A lighthearted technophobic rom-com

Upload - Season 1 (Prime Video)
Cast: Robbie Amell, Andy Allo, Allegra Edwards, Zainab Johnson
Created by: Greg Daniels
Rating: 3/5

It almost felt like a black mirror episode where they decided to tell the story of two lovers stuck in two dimensions of consciousness and made it cheerfully optimistic. Upload is an easy watch; there’s love, there’s intimacy, friendship, life after death and bright colours thrown all over each frame of the scenes; nothing new to the rom-com genre. But then again it’s not pretending to be different at all.

The story begins in the year 2033 where Nathan, a young and ambitious software developer, dies in a self driving car accident. He gets his consciousness uploaded to a server that provides life-after-death services in a simulation; the downside of it being the insane cost. Lakeview, the place he lives in simulation along with a million of such uploads has a customer care service with executives called ‘angels’ where they can contact and report any bugs or glitches in the services they receive. Obviously Nathan’s angel is a beautiful young woman named Nora and they slowly fall in love. This forms most of the story.

Upload presents you with nothing new, it’s just the same old ‘love and conflicts’ on the backdrop of an unreasonably technically advanced 2030s. It brings you the cynicism and skepticism involved in the fast paced technological advancements and their breach of privacy standards. It also discusses the idea of how capitalism can bring about further segregation between the rich and the poor. But these discussions barely make a point as they are diverted by more fun moments. It’s after all just a love story and the writers wanted it to be just so.

Coming to the performances, it’s fun watching the chemistry between Robbie Amell (Nathan) and Andy Allo (Nora), and so is the same between a lot of other characters; namely Nora and her father Ernie, played by Julian Christopher. With no major conflicts or open endedness, the show leaves a final cliffhanger before ending the season.

Will I wait for this show? Not so much but I’d be happy to see the rest of the show when it comes out; whenever that is.