How to Never Die: Have a Digital Death!

Skepticism. That’s what I felt when I first started watching Amazon Prime’s newest original show, Upload. I knew I would watch it because of its superb cast and because it’s by the creator of The Office, Greg Daniels, but I actually wasn’t intrigued or excited by the trailer. At best, I assumed I would use it as background noise. Well. Upload premiered on May 1st and on that day, I watched the entire first season. All ten episodes were devoured back to back because I couldn’t stop watching!

The premise of the show revolves around Nathan (Robbie Amell) and his journey into the digital afterlife. In this futuristic world, artificial intelligence is the way of life. We see self-driving cars, drones as floor workers in stores, an intelligent and integrated response system capable of thinking, and so much more. Honestly, it’s a terrifyingly accurate representation of where the world is going. The most prominent focus of this digital life is “uploading” to an afterlife (thus the name). Uploading is a feature predominantly for the wealthy. It is a method that a person can choose instead of “traditional” death. Once uploaded, this “dead” individual will exist in the digital world with full capabilities of thinking and feeling like they could when they were still alive. The true attraction to a digital afterlife is that the dead can still talk to the living – it’s just like FacetTime but across planes of life.

Photo courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

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Like everything else in our world, the more money an individual pays, the more liberties this (now dead) person has in their afterlife. And a part of every individual’s uploaded journey is an “angel”: a living person who assists the digital dead through the software that created their afterlife experience. Essentially, these angels are amateur web developers who use VR and basic code to help the dead live happier. After an unfortunate accident, Nathan explores this afterlife journey with the help of his angel (Andy Allo).

As the show progresses, we see how Nathan adapts to his new reality and watch how he navigates his relationships with the living, like his rich girlfriend (Allegra Edwards) and his new confidante Nora. This show was surprisingly funny and used the super-common trope of an AI-controlled future in a surprisingly new way. There was a depth to each of the characters without sacrificing any of their comedic value. I loved to hate some of the characters while I rallied wholeheartedly behind others. Each episode kept me at the edge of my seat (read: jumping on my bed) and continuously intrigued me by the way they used technology. Although set to be a fantastic comedy, Upload went above-and-beyond by having carefully crafted plot lines of romance and suspense weaved throughout the show. It also is a social commentary on the constructs of wealth and the dark side of technology.

Photo courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

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All in all, if you’re looking for a show that makes you laugh, makes you wonder, or makes you question the viability of an artificial intelligence-powered world, then I highly recommend this show. So if you haven’t already, stop what you’re doing and go watch the show right now! I’m telling you, it’s worth it.

Note: each episode is about 30 minutes long