Welcome to the future, where self-driving cars are the norm, phones are a holographic swipe away, and you save not for retirement, but the afterlife. This is the world of the new Amazon Original series Upload, a sci-fi comedy from Emmy-Award winning writer Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks, and Recreation). The satirical show, which hits on everything from the loss of privacy and power in the wake of big tech companies as well as growing income inequality, is at heart a comedy about the battle of love over death—assisted by a little science. Upload arrives on Amazon Prime on May 1.
Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell, The Flash) is an app developer who is hospitalized after a freak self-driving car accident and finds himself rushed into deciding to upload into the afterlife. Thanks to his shallow but wealthy girlfriend, he finds himself in her family’s luxurious Lakeview, a classic Americana rustic mountain resort version of heaven. There he meets Nora Anthony (Andy Allo, Chicago Fire), his customer service rep, who herself lives on the lower end of the economic spectrum and spends her days guiding the recently uploaded in their new digital afterlives. The show centers on their growing friendship, and as Nathan adjusts to “life” at Lakeview, the two start to uncover some questions about the accident that led to his death.
How to Watch Upload
An Amazon Original production, Upload will be distributed exclusively through Amazon Prime when it airs beginning May 1.
If you aren’t an Amazon Prime member yet, they offer a free 30-day trial, and then subscription options include:
- A video-only plan for $8.99 a month
- Monthly Amazon Prime rate of $12.99, including all Prime benefits
- The discounted annual rate of $119, including all Prime benefits
Episodes can be streamed on the Amazon website or watched through any device that hosts the Amazon Video app, including Roku, Apple TV, Tivo, as well as smart TVs, gaming consoles, and mobile devices, either by streaming or downloading to watch offline. Visit www.amazon.com/howtostream to learn more about what devices are compatible.
Why Watch Upload
Daniels’ other hit series are known for a somewhat off-kilter sense of humor and awkwardly flawed but eventually heart-warming characters (for the most part). While very different in tone than his popular hit comedies, Upload seems to hit on some of that. The show has a long-form format, sci-fi themes, and a bigger budget. It is a slicker environment that these awkward characters make their world, lavish with CGI to make the futuristic tech look flawless.
The polished high-tech future has a bit of a magical flair at times, and the afterlife takes a dash of The Good Place and a little Pushing Daisies to add to the concoction—with maybe a nod to Black Mirror in its clever world-building of where technology might be headed. Upload’s view of the future is a delicate balance between scarily prescient and over the top ridiculous, with off-hand references to taco drones, the luxury-hotel-meets-video-game whimsy, and entering into the afterlife with a cut-and-paste stylus swipe.
But the heart of the show is still its kooky characters. Nathan is a surprisingly kind-hearted egomaniac at a loss of how to deal with his fate, while Nora is achingly real at times in her struggles to get by. The show costars Alleger Edwards (Briarpatch) as Nathan’s wealthy girlfriend Ingrid; Kevin Bigley (The Moodys) as his afterlife bud Luke; and Zainab Johnson (American Koko) as Lakeview resident Aleesha.
Upload’s 10-episode first season comes to Amazon Prime on May 1.
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