Warning: this article contains spoilers for A Man in Full.
Netflix has been adapting some incredible classic American novels for a while now, and one project with a stellar cast that demands to be seen is the wonderful A Man in Full.
A Man in Full is based on a Tom Wolfe novel of the same name, and is an ensemble drama that follows a group of Atlanta elites. The cast of characters include politicians, new money moguls, and the best legal minds in the city.
The show, like the book, tackles the complexities of living in Atlanta, one of the most racially mixed cities in the U.S. The main protagonist is Charlie Croker, a former football star turned real estate king who is on the verge of losing everything. We also spend a large amount of time with many other characters, whose narratives are expertly woven in.
A Man in Full is a captivating show with a wonderful cast, but one of its most talked about aspects is its ending, which has led to a fair amount of debate on and offline. Read on to find out more about the ending of A Man in Full.
What is A Man in Full about?
A Man in Full takes place in the modern day (the book is set in the late 20th century) and tells the story of a number of Black and white characters, nearly all of whom are taken from the city’s high society.
Charles Croker is the centre of the story. A wealthy real estate tycoon who has surrounded himself with the finer things in life, he maintains the appearance of wealth while his company struggles with low occupancy rates and an ocean of debt. His first wife, Martha, is also struggling in a slightly different way: Without her husband’s presence and wealth, she finds her place at the best tables slipping away.
Croker’s banker rival, Raymond Peepgass, is trying to make hay from Croker’s failures, all while the well-regarded attorney, Roger White, is defending Croker’s assistant in court. And, in the background of all this backstabbing between elites sits Atlanta, a city that might just be on the edge of an explosion as racial tensions move from a simmer to a boil.
Who stars in A Man in Full?
A Man in Full has a truly incredible cast list. Jeff Daniels does a magnificent job as Charlie Croker, the real estate mogul who is on the edge of failure. His status obsessed ex-spouse, Martha, is played by the legendary Diane Lane.
Tom Pelphrey takes on the part of Raymond Peepgrass, Croker’s sneaky rival, and Aml Ameen is Roger White, the high-profile lawyer who is trying to prove Charlie’s assistant, Conrad (Jon Michael Hill), is innocent of the charges he faces.
Other big names include Chante Adams (Roxanne Roxanne), Sarah Jones (For All Mankind), Lucy Liu (Ally McBeal and one of the most iconic Futurama cameos in the beloved series), and William Jackson Harper (The Good Place).
A Man in Full ending, explained
There are a few different threads that get woven up (or not) at the end of A Man in Full. The final scenes begin with Conrad about to find out whether he will face prison time for fighting back against a police officer who assaulted him. White manages to get him off after obtaining a video of the officer’s violent assault.
All the while, Charlie is at his alma mater Georgia Tech, where he was one of the most successful football players on the school team. Atlanta’s mayor, Wes Jordan (Jackson Harper) offers to help Charlie out with the debt he’s drowning in, but only under the condition that Charlie use his speech to the university to claim Jordan’s opponent, Norman Bagovitch (John Lacy), sexually assaulted Charlie’s ex-wife’s best friend, Joyce (Liu), the latter of whom wants it kept quiet so she can try to move on. In a moment of moral fortitude, he ignores the opportunity to help himself, and doesn’t mention the assault.
Instead, Charlie goes to his ex-wife’s house, where he finds her having sex with Raymond. Martha leaves the room to call the police, only for Charlie to use the opportunity to strangle Ray to death. Just as he is considering letting go, Charlie himself suffers from a heart attack, crushing his opponent’s windpipe before dying himself. The series ends with Ray being carried out in a body bag, and Charlie lying dead upstairs.