Prime Video is a streaming service people sometimes forget they even have, since it comes free with a subscription to Amazon Prime shipping. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a ton of great original programming on there, from underrated fantasy series to crime thrillers to an underseen sci-fi sitcom called Upload.
Upload ran for four seasons from 2020 to 2025, poking fun at a big tech landscape that was changing under its feet while serving up a charming romance built for the 2020s. The show isn’t perfect, but it’s looking more prescient by the day, and the laughs still work.
Upload is a parody of the future
In some cases, it feels like the very near future
Upload stars Robbie Amell (cousin of Arrow star Stephen Amell) as Nathan Brown, a programmer who dies in the series premiere after an accident with a self-driving car. But because he’s living in the year 2033, he has options. Before he dies, his girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) insists that his consciousness be uploaded to Lakeview, a post-digital afterlife maintained by a tech company called Horizon.
The bulk of the series takes place in Lakeview, which is a paradise… so long as the deceased has the ability to pay. So you can, for example, have access to any food you want instantaneously, but only if you pay the attendant micro-transaction. Ingrid comes from money, so this initially isn’t a problem for Nathan, but he finds “living” under her thumb frustrating and is eventually forced into buying the “2k” package, where his afterlife is in black and white, and he can only talk to people in the real world for so long before his data runs out.
Obviously, Upload is having a go at big tech here, which is forever promising miraculous new ways for technology to improve our lives. (The fact that the show is produced by Amazon adds a layer of irony.) If a place like Lakeview really existed, it’s not hard at all to imagine the company that runs it, for instance, scanning the deceased’s minds and dreams and then selling that information on the internet.
There are actual, well-funded projects like the 2045 Initiative with the goal of achieving cybernetic immortality, so some of the things we see in Upload don’t feel wildly far-fetched. Other concepts, like the ability to clone people and then download their digital consciousnesses into the new bodies, feel like more of a stretch, but who knows how we’ll feel about that in 10 years?
Upload approaches it all with a light touch. You’ll laugh, but the show also doesn’t forget that all of this is vaguely creepy. This is a sitcom, but Upload also has a touch of the corporate nightmare energy you’ll find in a show like Severance.
Upload is several shows in one
Sitcom, drama, romance, mystery
But no sitcom can survive on ideas alone. Characters are the lifeblood of any good comedy, and Upload has some great ones. Nathan is rock-solid as our leading man, trying to make the best of a very weird situation. Ingrid seems flighty and superficial, but by the end of the show, she’s given a good amount of depth. Nathan’s handler from Horizon is Nora (Andy Allo), and there’s a spark between the two of them from almost the moment they (digitally) meet. Nathan and Nora’s slow-burning romance is at the heart of the show and has a lot of obstacles to overcome. How can a couple date when one of them is dead?
As the show goes on, it also makes more room for Nora’s coworker Aleesha, probably because actor Zainab Johnson proves herself very funny; she tends to get some of the best lines. And there are plenty of other secondary and tertiary players besides.
It’s also worth noting that Upload stretches itself beyond just comedy. We’ve already mentioned the romance element. It also becomes a bit of a murder mystery after it’s discovered that the self-driving car accident that killed Nathan in the first place may not have been an accident. Sci-fi comedies often have a lot of plot in them, and Upload is no exception.
The Upload downgrade
The show glitches a bit towards the end
The first two seasons of Upload are fantastic, and the final two have their merits, but it’s pretty widely agreed that the show diminishes as it goes on. Come seasons 3 and 4, there’s less focus on parodying the excesses of big tech and more on the growing network of love triangles, and at one point, the series leaves behind the digital world of Lakeview and realizes too late that it’s one of the show’s biggest selling points. The shortened final season clocks in at just four episodes, and the ending isn’t worthy of the promise shown in the early seasons.
That said, each season of Upload gets better as it goes along, and some show out there had to start mocking the world of big tech, since there’s so much crazy stuff coming out of it all the time. Upload is still an undemanding show that’s worth a watch. Even when it’s not at its best, the strong performances carry the day.
Upload’s evil twin
Upload was created by Greg Daniels, best known for his work on classic series like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and King of the Hill. Daniels was also a frequent collaborator with Michael Schur, who by pure coincidence also went on to create a four-season sitcom set in the afterlife: NBC’s The Good Place.
On balance, The Good Place beats out Upload when it comes to comic consistency and unexpected emotional gut punches. But since they’re both available to stream on Prime Video, you get the best of both worlds.
- Release Date
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2020 – 2025
- Network
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Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Greg Daniels
- Directors
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Jeffrey Blitz, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Daina Reid, David Rogers, Sarah Boyd, Jonathan van Tulleken, Tom Marshall
- Writers
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Megan Neuringer, Maxwell Theodore Vivian, Farhan Arshad, Alison Brown, Shepard Boucher, Yael Green, mike lawrence, Lauren Houseman, Aasia LaShay Bullock, Alex J. Sherman, Alyssa Lane
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Robbie Amell
Nathan Brown
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Allegra Edwards
Ingrid Bannerman
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