Why Made For Love was a 'no-brainer' role for Ray Romano

There's love and then there's love that seems to be all-consuming, addictive and totally absurd.

That's one of the relationships you'll see in Made For Love, which is streaming on Stan from April 1.

It stars Cristin Milioti as Hazel, a woman attempting to escape her controlling tech-billionaire husband Byron Gogol, played by Billy Magnussen. Byron wants to get in her head, literally, with a new microchip that he claims will have couples thinking as one and merging together.

Hazel is not into the idea and escapes their home, which has become a prison in a lot of ways, but with nowhere else to run, her only option is her estranged father Herbert, played by Ray Romano.

Herbert is widowed and in his own unique relationship with Dianne, a "synthetic partner". Hazel's bid to escape doesn't quite go to plan, because Byron has already put the chip in her head and tracking her every move.

It's a different role for Romano and worlds away from his character in Everybody Loves Raymond.

"I've never seen anything like it," Romano said of the script during an interview with 9Entertainment.

"I've never done anything like it — it was different."

Romano said he was given seven episodes of the series to read and couldn't put them down.

"When each episode ended I wanted to read the next one right there, and that told me all I needed to know. That there's a story here that's not just weird to be weird — it's about something and there's great people involved. So, it was kind of a no-brainer for me," he added.

It was a similar feeling for Milioti and why she wanted to join the cast.

"I'd never seen a world like this before and I'd never seen relationships like this, portrayed in this way," she said.

"I'd never seen this type of exploration of a relationship of a father and daughter who were estranged and who had issues. I'd never seen a divorce portrayed this way or a marriage, and I thought it was so interesting. I just hadn't seen anything like it, and it was enough to get me really, really excited."

For Magnussen it wasn't so much the story, but the overall concept of love that got him on board.

"I love love, and this story is actually about love to me," he explained. "Love is crazy and just like the show, it feels absurd but love is absurd and it's a whole rollercoaster ride.

"I'm glad it's a story about these relationships and these connections to people, but it's told in such a heightened, skewed version of the world."

It's clear early on that Bryon's "love" for Hazel verges on obsessive and there's an interesting way to look at their relationship. Is it a love for Hazel that's made him go to these lengths, or the idea that he can basically read her mind and develop technology no one has ever seen before.

Relationships are the central focus of the series, which is incredibly dark at times although humour does shine through amongst the gaslighting and control. But it is seriously addictive.

Made For Love is available to Stream on Stan from April 1.

Nine Entertainment Co (the publisher of this website) owns and operates the streaming service Stan.