how to explain it or even contain it

this av club recap is hilarious for being like "typical selfish niall not taking responsibility for his ex-stepmom's suicide attempt 🙄"

i am too woke and sensitive for half man commentary like the show is pretty bleak and possibly nihilistic but i'd argue that the last episode goes against this idea that niall is "unwilling to take offered opportunities to self-reflect and improve himself." like oh he went to the sex club after alby asked him not to? oh an addict didn't immediately give up his addictions after a first date with someone so he's incorrigible? or is he incorrigible because he didn't take the opportunity to self-reflect that his mother offered him all the times she called him a degenerate? the fact that he does decide to do the thing that has scared the shit out of him all his life and tell ruben he's gay with alby's encouragement clearly shows that he is in fact receptive to the advice of others. whether or not niall grows or changes in any significant way between the end of the main plot and the wedding is up for the viewer to decide but the idea that he is unwilling to change or that he is constitutionally incapable of change is directly contradicted by what we see on screen

this line sounds really implausible for something someone like ruben would say in like 2010 but it does convince me that richard gadd was on succession tumblr/twitter back in like 2023 actually maybe it does make sense because guys in prison read a lot of self help books but my other point still stands