I remember noticing Alyssa Nutting’s book Made for Love long time ago while browsing the library’s digital catalog. It had a pink dolphin on the cover and sounded intriguing, but it was always out and I just forgot about it. So when I found this tv show Made for Love, I didn’t immediately make the connection until the credits. I also didn’t expect too much from a cable network whose book adaptations recently have been uniformly drawn out, overacted (as in look, we’re a serious network, check out our cast, they can act, let’s watch them act) and generally underwhelming. Watchmen excluded.
But what do you know…this one was just right. Kudos, Max, you finally nailed a tv adaptation. Granted, I’m not familiar with the source material enough to judge the plot fidelity, but Nutting appears to have been heavily involved with this production (as in beyond the executive producer credits, as in writing), so it can’t be too far off the plot. And what a plot it is…a woman flees her ten year old marriage to a tech billionaire to rediscover herself only to find out that not only is he unwilling to accept their relationship is over, but he has also fitted her with a surveillance device that enables him to be with her always, in a way. So what’s good about it? Well, it’s all good, actually. It’s a dark comedy that is refreshingly both dark and comedic. The casting is perfect…the perfectly blandly handsome look of Billy Magnussen is perfectly suited for Byron Gogol (a wildly literary moniker for a man never observed reading a book), a man obsessed with perfection and control and Magnussen shines in a lead role, having finally been given enough to work with outside of his normal supporting roles. Cristin Milioti (who will quite possibly forever in my mind be the terrifying soccer mom from Death to 2020), the main attraction and cover girl here, is very good and very funny as the woman who goes from nada to Prada and back again. And her dad (the back again she has no choice but to return to)…well, everyone loves that guy. Albeit here his controversial love life is a source of much contention for the locals. There’s a very talented line of comedic supporting characters too. This is a pretty out there scenario and the show absolutely sells it, the cast plays it just right, it’s real for them so it becomes real for you. In a crazy way, of course. Because there’s no way technology would one day eliminate privacy to this extent, right? (Insert sarcasm here). Conceptually this is very much a lighter side of the Black Mirror. Social commentary included. But in a cleverly understated way. The show talks about the insane possibilities of technology, but also its inherent limitations when it comes to unquantifiable and unprogrammable things like love, happy relationships, etc. It takes on control, consent and more making it more real and salient by staging it in the land of the unreal and positively whimsical digital Oz. Which is in turn cleverly juxtaposed with the trailer trashiness of Mrs. Gogol's past life. Oh the precious parallels...perfectly played out. The look of the show is slick, the network has money and isn’t afraid to make it rain. And a show about a tech genius who lives in a cube subdivided compound of virtual reality excellence absolutely has to have a slick look. And so despite the outrageousness of the premise, it’s a terrifically compelling, engaging and entertaining programming. It’s just fun. You’ll laugh, you’ll care and you’ll wish for more when it’s over, which is all too quickly. Only eight short episodes. I already miss you, tv show, you were indeed made for love.
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