Made for Love Review: Lock In Your Love (Season 1 Episodes 7-8)

Wait…what?

That’s my overall response to Made for Love‘s season (maybe series?) finale. After a crackling set of episodes, the season ends with a thud.

It’s not clear yet whether the HBO Max series will be returning for a second outing and while I’m personally disappointed in how the show chose to wrap its story and how clunky the finale was, this makes me want a second season more. They need to fix this.

Episodes earlier in the season struggled to push the story forward without spelling things out for the audience. This bad habit rises to a new level entirely with Made for Love Season 1 Episode 8, “Let’s Meet.”

Besides the fact that the basic set up of Hazel meeting Byron (Billy Magnussen) alone in a diner without a lawyer or any other protection makes zero sense, the entire scene seems like an exercise in spelling out the series’ themes and main ideas about love. 

Growing more irritating by the minute, it’s a choice that mostly serves to cast some doubt on the strength of the narrative and the expectations of what an audience can pick up on themselves. Audiences understand nuance; they don’t need to be hit over the head over and over again with your point. 

It also doesn’t help that Hazel inexplicably names terms by which she’d return to the Hub.

That she entertains this idea — at the meal during which she is supposed to sign divorce papers because her husband PUT A CHIP IN HER HEAD without her consent — is ludicrous based on everything that unfolds over the course of the season, both in real time and in flashback. 

It’s a maddening development, made even worse by what unfolds later. While I suspect Hazel’s decision to trick her father, Herb (Ray Romano) and take them both back to the Hub so he can receive medical care for his cancer will be met with differing opinions, for me, it feels like a total betrayal, both of Herb, and honestly, of Hazel’s character development.

While it’s possible to read her decision to trick Herb and relocate him without his knowledge as a signal that she’s sacrificing her own well being for that of her father, it’s hard not to draw some uncomfortable comparisons between what she’s doing to Herb and what Byron did to her. Rooted in love, the behavior is still deceptive and controlling.

While dubious, Hazel’s motivations for returning to the Hub in exchange for high quality healthcare for her father at least make some sense.

However, eight episodes later, it’s still not clear why Byron is so taken with Hazel. Yes, he’s a control freak, but he also genuinely seems to find Hazel his muse and have real feelings for her. But why…? Of all the women he could have had, why was Hazel the one he chose? We still don’t know.

Herb, however, does make more sense, especially with the revelations about his diagnosis and his break-up with Judiff (Kym Whitley) on Made for Love Season 1 Episode 7, “I Want to Feel Normal” and “Let’s Meet.”

Herb’s sex doll, Diane, has clearly been a stand-in for other things in Herb’s life, and it’s clear now that his decision to make a synthetic doll his life companion isn’t simply a fetish thing (though maybe it partly is).

Upon finding out he was sick, he didn’t want to be a burden to someone or he didn’t think anyone would care enough to stick around. Either way you look at it, the decision is made from a place of self-protection, self-sacrifice, and shame.

The Hazel-Herb relationship has evolved over the course of the season, and truthfully, so has Byron (not quite in as many ways as he wants to congratulate himself for, but he’s trying.) And despite some of the clumsy execution, I do think Made for Love has a lot to say about interpersonal relationships and our relationships with technology, along with the relationships we have with ourselves.

That it has so much potential and is anchored by such a stellar cast both adds to my disappointment in this uninspiring and concerning end.

However, if this serves as a season finale instead of a series finale, I can be more forgiving and consider how Hazel’s important choice is part of a larger story, rather than a misguided decision in opposition to everything she’s been preaching to Byron about letting the people you love make their own choices.

So what’s next, HBO Max? If only I had a Gogol app to tell me the future for this show.

Stray thoughts:

• Where are you, Fiffany? (Yes, I hate this name, but now it’s in my life and I just can’t quit you, Fiffany.)
• Byron doesn’t like dogs because they don’t wear pants and if you don’t wear pants, you can’t be on the furniture. By that logic, I shouldn’t be allowed on the furniture most days.
• Did anyone else clock the subtle differences in Hazel 2.0 aka Hazel Once She’s Returned to the Hub? She’s still in her shorts and flannel, not her perfectly muted tones and classic kitten heels. She walks differently and even talks to Byron differently than she previously did when she was in the Hub. While I hate the plot development, I applaud the attention to detail and shifts in performance on Milioti’s part.
• Judiff is the MVP of these episodes. No one else even comes close. And if anyone can get to the bottom of this nonsense in a second second, it’s Judiff.
• Really glad Byron didn’t eat Zelda. 

What did you think of the final episodes of Made for Love? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Made for Love is available to stream on HBO Max.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

21 Top Episodes of ‘Supergirl’ to Revisit Before the Finale