Made For Love

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

When it comes to love, is there a way to be even closer than just being together? In the upcoming HBO Max Original series “Made For Love,” we learn that sometimes there is such a thing as being too close. And for Hazel Green-Gogol (Cristin Milioti), there is also a price for linking yourself to the wrong person.

Hazel Green-Gogol and Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen) are a couple seemingly in love. Byron appears to be a charismatic billionaire that created the company Gogol Tech. He has dominated the tech world with his gadgets and coming soon—a project called “Made For Love” that would allow couples to know everything their spouse is thinking. Their home is a dream in technology: a cube that inside resembles a place to envy, complete with a pet dolphin named Zelda. But while the Gogols are living what looks like a dream life, Hazel is unhappy in this shell of an existence. She starts to get glimpses of memories she doesn’t quite remember and we watch her unraveling that ultimately leads to her escape of the cube and away from Byron. But Byron has one more trick up his sleeve that he has failed to mention to Hazel: before she could escape he chipped her for his Made For Love project and makes her User One.

With Director Christina Lee at the helm of turning Alissa Nutting’s novel into a TV show, “Made For Love” really exhibits a darker side of love and the cost of not allowing relationships to naturally take their course. Milioti breathes life into Hazel’s character with sardonic humor and grit with a pearly smile. Hazel clearly wants her freedom and will do anything to gain that freedom as Byron tries to wear her down so they can return to the cube. The desperate behavior manifests in Hazel even going to the last person Hazel would ever ask for help – her father Herbert (Ray Romano). And just like his daughter, Herbert has his own share of quirk with a doll he affectionately totes around in a Lars and The Real Girl-esque style named Diane.

What makes this show a must-see is not only Hazel’s journey, but the desire to truly understand why Byron goes to such desperate lengths to chain Hazel to his life. You get that he is a lonely, eccentric billionaire type who doesn’t quite understand how to communicate feelings or be part of the world. He is a creepy husband who microchips his wife and reads her diary, yet Hazel has shown him what he construes as love and it’s clear that he doesn’t quite know how to process those feelings in a healthy way. Their relationship is an intriguing one, that’s for sure.

“Made For Love” really brings out the dark side of not leaving a little mystery to the relationship, interspersed with a touch of humor and a hint of adventure. What will Hazel do as she tries to navigate life outside the cube? Will Byron stop being a creep and learn how relationships really work? Only time will tell. You can watch the first three episodes of “Made For Love” now available on HBO Max.