Here lies yet another casualty in the Warner Bros./Discovery merger. Made For Love is the latest cancellation over at HBO Max, following the recent announcement that Raised By Wolves also got the axe.
Made For Love was another high-concept sci-fi series, albeit of a very different tack than Ridley Scott’s epic drama. The comedy followed Hazel (Cristin Milioti), who escaped her marriage to billionaire Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen) and his oppressive company compound to seek refuge with her dad (Ray Romano) and his partner Diane, a sex doll. However, she soon discovered that Byron had implanted a chip in her brain allowing him to surveil her every move.
In a statement obtained by Variety, representatives for HBO Max said, “We are tremendously grateful for the truly spectacular journey of these past two seasons, courtesy of Alissa Nutting, Christina Lee, Cristin, Billy, Ray and the entire ‘Made for Love’ cast and creative team–especially Zelda the talking dolphin and everyone’s favorite synthetic love interest, Diane. Like a Gogol chip, the series will always be on our minds.”
Have network cancellation announcements always been this loving, or is this a new mutation of the streaming wars? As warm as this statement is towards the series, programming decisions following the merger have been ruthless. The company also pulled the plug on J.J. Abrams’ Demimonde, and Deadline reported that his entire WB deal has fallen under scrutiny for budget concerns.
If J.J. Abrams and Ridley Scott couldn’t hang on, what chance did sci-fi underdog Made For Love have? It’s sad to say goodbye to the inventive series, which left a lot of juicy plots dangling at the end of season two. That included (spoiler alert) Hazel’s pregnancy, her hostile takeover of Gogol, and her father’s possible not-death.
“I would want to explore all the things we’re talking about: What does someone who has gone through what she’s gone through do with that much power? And she’s really unpredictable,” Milioti recently told Entertainment Weekly. “You’re always like, ‘Oh God, don’t do that.’ She can’t really communicate well, she doesn’t think before she leaps, all these things, but you still really understand why. And I wonder now that she is untethered, I would want to explore what that does to someone like Hazel. Fingers crossed. We’ll see.” Unfortunately, we will not.