MADE FOR LOVE | season 2 | REVIEW

Review post & Thoughts on season 3′s potential

After a woman escapes from a suffocating 10-year marriage to a tech billionaire, she discovers her husband had her fitted with a tracking device. The device, which he implanted in her brain, allows him to track her location, watch her live, and know her "emotional data" as she tries to regain her independence.

Cast & Characters: Cristin Milioti as Hazel Green, Billy Magnussen as Byron Gogol, Ray Romano as Herbert Green, Caleb Foote as Bennett Hobbes

Genre: dark comedy, sci-fi

Note: Made For Love is based on a book with the same title, though from what I've read it doesn't follow the plot of the novel too much.

Trailer

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The first season of Made For Love was super promising, in ways the second was even better. The show itself is super catchy and entertaining, with great cast, plot and unique writing. Writing that often takes bizarre turns you wouldn't necessary expect to work out. I do wish the show didin't spend so much time on covering disturbing side characters like Jasper.

Sadly season 2 left me with mixed feelings, no matter how many times I think about the things that happened, I always end up at: "Something went wrong with the writing".

I don’t know how I feel about the finale of Made for Love, I genuinely liked the direction the season was going in and then the last 2 episodes happened. They left me with what I can only describe as an yucky feeling.

The whole season gave off vibes about Byron getting some type of redemption. You have so many scenes showing he’s trying, that he does have feelings for Hazel, but needs to work on his issues and realize the error of his ways and how many messed up things he did.

(Now I know many of the people watching are probably going with the "it's always a game for him, he's clearly always being deceptive and fooling Hazel"... I get it, but at the same time him always being fake is kinda too predictable and expected, isn't it? I guess I'd like to go with the "things aren't always black & white and a character can have some sort of breakthrough" approach here.)

They fed us so many cute scenes with him and Hazel, showed her having doubts about betraying him, she would make the first move and hint at having feelings for him. There was hope. False one, sadly.

I wasn’t a fan of Byron’s character in season 1 at all, his actions were problematic, things started to shift with season 2. It managed to make me feel bad for him, especially after seeing him try to make an effort and showing a glimpse into his feelings. Billy’s acting is so amazing, he bought something to what can end up as super unlikable character, there was humor and rawness to Byron.

You have him face what seemed like a very unpleasant thing for him, something he kept hidden and avoided: going back to what he said is his childhood home (it was Hazel's spur of the moment idea to go), staying the night there because Hazel insisted, even after he wanted to flee. They finally talked, bonded even.

I get Hazel has a hard time trusting him. Still I felt like the final two episodes just went off the rails and basically destroyed whatever was built so far… if the "redemption arc" wasn't what they were initially trying to achive why include Hazel having second thoughts about Byron at all? Hell, I remember reading an article/interview with Cristin saying how the handholding at the end of Season 1 wasn't originally in the script, that the actors came up with it and the scene was left in, because it felt fitting and gave hope for Byron & Hazel.

I feel like the writing just had no idea where it wanted to go, so we ended up with a messy finale and things that went nowhere.

Byron ended up copying Hazel’s consciousness and uploading it together with his own. From there the Other Byron & Hazel went rogue, or shall I say Other Hazel came up with a plan to do some body snatching and took OB along for the ride. Byron ordered to have Hazel’s copy deleted, he was confident they’re making progress and didn’t want to ruin things. He got taken over by OB instead. Other Hazel took over Hazel’s body and let her father unalive himself (note: it was Herb’s wish bcs he was sick), he was ready to leave Earth. Hazel was forced to watch it happen, unable to stop it.

Hazel then started to fight back, trying to gain control of her body again. Once she managed to do that, she decided to betray Byron by not letting him get his body back, instead leaving the passive and naive Other Byron in it while Byron is trapped within, forced to watch and is on the verge of disappearing. Hazel is pregnant with Byron’s baby and running HIS company. She treats Other Byron like sh!te too (telling him it’s none of his business when he asks about her day.)

I get Hazel is angry over her father and wants revenge, but I felt like full on blaming Byron for what happened to her dad and not even letting him explain the whole fiasco was a bit much, especially since it was Other Hazel that created the mess, she was the one wanting to take over. I saw him copying her consciousness as more of a plan B in case Hazel decides to leave and things between them don’t work out, in a way he’d still have a version of her.

Not to mention her father made the decision to leave, it was his choice, he didn’t want to suffer anymore, he was confident Hazel is gonna be alright. It wasn’t like Other Hazel poisoned him.

Hazel switched so fast from having doubts and feelings for Byron to "OMG, you psycho, I will punish you for my father's death and still stay married to you in the process". More about why I don't think her decision makes any sense later.

>Like Hazel, I get it, but Other Hazel didn’t actually m-word him, okay? Herb wanted to leave, she didn’t trick him into DRINKING POISON! Byron didn’t do want your dad to die either.

The show started off with Hazel being this rebellious character, who was still unsure about what she wants from life but wasn't evil. Byron in ways was her opposite, the villain. The finale of season 2 basically maps out Hazel as the new potential villain.

> Having your “good” main character suddenly become the villain in this way is weird. I get the show likes to make bizarre turns, but those two episodes took away all meaning from whatever progress Byron made. Instead of getting redemption of a problematic character, you get almost complete ruination of the heroine. The decision she made was so messed up, she had other choices, especially after claiming she wants to do good by taking over Byron’s company. Keeping her dad on ice, leaving a door open to bringing him back to life when *he wouldn’t want it*, is yet again messed up. Maybe in S3 she'd come to accept it was her father's wish to end things and won't resurrect him, but I'm not too hopeful after reading they're aiming for an "Evil Hazel" S3 plotline.

> Getting revenge on Byron fueled/excused by her father’s death was questionable, trapping him in his own body and forcing Other Byron (who was in love with Other Hazel who Hazel killed) to stay in their miserable marriage was even worse. A f-cked up marriage that would soon have a baby involved too. Not only did she punish Byron, but she’s actively punishing OB as well.

Imagine hating a person so much you choose to stay in the marriage to get revenge on them. And deciding to keep them around to father your child. Why not just throw him in one of the holding cells at the Hub?

And I get wanting to take over his company to do "good", but Hazel wasn't really that interested in his company to begin with, not to mention she keeps making "evil choices".

One speech in front of congress is all it took for her to feel confident she can lead a whole company.

> As others have said: after 6 months of marriage the light from Other Byron’s eyes is gone, the emotions are off. It’s like keeping a $ex robot as a husband at this point. And again, why keep any version of Byron around, why proceed to still sleep with him and give OB access to your child, if you hate Byron's guts? A weird way to get revenge, Hazel. Is revenge worth f-ing up your own child?

The reveal Byron isn’t himself wasn’t a twist either, like from the second he’s on the screen you can tell it’s Other Byron, way before the eye twitch is shown as a hint. The romance lover in me is crying at the “dad” scene, ngl. It’s such a missed opportunity for an actual happy ending as series finale.

As an ending to the season Hazel could have:

1) Talked it out with Byron, gave him a chance to explain since she was so into testing him prior and showed she has some type of feelings for him if she had doubts about betraying him. Then decide if she trusts him, etc.

2) Let the agency handle Byron and his company… take him down as she initially wanted.

3) Grab some money, leave the marriage, start a new life without Byron, raise their child in a good environment.

4) Take over the company, lock Byron away.

Instead of all the finger pointing... an alternate thing I expected to happen: Byron & Hazel team up to get back their bodies and take down their Other versions.

Something else that bothered me like A LOT:

The show would often spent way too much time on unnecessary plot points like Jasper the weirdo *falling in love" with Zelda, who's a FECKIN' dolphin. Why tf would this be even a huge thing in the book, no idea, but from reviews it looks like it is. Having read about a real life experiment with similar context, I can say: this is a messed up thing to use a joke and just disgusting to include in the show.

From reading interviews on what we can expect if the show gets renewed, I don’t have much hope for s3. I still hope the writers rethink things and that s3 would get back on track, focusing on what was left unexplored in this one. Making Hazel into a villain is just dumb in the long run, especially after they fooled us into thinking Byron is getting a redemption which turned into him getting fecked over for something he didn’t even intend to happen. Are we to expect they’re eventually gonna be okay as a couple now that Hazel has gone “an eye for an eye” on him as a way to restore “balance”? And what about the poor baby?

My questions have questions.

I'd still recommend the show, but with a pinch of doubt.

Thank you for reading,