‘Made For Love’ Season 2 Episode 2 Non-Spoiler Review – “We’re Losing Time”

We catch up to Alissa Nutting, Dean Bakopoulos, Patrick Somerville, and Christina Lee’s HBO Max dark comedy sci-fi series Made for Love Season 2 following its premiere episode. This second episode is titled, “We’re Losing Time”. It is written by the series’ executive story editor, Jovan Robinson, and is directed by executive producer, Daisy Mayer.

In this review, I will be discussing the second part of the Made for Love Season 2 premiere. There will be no spoilers here, as the title of this article suggests. Nonetheless, please read ahead at your own discretion to avoid any possible revelations.

Plot Synopsis

According to WarnerMedia, here is the synopsis for Made for Love Season 2 Episode 2.

When Herb begins to notice lapses in time, Hazel calls for reinforcement — by way of Bangles. After making it through the grueling application process, Jasper reports for his first day at Gogol, and quickly attempts to reconnect with Hazel.

WarnerMedia

Discussion

My initial impression/ critique of the first Made for Love Season 2 episode was that the series ignores secondary characters that are introduced in the previous season. Boy, was I wrong!

“We’re Losing Time” makes the promise that the characters we see in Season 1 will indeed have longer-term roles. We saw this with Sarunas J. Jackson’s Jasper, who was promoted to a series regular role for Season 2. In this second episode of Season 2, we briefly see the physical on-screen return of Herringbone (Dan Bakkedahl) and Hodeck (Noma Dumezweni) as well as that of Bangles (Patti Harrison).

As I discussed in the previous episode, there is a major improvement in Season 2 in terms of the teleplay screenwriting. So much depth is present in not just the protagonists but the supporting characters as well. Allow me to dissect the episode’s themes into a few small sections.

Secrets

While the Made for Love chip has been removed from Hazel’s brain, there is still this idea of secrets being kept or being revealed. Herbert Green (Ray Romano) continues to lie to his daughter, Hazel (Cristin Milioti), about his illness. In turn, she does not tell him about the severed Herringbone finger preserved in the house’s freezer.

I got to see next week’s episode, so for now, I can say the secrets between the main characters will run deeper and be tougher to keep; and it all comes back to the ancient notions of surveillance and trust. Hazel still does not trust her ex-husband, Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen), especially when it comes to his technological innovations.

Therefore, I would like to argue that the idea of Made for Love lies not just in the chip but Gogol’s Hub itself. The Hub symbolizes “made for love” in both a literal and figurative sense. From here, I want to talk about space and time.

Space

In my earlier reviews of Made for Love Season 1, I wrote about how The Hub is a structure for placelessness and infinitude thereof. With this current episode, we learn just a bit more about the digital Hazel and Byron, referred to as “Other Hazel” and “Other Byron”. With their respective consciousnesses uploaded into a network (not specified as a/ the cloud), we see a version to the characters that is non-existent with the actual physical individuals.

If we see The Hub as an organism — a mega-machine representative of the overall body of cogs (employees, Gogol, Hazel, Herbert, etc.) — then the digital network itself, that is, the Heaven-like “cloud” is truly a space that is made for love. We also see what a (housing) room for Gogol employees looks like; and if The Hub is intended to be a place meant for people as a sort of afterlife, then these Gogol rooms could be similar to what comprises Heaven in the Bible. You know, “In my mansion, there are many rooms…”? For Jasper, he has access to Anydoors.

Hazel tells a character that she feels like a prisoner, albeit with access to many areas of The Hub. Funny enough, another character refers to The Hub as “Dexter’s Laboratory”, and if you have seen this classic Cartoon Network series… How can one’s home hold a massive laboratory?

Time

As we learn from Byron Gogol and his employees in “I Have a Rotten Finger”, The Hub is also a place for immortality. The Gogol company achieves this with whatever advanced technology they possess. Time does not exist here, and Bennett (Caleb Foote) tries to fabricate this for Herbert.

My first thought about Herbert’s brief discourse of time — along with the episode title — was Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, a novel in which its protagonist simultaneously lives time in the past, the present, and his fate in the inevitable future. However, I do not believe the concept of time works this way for Made for Love.

Herbert eventually catches on about how time has been manipulated, and he initially believes it has to do with parallel dimensions. What I think this suggests is that “parallel dimensions” are perceived as rather strikingly similar outcomes; and if I have read anything in French philosopher Anne Dufourmantelle’s In Praise of Risk, it’s that one needs to risk enduring the spiral. This means one also needs to risk enduring Hell, where “all pain, regret, and trepidation will vanish; where you live in the effusion of the instant — all vows annulled, all rancor effaced, all crimes pardoned”.

If The Hub is made to be a place for everlasting love, could this mean, then, that it is Heaven, or is it instead Hell?

The Crew of Made for Love

Made for Love is created by Alissa Nutting, Dean Bakopoulos, Patrick Somerville, and Christina Lee. The series is based on Nutting’s novel of the same name.

Lee, Nutting, Bakopoulos, Somerville, Liza Chasin, SJ Clarkson, and Daisy Mayer serve as the executive producers. Janet Knutsen, Cristin Milioti, and Andres Anglade serve as the producers. Shepard Boucher serves as the series’ co-executive producer, while Lisa Satriano serves as the co-producer.

Jovan Robinson serves as the executive story editor. Andy Morrish serves as the editor for the episode, while Emily Nine serves as the assistant editor. Nathaniel Goodman serves as the director of photography.

Keefus Ciancia scores the music, while Christine Greene Roe serves as the music supervisor. Jason Lingle and Jeff Lingle serve as the music editors.

Leslie Woo serves as the casting director. Courtney Bright and Nicole Daniels serve as the original casting directors. Julina Baber serves as the casting associate, while Jalal Haddad serves as the casting assistant.

Jordan Ferrer serves as the production designer, while Jennifer Eve serves as the costume designer. Eddie Williams and Olcun Tan serve as the visual effects supervisors. Tarn Fliehler serves as the art director, while Christy McIrwin serves as the set decorator. Dara Jaramillo is the head of the make-up department, while Arleen Chavez is the head of the hair department.

The Cast of Made for Love

Cristin Milioti portrays the female lead, Hazel Green; alongside her is Billy Magnussen as billionaire tech CEO, Byron Gogol.

Caleb Foote plays Bennett Hobbes, Gogol’s right-hand man, while Sarunas J. Jackson plays Jasper. Ray Romano plays Herbert Green, Hazel’s father. Dan Bakkedahl and Noma Dumezweni appear as Gogol employees, Lyle Herringbone and Dr. Fiffany Hodeck, respectively.

Paula Abdul (American Idol, Bruno) guest stars as Anydoors, Jasper’s virtual assistant. Patti Harrison returns as Bangles, Hazel’s best friend. Angela Lin is credited as Dr. Hau, while Raymond Lee plays Jeff. James Urbaniak also stars.

Christopher Bagnall returns as Shane Voss, while Dutch Johnson plays Bruce, a Gogol security guard.

Performances and Character Developments

Byron continues to be the type of man who is selfless, someone who authentically desires a connection with Hazel. This is not something — an abstract thing, i.e., love — that can easily be reciprocated. However, Byron is not one to cheat, not one to harm; at least, he exhibits no signs to want to do anything wrong to Hazel. I believe he does deserve a second chance, but again, this will prove a huge challenge with Jasper in The Hub to rescue Hazel. Magnussen has been tremendous so far, but I can tell with next week’s episode that he aspires to be better of a person to the human being he so loves.

I did not think for a second that Herbert would be oblivious to the situation at hand. The character is wiser than Hazel lets on, and Ray Romano continues to perform well in Made for Love. Between the Ice Age films and The Big Sick, the actor reminded me that he can balance a role with both comedy and drama. Herbert Green is no exception.

Final Thoughts on Part II of the Made for Love Season 2 Premiere

“We’re Losing Time” is a terrific second episode to the Made for Love second season premiere. It shows huge promise in the series’ direction in terms of character development, themes, and the overall narrative; and it urges me to ponder on how we make use of space and time on Earth as well as an other-worldly place such as The Hub. With the pace the season is progressing in along with multiple stories that are bound to collide with one another, we are in for an intriguing ride, and I trust the showrunners to resume exceeding my expectations.

Made for Love Season 2 is now streaming via HBO Max!

Have you seen Nutting’s series? If so, then what are your thoughts on it so far? Let us know! For more dark comedy-related news and reviews visit and follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Also, if you’ve read to the end of this article and want to know more about Made for Love, you can purchase Nutting’s novel via our Amazon Associates link here!