Upload is ten episodes long and takes place in the future where technology has advanced at such a rapid pace that it now permeates all forms of society. There are self-driving cars, robots doing the shopping, and advanced AI. It doesn’t take that far enough into the future that things look futuristic, and there’s a mix of old and new, so it can look somewhat odd when a futuristic car drives past some old buildings.
The show follows Nathan, who is having what you might call a typical, albeit good, life. He’s successful enough to be comfortable with where he is, has a loving girlfriend, and is reasonably happy. Although it comes to an end when through some circumstances, he is forced to “upload”. Basically, his memories are copied onto a server and now he lives in a virtual life, in a virtual society. It feels like an aged care home, and it is heavily commercialized. It’s not all inclusive, and there are nickel and diming microtransactions.
While it seems great at first (and the in-show ads show how amazing a place it is, just like “heaven”), Nathan soon runs into questionable logic in the programming. It may seem fun in the beginning, but Nathan soon goes crazy. It’s hard for him to accept it when normal things like styling his hair don’t react to physical input. It’s all controlled by data and programming, which often breaks the illusion of a perfect life.
Understandably, Nathan isn’t too comfortable in his new state, and it explores some interesting concepts. Technically he’s dead, but he’s also alive. He still has his girlfriend, and there is still a virtual barrier despite some stopgaps like a suit that can give sensation. It presents interesting concepts on what a digital life would be, where your clothes magically just change, or food just appears and disappears. Although some of the visualizations are stretching it such as being able to get through unrendered out of bound areas.
The show presents the worst of what capitalism has to offer. There are microtransactions everywhere. The corporations are evil, serving only to extract as much profit out of you as possible. Your memories are deleted as soon as you cannot pay. The scary part is that you can see it happening. The circumstances that led up to Nathan’s current predicament are also suspicious, and this is constantly hinted every so often. Each episode has at least one cliffhanger or twist reveal.
Nathan gets a dedicated staff that is his “angel”, that helps him adjust to digital life and is a general help. For Nathan, he gets attached to Nora. Nora is a real person, and the two hit off. Nora, initially attracted physically to Nathan, starts to feel attracted to him through his memories, raising some interesting concepts of falling for someone via knowing them through their memories rather than through their person. Given Nathan already has a girlfriend, the one that’s currently keep him “alive”, this is quite the dilemma that he’s gotten himself in.
After the gradual reveal and teasing of Nathan’s past, it comes to light in the final episode. It’s a little bit intense, and sometimes, the show does a mood whiplash where it nonchalantly just shows something crazy or violent or horrible, but in such a way that it is kind of for laughs, and yet it is serious. It’s not a bad thing, as it gives the show its own unique identity but it’s something that does stand out. And as is usual for the season, the final episode finishes off with a big revelation. It’s not a happy ending, and it doesn’t finish off the major plot threads, but it feels significant.
Overall, Upload is an interesting show, and one that has an interesting premise and concept. The fact that you can make a copy of someone’s memories and upload them so that they theoretically have infinite life, and having that interact with the real world, is unique. Some of it doesn’t quite gel together, but putting its own twist on things especially with the overly excessive capitalism is a nice touch because it feels like it could happen… The subplot of Nathan’s predicament and how he got into it keeps the plot moving along, even though it’s probably not the most interesting plot thread in the show.
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