Greg Daniels’ Upload talks of a future when people can upload to a digital afterlife and thus live forever. Uploading would be a fine way to remember loved ones, only there is corporate greed to deal with. And so, in the afterlife too, it is the rich who have all the fun while the poor are banished into 2 gig hell.
Nathan (Robbie Amell) is a computer programmer who has an accident when his self-driving car crashes. As he is dying, his rich girlfriend, Ingrid (Allegra Edwards), suggests he uploads to Lakeview, a swanky digital afterlife.
Upload (Season 2)
Creator: Greg Daniels
Episodes: 7
Starring: Robbie Amell, Andy Allo, Allegra Edwards, Zainab Johnson, Kevin Bigley, Josh Banday, Owen Daniels, Andrea Rosen
Storyline: Further digital adventures of Nathan in Lakeview, Nora’s activism, and prototykes (yikes!)
Season 1 dealt with Nathan’s doubts about his relationship with Ingrid and his growing feelings for his customer service rep or angel, Nora (Andy Allo). There is a mystery about Nathan’s death as some of his memories seem to have been deleted. There seems to have been an argument with his business partner on the future of their company.
Season 2 begins with Ingrid’s unexpected arrival at Lakeview, making the ultimate sacrifice of uploading to be with Nathan. Nora is living off the grid with a revolutionary group called the Ludds (from Luddites?) where she meets hot activist Matteo (Paulo Costanzo). The Ludds want Nora to infiltrate Lakeview to take down the greedy capitalists from the inside. Fun fact: Luddites, originally destroyed machines during the Industrial Revolution.
Season 2 has all the things that made the first season fun; clever writing, and extremely likeable characters and performances. Amell, Edwards and Allo keep up the good work while Kevin Bigley as the permanently-chipper Luke, who was in the army in his former life and Nathan’s buddy, is always welcome in the frame.
Zainab Johnson as Aleesha, Luke’s angel and Nora’s co-worker with her big hair and out-there outfits, has a temp/assistant Tinsley (Mackenzie Cardwell). Aleesha is being wooed with money and promotions to look the other way at all Horizen’s (the company that runs Lakeview) dirty tricks. Her boss, Lucy (Andrea Rosen), has some dirty secrets and surprises as does Ivan (Josh Banday), Nora’s co-worker.
We happily see more of AI Guy (Owen Daniels), the multi-function avatar at Lakeview, including the out-of-work actor, Boris, he is based on. Prototykes, the digital babies offered by Horizen are 100 per cent creepy. There is a trip to New York to find more clues, a harrowing download and a dinner from hell to spice things up.
David Choak (William B. Davis), the super-rich man living down the hall from Nathan who first suggested to him that his death might not have been an accident in season 1, seems to know more about the software Nathan was developing. Upload is a mystery, a romance, a comedy and social commentary. It might be slightly lacking in depth, but it takes you along on a smooth shiny futuristic ride.
Incidentally, Philip K Dick wrote about a half-life after death in his 1969 cult novel Ubik set way in the future of 1992!
The second season of Upload is presently streaming on Amazon Prime Video
