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Information

Year
2020
Runtime
296 min.
Director
-
Genre
Sci-Fi
Rating *
7.8
Votes *
0
Checks
89
Favs
14
Dislikes
0
Favs/checks
15.7% (1:6)
Favs/dislikes
14:0
* View IMDb information

Top comments

  1. Siskoid's avatar

    Siskoid

    The success of both The Good Place and Black Mirror has spawned Upload, an Amazon Prime comedy series about a guy who get digitized and placed in a virtual reality after-life a little bit before his time. But the story is not exclusive to the VR, as contact is not lost with the living world, and indeed Robbie Amell's Nathan must contend with the rich entitled girlfriend who owns his data plan, the people who possibly murdered him, and falling in love with his Angel (tech support) Nora (played by Andy Allo). The future of 2033 combines many Black Mirror type ideas and through its first season, continued to intrigue with its world-building, both in the satirical real world and the absurdist after-life. It strikes a varied tone relative to the shows I compared it with, making an overt computer gag one minute, sad and melancholy the next, with a strong romance vibe, but also a lot of thrillery tension. That is somehow works and made me hunger for the next season to be immediately available is a minor miracle, but there it is. Upload finds its own odd voice very quickly and sticks to it, and is filled with memorable, endearing characters and an impossible love affair you want to root for.

    The second season of Upload creates the necessary romantic complications to keep its will-they/won't they alive, but in this crazy world of virtual afterlife and satirical reality, these still feel fresh enough. But while it doesn't give up on its comedic aspects, it focuses more strongly on the first season's thriller elements to set up a ticking clock (or several) as the people responsible for Nathan's death plan a coup worthy of our own era. In the virtual world, there are plenty of new and clever ideas to keep the world-building going - virtual babies and a new version of data mining, for example, but also an expanded role for the hotel's bellhops that proves quite intriguing. But here's the thing. At only seven episodes, three fewer than the first season's, it's too short and rapidly ends on a (counts) about three maddening cliffhangers. Arrrrgh! After Season 1, I wanted to the next one to be immediately available, but this is ridiculous!

    In its third season, I feel like Upload loses its balance. There's too much stuff happening in the real world and we often lose sight of what's happening in the virtual world, and therefore lean hardest into corporate evil and thriller situations. The tone is more somber even if they manage to walk back some of the darker aspects by the end of the season (which could have led to a final resolution, but - perhaps realistically - cliffhangers us into a fourth). It still retains some of its world-building spark, but catering more to the real world of haves and have-nots, and less to the VR environment by now well-established by the show. The big losers are Luke, who is left without a rudder in the first half of the season, and the Nathan-Nora relationship, which is so resolved that it takes a back seat to Ingrid's redemption. So I was ready for the show to end, but am invested enough to continue even if Season 3 was harder to get into.
    3 years 9 months ago
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