Made For Love Review

Made For Love, the new dramedy from HBO Max, isn’t the most original of ideas. For one, it’s an adaptation of the 2017 novel from Allison Nutting of the same name (Nutting is co-creator and a writer on the series as well). But it also has roots in several past Black Mirror episodes (including the much-lauded “USS Callister” episode, which also starred Made For Love‘s leading lady Cristin Milioti) and the general conceit (tech billionaire thinks he is offering a woman a dream life but is really trapping her in a tech hellscape) feels pretty unoriginal in our 2021 world. But despite feeling like the plot of the series isn’t new or exciting, I found myself drawn to the series and enjoying watching its first three episode (which are currently available on the HBO Max streaming platform). And that was almost wholly due to Milioti’s really great work as Hazel.

For anyone who has followed Milioti’s career thus far (her aforementioned work on Black Mirror, her turn in season two of Fargo, her role as the titular Mother on How I Met Your Mother), it should come as little surprise that she absolutely carries the show in Made For Love. Milioti is the rare actor who can handle comedy as deftly as drama, while having the ability to convey her thoughts, feelings, and emotions with a carefully placed line of dialogue or a simple look. The initial three episodes of Made For Love call for her to do much of the narrative heavy lifting, from serving as the series POV character in the early going where we are kept in the dark regarding just what exactly is transpiring (and why Hazel has decided to leave her life of apparent luxury behind) to presenting a lot of very necessary exposition – while still keeping it entertaining. As is often the case with tech-heavy/sci-fi adjacent stories, there’s a lot that has to be explained before the audience really grasps just what is happening. Milioti is able to take that exposition and keep us invested, making sure we understand that Hazel is a woman scared not of spending her life in a gilded cage (although that is certainly an aspect of it) but one scared of the controlling man she is married to.

Milioti may be the highlight of the series thus far, but she’s flanked by two strong performances from Ray Romano, as Hazel’s broken but kind father Herbert, and Billy Magnussen as Hazel’s husband Byron. Romano’s work in the series sees him playing a different character than we’ve ever seen from him, as Herbert is a slightly off, but congenial man, who was definitely not a great partner or father and has no idea why his daughter doesn’t appreciate him more. Clueless but relatively harmless (at least as far as we’ve seen), Romano is able to show us the cracks in his cheery facade but also convey that this is a man who does love his daughter – he just has his own personal demons that he hasn’t been able to shake. As for Magnussen, he does a lot with a relatively thankless part. We know that Byron is trouble – he’s possessive, angry, and controlling – but he absolutely doesn’t see himself as such. He genuinely believes, as all good villains do, that he’s helping Hazel by bringing her into his world, and that she loves him as deeply as he loves her – although, of course, what he believes is love is really just a desire to control Hazel.

And here’s the one interesting choice Made For Love makes in its initial string of episodes: It doesn’t paint Byron as the villain. We aren’t shown him being malicious, he’s not physically abusive, he doesn’t scream and yell. He’s calm, he smiles, and he’s insecure when it comes to whether or not Hazel is happy. The series is clear that Hazel isn’t a saint herself, but it’s just as clear that Byron’s actions are very wrong and very dangerous. And that more often than not, dangerous people don’t announce themselves to be so – they charm you, present you with gifts and promises, and then slowly reveal their true selves (while rarely recognizing who they are). It’s smart writing and it allows the audience to come to their own realizations about Byron (although the signs of his nature are there from the beginning, through both Magnussen’s performance and Milioti’s reactions toward him in flashbacks).

And it’s the strong character work by the cast that has kept me interested in seeing just where this story ends up. I certainly hope that the writing and narrative arc catches up to the caliber of performances within the series, but even if it doesn’t, I’m happy to watch Milioti navigate the less than surprising story until it reaches its conclusion. After years of great work in supporting roles, it’s wonderful to see this sensational actress get a chance to anchor a series and show us all that she is capable of.

Made For Love is currently streaming on HBO Max. The first three episodes have been released, and additional episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays.