who liked Half Man’s psychological pull should absolutely queue this up.
7. Sons of Anarchy
Motorcycles, loyalty speeches, betrayals, father issues, more betrayals. Sons of Anarchy remains one of TV’s strongest portraits of brotherhood turning corrosive.
Jax Teller struggles between family duty and personal conscience, much like Niall trying to make sense of a bond that keeps hurting him. If you enjoy drama where everyone needs therapy and nobody goes, here you are.
8. The Shield
Before antiheroes became trendy, Vic Mackey was already causing chaos. The Shield follows corrupt policing, blurred morality and partnerships built on fear as much as trust.
Like Half Man, it asks what happens when loyalty becomes an excuse for cruelty. The answer, unsurprisingly, is nothing good.
9. Love/Hate
This Irish crime drama is tense, intimate and brilliantly acted. It follows a Dublin gang where friendships and family links are constantly tested by violence and greed.
What makes it similar to Half Man is not just crime, but emotional fallout. Every bad choice ripples outward. Every “small problem” becomes three disasters by next Tuesday.
10. Snowfall
Set during 1980s Los Angeles, Snowfall charts ambition, economics and community collapse through the rise of Franklin Saint. It is one of the smartest crime dramas of recent years.
While broader in scope than Half Man, it shares the same tragic understanding: people can love each other deeply while dragging each other into ruin.
11. Kin
The Irish drama Kin centres on the Kinsella family as conflict with rival groups escalates. It is tense, polished and full of relationships under pressure.
If Half Man hooked you with the idea that loyalty can save you and destroy you in the same breath, Kin deserves your time.
12. This Is England ’86
Not all damage comes with gang wars or guns. This Is England ’86 explores working-class friendships, growing pains and emotional wounds with devastating honesty.
It captures young men trying to become adults without the tools to do so. That emotional awkwardness and buried pain makes it a perfect companion piece to Half Man.
13. The Bear
Yes, it is about a kitchen. No, it is not relaxing. The Bear is really about grief, masculinity, rage, loyalty and people trying to love each other while shouting over stainless steel counters.
If Half Man appealed because relationships felt raw and unpredictable, this modern hit absolutely belongs on the list.
14. Peaky Blinders
Behind the swagger, Peaky Blinders is about trauma, brotherhood and men carrying damage like designer coats. Tommy Shelby leads, schemes and emotionally malfunctions in equal measure.
Fans of Half Man’s long-term character shifts will appreciate how history changes everyone here.
15. Mr Inbetween
This Australian series follows a hitman juggling work, fatherhood and friendship. Somehow it is funny, moving and terrifying at once.
It shares Half Man’s gift for showing violence next to tenderness without warning. One minute you laugh, next minute you question humanity.
16. Shameless (UK)
If you want something rougher, warmer and gloriously chaotic, the original Shameless offers families surviving dysfunction through wit and stubbornness.
It is less grim than Half Man, but the same interest in damaged people loving badly runs throughout. Sometimes affection arrives looking like a bad decision.
Half Man has clearly struck a nerve because it understands a truth many dramas avoid: some relationships shape your life even when they should have ended years ago.
Which of these shows hits hardest for you — and did Ruben remind you of someone you wisely no longer answer messages from?