For a successful TV series, which became such already in its first season and indicated as a perfect mix of creativity.
Grotesque irony, changing skin, changing soul can be a big risk, especially when you proceed substantially to revolutionize the diegetic process. and its structure.
The second season of Upload took this risk, decided it was time to evolve, to break away from its essentially comic and irreverent nature, and instead embrace something incredibly more dystopian and dramatic, trying in some way not to remain a slave. of a composition that could hardly be applied successfully once again. But maybe it wasn’t a great idea …
The digital paradise suddenly
Upload had guided us into a not so unreal future, where after death one’s conscience on-line can survive in a sort of hi-tech Dante limbo, where, upon payment, one can obtain all kinds of privileges and make one’s conscience persist in eternal, maintaining contact with the real world thanks to assistants known as “Angels”.
Basically the loved ones we have left on this earth will be able to continue interacting with us, naturally for the right price, which gives access to different degrees of luxury and entertainment. A simulation? An illusion for relationships now defeated by Death or by material reality? Yes and no. Because in reality, quoting Matrix Revolutions , interaction is a word, but what that word contains and means counts. Or at least that’s what Nathan (Robbie Amell) thought at first, who died under mysterious circumstances, but still in contact with his rich and anxious girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edward) via Upload.
The digital afterlife he is in, called Lake View, however, had turned out to be a realm of appearance, which despite the help brought by Nora (Andy Allo), Nathan’s Angel, did not compensate for its lack of materiality. and above all of authenticity. In short, between Nathan and Nora the evolution of a relationship began which became much closer and more intimate than allowed by the rules, Ingrid had found herself grappling with existential doubts and the criticisms of her family. Nathan himself, as well as divided in her feelings, no longer wanted to have to depend on Ingrid’s money.
Among complications, alternative virtual paradises and laughter, disturbing mysteries and attempted murders had also made their way, with which Upload had managed to create a light and tasty mix. Together, there was an eloquent and amusing metaphor of the technocracy we live in as well as the contrast between real and digital identity in modern society.
From laughter to drama
Now here comes the second season, in which we discover with horror that Ingrid was unable to do without Nathan, and has decided to follow him into the digital afterlife, thanks to its economic power. Meanwhile, Nora now seems determined to embrace the cause of those fanatical neo-Luddites, for whom technology is the devil, and to pursue a pre-electronic lifestyle.
But it is Nathan’s death that is much more at the center of this second season, the spark that leads to a radical change in the atmosphere of the series, which if in the first season was dominated above all by the comic and demented element. , here instead it becomes more and more connected to the dystopian, dark one.
Basically, the comic interludes almost seem like pauses within a thriller that as it progresses through the different episodes, becomes more and more connected to current political issues, to a vision of society as a cage for free will.
In addition to this already surprising element, we must also consider the fact that Nathan himself is surprisingly placed almost on the sidelines in favor of Nora, as well as other characters that until that moment we had certainly considered more secondary such as Aleesha or Luke. Upload therefore decides to have this imminent underground war between two fronts in its diegetic process, in which the concept of humanity’s future is at stake. The choice is simple: either we fully embrace a technology that has now gone far beyond the limits of morality or we marry what more than a copy of the much-vaunted happy degrowth, is essentially a regression, with related emotional collateral damage to those who are uploaded in contact with their loved ones.
Excess of ambition and seriousness?
It is usually said that you have to adapt in order not to die, however this second season of Upload can certainly leave many people dumbfounded, given that the total change of atmosphere and themes, but even more the expansion of the world building of the series, may not appear. perfectly justified.
Why do it if the first season in its ironic simplicity, in its parody, was still rich in contents and references to unbridled individualism, to the inability to accept the limits that humanity has totally embraced today?
For now the critics and the public have divided about the coherence of this revolution, but there is no doubt that in the end, this second season also provides questions that are not insignificant, but above all it prefigures a conflictual future that sounds really familiar to us. Less appreciable, on the other hand, is how you abandon the reversal of perspective between reality and fiction, as well as no longer suggesting the increasing influence of videogame reality in our daily life and in our vision of the world. Basically Upload in this second season seems to want to choose another way of asking the same questions, only less light, less carefree and also objectively less creative.
Perhaps you have thought that laughter also hides a sort of disengagement, when instead they are often the perfect means to express a depth, which does not necessarily have to be dressed in seriousness.
It seems natural to see some excess of ambition in this street being taken by Greg Daniels , one to whom we owe The Office, Space Force and even some of the best episodes of The Simpsons .
Let’s say that perhaps this time the gimmick came less well than others, which perhaps was not the case. The fact that all this happens on Amazon Prime Video, referring to one of those giants that our life has not exactly improved it 100%, makes it somewhat strange …
