(courtesy IMP Awards)
You kind of have to feel sorry for Upload.
Created by Greg Daniels (Parks and Recreation), Upload has the misfortune to release right in the middle of the first year of the COVID pandemic, and while that was a boon for many shows, and likely helped some viewership, it meant that a lot of the usual promotional momentum that would’ve swung behind a new show simply wasn’t there.
Compounding that, is the fact that while there’s a popular perception that everyone was baking sourdough and streaming their locked-down hearts out, the reality is that many of us were holding down jobs remotely and dealing with the stress of normal life being taken from us, leaving not as much bandwidth as normal to go exploring.
It’s a pity in many ways because while Upload is not the greatest show to ever grace a streaming platform, it was still up there with the science fiction comedy drama, about people being uploaded to the afterlife for a big, fat, easily monetised fee, serving up smart social commentary, romcom feels and comedy with a health serving of the goofily absurd.
Set in the real world and a digital “heaven” known as Lakeview, a palatial estate where the very wealthy could buy the afterlife of their dreams, all for a simply upload of their consciousness, Upload took place in the near-future of 2033 where mobile phones are card-sized screens that appear between your thumb and forefinger, sentient gerbils drive cars (self-drive cars didn’t quite pan out) and grave inequality fills U.S. cities with the Haves and Have-nots stressing across a huge, pretty much unbridgeable divide.
While technology looks to offer all kinds of benefits to those people with the money to take advantage of it, it comes at a price, and what looks like an amazing offer, to offer have the afterlife of your choosing in digital luxury, suddenly comes with all kinds of conspiracy-laden strings attached with capitalism finally finding a way to monetise death to an invasively dark degree.
So, yes, Upload did come with its fair share of archly observed and sometimes comedically delivered social commentary where AI could be goofy or life-ending, where the afterlife could be fantastic or a nightmare and where your ability to influence anything about your life could be easily blunted, no matter your net worth, if those in charge in the real world could do whatever they wanted.
Not that the very much alive Have-nots were exactly doing brilliantly either, either uploading to cheap, nasty versions of Lakeview, with none of the benefits and all kinds of onerous impositions, and a life preceding full of deprivation and loss.
Upload is very real, for all its comedic leanings, making the most of its depiction of a future dystopian nightmare, cloaked in the shiny garments of advances technology and future promise and pointing to the humanity that sits at heart of a world that is increasingly being viewed through heartlessly digital and the neoliberal obsession of recent decades.
The final season of Upload was shortened to a story-closing four episodes, a drop down from the usual 7 to 10 episodes of the first episodes and a sign that the narrative had not only run its course but was no longer a project Prime cared to hang onto or promote anymore.
That is way of things with TV series but it seems to have become even more stark in the streaming era with shows getting ever shorter episode runs; the only saving grace of streaming is that it has led to some series, thought sadly not all, being given an allotment of episodes or a final movie such is happening with Heartbreaker which at least allow fans to say goodbye properly.
The only downside to this lovely gift in the case of Upload is that things do feel a little rushed with the show straining to wrap the great love story between Nathan Brown (the sweet nice copy), played by Robbie Amell, and his onetime handler aka “Angel” Nora Antony (Andy Allo), ensure the future of Lakeview and 300 million digitally uploaded souls – in danger from rogue AI and greedy oligarchs – and make some final scathing commentary about how capitalism has somehow grown even more cruel in the tech-driven world we now occupy.
As goodbyes go, the final season of Upload mostly sticks a hugely affecting landing.
********** SPOILER ALERT !!!!! ********** Not everyone makes it through, with heroism and great sacrifice abounding, and while all the stories do get tied up, saying goodbye to some of the characters is really tough, not simply because you’re saying farewell for good to the series but because some of the wrap-ups occur in a blur at the end of the show courtesy of an interview with original upload Nathan Brown – it’s his upload at the hands of nefarious interests that kicked off the show – and his wife Ingrid Kannerman (Allegra Edwards) which quickly epilogues what’s taken place after the events of the final episode.
While there’s still lots of fun to be had with characters like A.I. Guy (Owen Daniels) whose sweetness overcomes evil programming, and Nathan’s bestie Luke Crossley (Kevin Bigley) who has a serious and highly amusing bromance with the lead character, these final four episodes are fairly intense, leavened only by moments of well-inserted levity.
There is a sense of trying to cram too much in but that’s doesn’t overly wreck anything because the characters who need some time to say goodbye get it, especially Sweet Nathan and Nora whose love story is all kinds of bittersweet, five hankies moving.
For a show that got shafted by the pandemic – as opposed to Schitt’s Creek which benefited enormously from all those locked-down eyeballs – Upload still did quite well, a cut above the usual comedic drama fare, displaying real heart, socially conscious thoughtfulness and characters who could be intense and goofy in equal measure and who reminded us that, even in the face of unforgiving bottom lines and digital everything, humanity still trumps all and can defeat even the darkest of algorithms and darkest of oligarchic hearts.
Upload streams on Prime Video.