Episode Guide
I Have a Rotting Finger -| Review Score – 3/5 We’re Losing Time -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Diane… We’re in Trouble -| Review Score – 3/5 Another Byron, Another Hazel -| Review Score – 3.5/5 You’re Not the First -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Alice? Are You Listening? -| Review Score – 2.5/5 Under Open Sky – 4/5 Hazel vs. Hazel -| Review Score – 3/5
‘Made for Love’ Season 2 Review
Season 2 of Made for Love is as zany and delightfully weird as ever. Starring Cristin Milioti, Ray Romano, and Billy Magnussen, the satirical dark comedy returns to its Hub setting to focus further on Hazel’s (Milioti) and Byron’s (Magnussen) unsettling marital dynamic. Made for Love Season 1, based on the novel by Alissa Nutting, gave us a thrilling escape story; season 2 is the near opposite. When Hazel discovers Byron is the only one with the medical technology to save her father Herb (Romano), she finds her hand forced. Hazel tricks Herb into returning with her to her former prison. But back at the Hub, Byron’s suffocating “love” isn’t the only villainous presence. If the season makes one major faux pas, it’s featuring less of Billy Magnussen. In season 1, Bryon was the most heinous kind of villain–in that he didn’t realize he was one. Of course, the same is true in season 2. “I want to build a whole world for you,” he tells Hazel, employing those deceitfully innocent puppy dog eyes. What he doesn’t understand is that he has taken from her the only world she ever wanted. Milioti and Magnussen boast an incredible and complicated dynamic. There’s pure hatred; there’s sexual tension. The pair and their roles as opposing forces are one of the main attractions of the series. But in season 2, the spotlight is wrenched away from Bryon and placed onto another mysterious (and mostly non-interfering) force as Hazel’s main obstacle to freedom. The scenario plays out to be, well, a bit silly (but then, Made for Love has always had fun with its overt theatrics). Still, it doesn’t help that the writers struggle to weave in this new conflict naturally with the pre-existing storylines. Much of season 2 feels like typical middle-season filler, a blip on the way to the true conflict that is planned for season 3. Unfortunately, we won’t see this exciting escalation come to fruition, as HBO didn’t see fit to renew Made for Love for another season. It’s our loss–Made for Love, despite its often nonsensical qualities, is a show easy to fall in love with.
