‘Upload’ Remains One Of TV’s Sharpest Comedies By Appealing To The Head and the Heart

Of the two Greg Daniels sci-fi comedies that launched in May 2020, you would have bet your afterlife on Space Force outlasting Upload. The former had a star-studded ensemble including Steve Carell returning to a very different kind of office, and according to Netflix’s arbitrary calculations attracted 40 million viewers within two months of its premiere. The latter’s biggest name was the less famous, (and as proven recently, also less objectionable) Amell cousin, and dropped with little fanfare on a platform where only a handful of sitcoms have made it to a third season.

Yet it’s the underdog which has now reached that milestone, while after two seasons of hit-and-miss satire, its much higher profile counterpart was sent to the big streaming graveyard in the sky. And by broadening both its digital and physical worlds with its usual mix of goofy humor, existential mystery and slightly terrifying near-future commentary, Upload Season 3 leaves plenty of scope for yet another go-round. 

We last saw Robbie Amell’s Nathan – the computer programmer whose consciousness has been uploaded to virtual heaven Lakeview following a suspicious car accident – downloading his digital self into a clone body to help his handler-turned-love interest Nora (Andy Allo) investigate a scandalous misuse of the whole system. But did the worrying nosebleed he suffered in the cliffhanger indicate that, just like the last man to undergo such a procedure, his new head was about to explode?

Well, apart from in the opening dream sequence, Nathan’s brain matter, of course, has remained intact. For the moment, anyway. In fact, we’re now treated to double the Amell thanks to temp Tinsley (Mackenzie Cardwell) restoring a back-up, mistakenly believing he’d been accidentally erased instead of scuttling about the streets of Los Angeles. It’s a clever narrative device which allows the show to lean further into real world espionage without neglecting the visually inventive utopia which provides most of the laughs.

Indeed, there’s still a cornucopia of daft sight gags: see Nathan’s high-maintenance girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) turning a love rival into Shrek with multiple breasts, the newly discovered first floor prototype populated by deformed ghouls or lovable dope Luke (Kevin Bigley) conjuring the failed candidates to become his new BFF through his bedroom’s keyhole. As always, the latter often threatens to steal the show, this time for his constant pining over the absent Nathan and his naivety over the “sex and cheese store” bait which turns his life of luxury into one of pure drudgery. “It’s my afterlife, let me afterlive,” he whines in just one of his many clever zingers. 

The majority of supporting characters get more chances to shine this time around as well. Aleesha (Zainab Johnson) not only achieves a promotion as new Artificial Intelligence manager but also a girlfriend, albeit a ruthless, morally bankrupt one heavily involved in a nefarious global conspiracy. Owen Daniels, surely the hardest-working cast member as each and every one of Lakeview’s virtual employees, is allowed to play his ‘A.I. Guy’ with a little more autonomy. And even spoiled heiress Ingrid shows some signs of personal growth, landing — much to her abject horror — a customer service job hiring out the VR bodysuits she herself wears to cosplay as the dead. A shock family revelation may well do the previously unthinkable and leave you with a shred of sympathy for her, too. 

But the show’s most notable doubling down is in its dystopian vision. Upload has always boasted a dark underbelly, gradually peeling away Lakeview’s promise of paradise for all to reveal a society still very much predicated on class and capitalism. But while the anti-tech protestors known as the Ludds, so prevalent last season, all but disappear after the opener, the subsequent seven episodes also delve deeper into the machinations of the outside world, and in particular, Freeyond. 

In an era when millions of American voters are reported to be deliberately marginalized, suppressed and intimidated, it’s all-too-easy to believe the intentions of the company, an alternative to Lakeview which offers no-cost access to an afterlife but largely in the key swing states. After all, when the poor don’t have a physical body to enter the polling booth in, then the privileged stay privileged. Upload touched upon such tactics in its second season, but makes it the focus in its third, sending Nathan and Nora’s fugitives everywhere from a Republican farm family whose son now resides in a hard drive to an old flame whose courtroom profession may help them bring down the villains once and for all. 

It’s a battle which has consequences for those already in the afterlife, with Freeyond, and the monopolist billionaires they’re in bed with, planning to make a mockery of Luke’s assertion that “to be human is to avoid work.” If throwing slavery into the mix wasn’t enough, then the powers that be also have no qualms about eating endangered animals, killing their own offspring and essentially encouraging infanticide. “Let’s get kids excited about dying,” enthuses Lakeview’s hilariously domineering boss Lucy (Andrea Rosen) about her plans to target a much younger demographic, just one example of how macabre the show can go.

The fact that Upload can flit between light and shade so seamlessly is perhaps its biggest strength. It does, however, tie itself in knots with the love triangle (or should that be love decahedron) between Nora, Ingrid and the multiple incarnations of Nathan. It’s hard to invest much in any of the romances when you’re never quite sure who’s with who. Despite Amell and Allo’s best efforts, the rom-com side of Upload is only ever going to be a brief distraction from the surrounding madness (although perhaps the third season’s maddest development is the bizarre running joke in which the original Nathan is criticized for being porkier than his duplicate while still blatantly looking more ripped than your average Men’s Health cover star).

Luckily, the show appears to have a bigger grasp of weighty issues than it does actual weight. Upload’s third season poses plenty more intriguing questions about existentialism, government corruption and civil rights. And it attempts to answer them with both the head and the heart. With three consistently strong seasons under its belt, it can also now be uploaded into the pantheon of all-time great sci-fi sitcoms. 

Jon O’Brien (@jonobrien81) is a freelance entertainment and sports writer from the North West of England. His work has appeared in the likes of Vulture, Esquire, Billboard, Paste, i-D and The Guardian.