As we near the end of The Worst Year, we’re watching more streaming TV and movies than ever before. Maybe you’re watching the latest Marvel offering on Disney+, maybe you’re watching an old favorite for the fourteenth time. But this isn’t about what you’re watching, it’s about what Rebecca’s watching.
This new column, I hope, will be equal parts entertainment journalism and psychological exploration. As much about the strange machinations inside Rebecca’s head as it is about the shows we’re discussing.
This week Rebecca is watching Made For Love, from HBO Max, a show about too much connection. Which, these days, feels like a trap we might all willingly fall into. I might willingly let you implant something in my brain if you just gave me a hug while you’re doing it.
Anyway, on to the show.
Cass: Is Made for Love "On Brand" or "Off Brand" for you? Why?
Rebecca: I'd say it's one of those "On Brand" shows for me. It's weird, it's short, it's funny while also creating characters you can laugh at but are a little afraid of.
C: We were talking earlier and you mentioned Cristin Milioti cornering the market on being "woman trapped in a weird sci-fi scenario." This show is obviously an example, as is Palm Springs. Tell me about the play you saw.
R: Don't forget the USS Callister episode of Black Mirror! The play I saw was called After The Blast, written by Zoe Kazan. I'm obsessed with it still and I saw it four years ago. It essentially takes place in a societal underground bunker after a nuclear blast and how one couple (Milioti and William Jackson Harper) experience their lives. Harper's work includes determining when the surface will be livable again while his wife Milioti has no job and struggles with the loneliness and mental health problems that arise with extremely isolating subterranean living. The technology is advanced enough that virtual escape is possible, but Milioti's character takes an "organic" approach to life and doesn't like to use the technology to improve her living situation because she knows it's not real. To help her depression, Harper gifts her a robot (an actual robot friend that rolls around the stage and performs, it's Extremely Cute) and her job is to teach the robot how to communicate. I won't spoil the rest of the show unless you want to know the rest, but it was an exceptionally moving play and as I said, I literally think about it every day. I've been trying to track down a physical copy of the script but I've been unsuccessful.
Cass: What do you want to see Milioti do next? What genre story is she perfect for?
Rebecca: I'd love to see her in some sort of fantasy production. Something like The Magicians, more modern-fantasy, you know?
C: Given the opportunity, would you want to know your partner's secret thoughts? Do you agree with what one character says, that secrets and privacy are necessary for relationships?
R: NOOOOOOOO. I like my privacy and I like to respect my partner's privacy as well. I absolutely agree that secrets and privacy are necessary for a relationship. Not forever, though. I have no secrets with my partner and I don't feel like I have to hide anything from him. But that's only a result of years and experiences of building trust. Privacy is absolutely necessary! There are some things I know he doesn't need to know for his own happiness and vice versa.
C: Would you get any sort of computer-brain implant, if and when the opportunity arises?
R: Depends on what it does, like if it is programmed to help with my ADHD then hell yeah get it in there. If it's designed to sell my information to Amazon, no thank you.
C: Do you think there's some subtler message to the show, outside of the obvious toxic relationship/power imbalance narrative?
R: As we get further on into the show, I would say another message the show unintentionally gets across is "own up to your shit" as well as "relationships are a two-way street." We're learning Hazel isn't a perfect person who came from a fruitful home. She lied and stole in order to make money. She disappeared for a decade and now that she's returned and is in need of help, no one is willing to help her at first. She's hurt people and it's selfish of her to expect people like her dad and Bangles to help her when she appears out of the blue. Own up to your shit, apologize, and you'll receive the help you need.
Cass: What's the deal with Hazel's dad (Ray Ramano) and the blow up doll? Is that the other side of the relationship coin? On one hand there's an attempt to draw too nearly to another person, and on the other is total retreat?
Rebecca: I hadn't really thought of this until now. I can see similarities between him and Byron, as they both try to maintain relationships with their "dolls." I can empathize with the dad more though, as his situation has a more clear-to-define psychological reason--loneliness. Byron...I don't think we really know his "why," why does he care so much about Hazel? Does he only care about Hazel because she's there and available for his data collection? What happened in his life to make him this great creator?
C: What's your interpretation of the pool scene with the dolphin? It seems overtly unreal. We also know Byron is capable of pretty convincingly mimicking the real world. Do you think Hazel has really escaped at all?
R: I get the impression that the dolphin is one of those additions because it's "quirky." But, it does make sense to me that dolphins would be the test subjects for collecting brain data, intelligence comparable to humans and all that. I don't think the dolphins are a metaphor or have a Great Reveal, just there to be an out-of-place thing in this out-of-place life. It would be unfair to us as an audience if she never really escaped. A little too Deus Ex of Byron.