‘Upload’ season 3 review: Greg Daniels is back with more giggles and gigabytes of social consciousness

A still from ‘Upload’
| Photo Credit: Liane Henstcher

The year the science fiction comedy Upload is set in, is 2033 — 10 years from now. Wonder if the world or the US would be as shiny and messed up as the show presents it to be. Probably it will be a little bit like the show, not 100 percent accurate, which is reassuring and worrying in equal measure.

The premise of Upload is, in the future human beings can upload their consciousness to live forever in the digital afterlife. However, there is all that social inequality and the one-percenters live in fancy afterlives, while the rest of the world is banished to 2gig hell.

At the end of season 2, Nathan (Robbie Amell), the 27-year-old computer programmer who died under mysterious circumstances and was uploaded to the swanky Lakeview afterlife, has been downloaded and is in the real world. It is thanks to his rich, possessive, cheerfully-materialistic girlfriend, Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) that Nathan has a body to be downloaded into.

Nora (Andy Allo), who works for Horizen, the shady corporation that runs Lakeview, is Nathan’s handler or Angel. Nora and Nathan have feelings for each other, and now the couple has to make the relationship work in the real world.

There is also the danger of Nathan’s head exploding as downloads have not been very successful until now. When Nathan cannot be found at Lakeview, a tech figuring out that Nathan might have been accidentally deleted, restores his consciousness from an earlier version.

Now there are two Nathans; the one in the real world realising all the pros and cons of having a body, and the upload, who Ingrid prefers as he has not broken up with her. The gang from the earlier seasons are present and having as much fun.

Aleesha (Zainab Johnson) is rapidly climbing up the corporate ladder, with the attendant wardrobe and dilemmas. In this season she is training A.I. Guy (Owen Daniels) to be more human.

A still from ‘Upload’

Luke (Kevin Bigley) is slightly at a loose end as the Nathans are busy with their respective women. Luke, however, continues his system hacks even though he ends up as a fanboy in a Princess Leia costume from The Return of the Jedi. His pastor Luke avatar is quite hilarious with his attempts to say grace, which includes pronouncements such as, “Grace is amazing” and “God’s second aunt was named Grace!”

There is much running about to stop Freeyond, the service that ostensibly wants to help the have-nots, but naturally has a sinister plan. Lucy (Andrea Rosen), Nora and Aleesha’s boss from hell, has a meltdown, while Ivan (Josh Banday) does some heavy duty corporate espionage. Multibillionaire Choak (William B. Davis) who lives down the hall from Nathan, is up to his usual slimy tricks. There is also a new slimeball this season in Karina (Jeanine Mason) who is as evil as she is pretty.

The writing is sharp as ever. The statutory warning that comes in the library, “Books contain information that can be different or even contradictory to the opinions you currently hold,” and “Before you use this library you acknowledge possible exposure to uncomfortable facts,” are fun and on point as is Luke’s “Nora is overrated like a pretentious Sundance movie” and “It is my afterlife, let me after live it.” That mutated milch cow and cancer pork were as creepy as they sound!

 Has Upload overstayed its welcome? Maybe, but it is still fun to spend time with Nora, Nathan, Ingrid, Luke, Aleesha and most importantly A.I. Guy. Creator Greg Daniels has said the fourth season has been ordered and hopefully it will explore daring, new frontiers.

Upload Season 3 currently streams on Amazon Prime Video with two new episodes dropping every Friday till November 10, 2023