So, we had Amazon for long enough this Christmas for me to finally finish this series, which is amazing if uneven. I don’t know why Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) thought it was a good idea to play dystopian capitalist sci-fi for laughs, but it mostly works and is all the more biting for it.
en.wikipedia.org
For those who don’t know, Upload is set about 20 years into our future in a predictably capitalist dystopia where it’s now possible to upload your mind to a digital afterlife after you die. Our protagonist Nathan is a techbro who’s uploaded after he’s killed in a self-driving car accident (I know, so topical). Nathan starts to fall in love with his customer service rep (“angel”) Nora in Lakeview, the luxury digital afterlife which his fiancée Ingrid is paying for. Yup, awkward. Then we get into the cyberpunk conspiracies.
There’s four seasons, of which only the first is really full length - seasons 2 and 3 are one season split in two and season 4 (which I just watched) is a full season’s worth of plot in 4 somewhat hurried episodes. But despite that, it’s really fun, clever, and not quite like anything else - it’s like The Good Place if it was cyberpunk satire, or like Severance if it was funny and charming.
My favourite bit is when Nora is having dinner with her widowed dad, and we get this exchange:
Nora’s dad: Do you like the steak? It’s a Jamie Oliver recipe. It came free with my Samsung food printer subscription.
Nora (chewing): It’s great, Dad, but maybe you should replace your fat cartridge.
This is then followed by a short but heartfelt conversation where Nora tries to persuade her dad to upload when he dies (using her employee discount) and he refuses because he thinks it would count as suicide and then he wouldn’t go to Heaven to see her mum.
Upload is also mostly filmed in Vancouver, where I now live, with some very recognisable locations such as CBC, Robson Street, and Olympic Village.
Anyway, anyone else seen it? What do you think?
Upload (TV series) - Wikipedia
For those who don’t know, Upload is set about 20 years into our future in a predictably capitalist dystopia where it’s now possible to upload your mind to a digital afterlife after you die. Our protagonist Nathan is a techbro who’s uploaded after he’s killed in a self-driving car accident (I know, so topical). Nathan starts to fall in love with his customer service rep (“angel”) Nora in Lakeview, the luxury digital afterlife which his fiancée Ingrid is paying for. Yup, awkward. Then we get into the cyberpunk conspiracies.
There’s four seasons, of which only the first is really full length - seasons 2 and 3 are one season split in two and season 4 (which I just watched) is a full season’s worth of plot in 4 somewhat hurried episodes. But despite that, it’s really fun, clever, and not quite like anything else - it’s like The Good Place if it was cyberpunk satire, or like Severance if it was funny and charming.
My favourite bit is when Nora is having dinner with her widowed dad, and we get this exchange:
Nora’s dad: Do you like the steak? It’s a Jamie Oliver recipe. It came free with my Samsung food printer subscription.
Nora (chewing): It’s great, Dad, but maybe you should replace your fat cartridge.
This is then followed by a short but heartfelt conversation where Nora tries to persuade her dad to upload when he dies (using her employee discount) and he refuses because he thinks it would count as suicide and then he wouldn’t go to Heaven to see her mum.
Upload is also mostly filmed in Vancouver, where I now live, with some very recognisable locations such as CBC, Robson Street, and Olympic Village.
Anyway, anyone else seen it? What do you think?
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