Review: Made for Love, season 2. Wait, what?

Made for Love, season 2, was a disappointment. I liked the message of season 1, but things changed in season 2. It was the same characters in the same situation, but the tone changed. Spoilers ahead.

Made for Love was confusing in season 2. Hazel’s (Cristin Milioti) consciousness was put in another body – a body exactly like the real Hazel – so there were multiple Hazels running around. There was never any explanation for how physical bodies were copied. Hazel’s consciousness was also inside the body of Dr. Hau (Angela Lin). Even more Hazels.

Hazel went back into the Hub willingly, where she tried a different approach to getting her freedom back. Hazel went back to the Hub to get cancer treatment for her dad (Ray Romano). An exact replica of his home was built in the Hub and for a while he didn’t realize he wasn’t at home. He still discussed his life decisions with his sex doll, Diane.

In the end Hazel beat Byron (Billy Magnussen) at his own game.

But is the purpose of a feminist story to make the woman end up acting exactly like the man? She won, but she gave up her soul. It could have been that Byron’s efforts to merge their consciousness worked. It wasn’t entirely clear. She had Byron’s consciousness trapped inside Byron’s own body, so who’s consciousness was she interacting with outside his body?

Byron and Hazel left the Hub so he could testify before Congress. She sat beside him and supported him in this, which I found bothersome. Hazel also began making passes at Byron, another bothersome development.

While they were in D.C., an FBI man gave Hazel a tracker. It would lead them to the Hub and enable them to rescue their inside FBI man, Jay (Sarunas J. Jackson). Then they planned to destroy the Hub. Byron’s brother Aaron (Travis Van Winkle) ruined that plan. Oh, right. Byron had a brother name Aaron, except he went by Byron’s real name instead.

Jay was my favorite character this season. He had a romance with a talking dolphin. His virtual assistant was Paula Abdul. She lived in a little jar on his desk and was the cutest and funniest thing in the whole season.

A lot of time was wasted on Herringbone (Dan Bakkedahl) and Fiffany (Noma Dumezweni) while they were trapped in a pasture hub where it rained all the time. They had to keep them around so Fiffany could come back into the lab at the end to get everyone’s consciousness in the right place (more or less).

The thematic elements about big tech knowing everything about everyone and controlling everyone’s behavior was still there. The human right of everyone to control their own bodies and minds was still an important theme, but felt diluted. Right now, with extreme right wingnuts trying to control the bodies of everyone they don’t like, that message could have been made to hit a lot harder than it did.

Made for Love is on HBO Max.

What did you think of season 2 of this series?