Enlarge / Nathan (Robbie Amell) is impressed with the digital afterlife service so far on Upload, now streaming on Amazon Prime.YouTube/Amazon Studios

A cocky tech-bro discovers that living forever in a digital afterlife isn't quite the paradise he'd envisioned in Upload, a new comedy series from Amazon Prime Video. When the trailer first dropped in March, I pointed out the strong The Good Place vibes, which set a very high bar for any new comedy dealing with the afterlife. Fortunately, Upload is a sheer delight in its own right: smart, funny, warm-hearted, and perfectly paced, trading in The Good Place's witty takes on moral philosophy for more of an emphasis on class-based social hierarchies.

(Some spoilers below.)

Series creator Greg Daniels—best known for his work on The Office, Parks and Recreation, and King of the Hill—purportedly came up with the concept many years ago while working as a staff writer on Saturday Night Live, although Amazon didn't green-light the pilot until 2017, ordering a full ten-episode series the following year. It's definitely got something of that Parks and Recreation vibe. Per the official premise: "In the near future, people who are near death can be 'uploaded' into virtual reality environments. Cash-strapped Nora works customer service for the luxurious 'Lakeview' digital afterlife. When party-boy/coder Nathan's car crashes, his girlfriend uploads him into Nora's VR world."

Robbie Amell (Code 8) plays Nathan, who is on the verge of closing a huge business deal with his friend and business partner, Jamie (Jordan Johnson-Hinds, Blindspot). But then his self-driving car malfunctions and crashes, landing Nathan on a hospital gurney, in critical condition. His wealthy girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards, Briarpatch) urges him to take the "upload" option over surgery. "We could be together forever!" she enthuses. Nathan is less keen: "Forever is just soooo long." But he ends up taking the upload anyway and wakes up in a virtual apartment. "This is the first day of the rest of your afterlife," Nora (Andy Allo, Chicago Fire) calmly assures him.

There are myriad advantages to a digital afterlife, Nathan discovers, like being able to change the weather and associated landscape outside one's window just by turning a knob. He feels freer to make some daring virtual fashion choices, with Ingrid's input. He even manages to make a couple of unlikely friends: Dylan (Rhys Slack, Legends of Tomorrow), who died when he was on the verge of puberty and whose family refuses to upgrade his avatar to an adult body; and Luke (Kevin Bigley, Sirens), a veteran who is having some trouble adjusting to his digital afterlife.

But there are also drawbacks. The complimentary breakfast is only served in a limited time frame. ("It's not even real food!" Nathan laments when the contents of his plate automatically vanish before he has a chance to virtually eat them.) Plus, Lakeview's staff counselor insists on chatting with him through a golden retriever avatar. ("It's only weird if you make it weird.")

Also, Ingrid controls the purse strings—Nathan can't even access the mini-bar in his room since it requires an In-App purchase and the passcode—and isn't above occasionally exploiting that advantage to get Nathan to do what she wants. He begins to suspect his death may not have been an accident. And his burgeoning friendship with his "angel," Nora, might just be developing into something more.

Keeping it real

The series presented an unusual challenge for VFX supervisor Marshall Krasser (whose many credits include Galaxy Quest), since there are plenty of digital effects—around 25 minutes' worth in the pilot alone—yet Daniels was adamant that the effects should never detract from the story. Scenes set in the meat world (New York and Los Angeles, respectively) had to tread a fine line between recognizable realism and believable near-futuristic technology, such as self-driving cars and bicycles.

"Everything we did was to help sell the future," Krasser told Ars. For instance people use holographic wrist phones in lieu of cell phones, all of which had to be hand-tracked. "Basically, the actor would keep their hand in that position, which is probably unconformable for that long period of time," said Krasser. "Then we would lock it in, track it, and add it in digitally." A robot arm serving as a cashier in a convenience store was an entirely digital effect (no animatronics), and the initial version was such a winsome character that Daniels requested it be toned down to keep the scene more grounded in reality.

  • Coder Nathan (Robbie Amell) is a bit of a party boy who finds himself on the verge of death after an accident. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) urges him to take the Upload option. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Standing by for uploading into a digital afterlife. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Nora (Andy Allo) guides him through the process verbally. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • 3,2,1… upload! YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Huh. The digital afterlife looks a lot like a generic luxury hotel room. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Alas, the items in the mini-bar are not complimentary. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • New neighbors. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Yes, there is golf in your digital afterlife. If you want it. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • That's quite a breakfast buffet. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Ingrid helps Nathan choose a virtual outfit. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Not the look I would have gone for, but you do you, Nathan. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Smooching through a digital divide. YouTube/Amazon Studios
  • Nathan has a bit of post-death ennui. YouTube/Amazon Studios Read More – Source [contf] [contfnew]

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