Review: Amazon's "Upload" Season 2

Amazon’s Upload returned for a second season that, while not quite as good as the first installment, was more than enough to keep audiences entertained while also pushing the main storylines forward, while also adding some new wrinkles.

Things pick up with the sophomore effort basically right after the end of the first season, though none of the characters are where anyone thought they’d be. Nora, who was going into seclusion for fear of her life, actually gets even more off the grid (thanks to her father) and finds herself living side by side with a militant anti-tech group called “Luds”, though she is eventually pushed back into Horizon, though this time she’s a mole. Nathan, on the other hand, finds himself still in a relationship with Ingrid, who uploaded herself to be with him, though it’s all a deception, as she’s alive and well, happily living off pizza and obsession in her high-rise apartment’s bathroom.

It’s a stark change from the end of S1, with Nathan happy to be rid of Ingrid and content with his choice to live in 2GB. The prevailing thought was that, somehow, the show would bring the seemingly star-crossed lovers Nora and Nathan back together and that that story would be the crux of the show, as their increasingly intimate moments proved the focus of the first season. However, while the pair do eventually come back together, the focus is far less on their relationship. Rather, the episodes revolve around the mystery of who had Nathan murdered and how “Freeyond”, the free version of Lakeview that Nathan was working on, factored in. And while that mystery is certainly worth exploring, particularly for the moral quandaries it raises about rich vs. poor and what constitutes life, keeping Nora and Nathan at odds for most of the time seems like the wrong move.

After all, the show works so well because of the inherent chemistry between Robbie Amell’s (The CW’s The Flash) Nathan and Andy Allo’s Nora. The logic is sound, though, as the showrunner’s are playing into the frequent sitcom trope of keeping the central couple apart for as long as possible, similar to Jim and Pam from The Office, or Ross and Rachel from Friends. The joy in those shows was the anticipation of when the characters would finally realize their love and act on it.

The difference with Upload, though, is that the leads, Nathan and Nora, have already accepted their feelings. They each actively want to be with the other and have accepted that they love the other, regardless of the difficulties they may encounter as a result of Nathan being, well, nothing more than some strands of code. As such, the “will they, won’t they” narrative that the show half-heartedly tries to piece together falls a little flat, particularly because their relationship takes a back seat to all the other stories. Upload is at its best when it is focusing on the relationships it built and that audiences have invested in.

And nowhere is this more apparent than the burgeoning friendship (and maybe more!) between Luke and his angel, Aleesha. Their relationship gets a little extra time because Nora is absent from Lakeview at the start. As such, the central story for Luke and Aleesha is the morphing of status from “frenemies”, to possibly something romantic. It interesting because the character of Aleesha has always been so staunchly against romantic entanglements with uploads, that seeing her slowing falling for one really highlights the ups and downs of such a relationship.

The most interesting wrinkle to come up was the revelation that David Choak, the billionaire living across the hall from Nathan and Ingrid, had a hand in the murder of Nathan. The mystery surrounding this revelation is the real driving force of the show and it really heightens a lot of the anti-establishment themes that were subtly hinted at in S1. Choak is being set up as the big bad of the series, and that’s a good thing, but the character himself will need more development for this storyline to really sing in upcoming seasons.

Overall, the sophomore offering is quite entertaining, and it does a great job of moving the story forward. It’s disappointing that some of the essential characters from the first season fell by the wayside, and in future iterations, Nathan and Nora’s relationship needs to be more of a focal point. That said, the good far outweighs the bad, and if you enjoyed the first season of Upload, you’ll be more than satisfied by the latest batch of episodes.