Upload (2020) s02e07 – Download

Either “Upload” decided to be just another 2022 show and play chicken with its renewal post-reduced Covid-19 lockdown season, or they ran out of time to shoot the whole season. As a result, this episode feels like a great mid-season breakpoint, not a season finale. It’s got three massive cliffhangers, one semi-resolution to an outstanding arc, one big whiff instead of a resolution, and one natural character development moment.

It’s a slightly longer episode than usual—closer to forty minutes than thirty—because there’s just so much to do, starting with Robbie Amell and Andy Allo coming up with a plan to foil the bad guys’ plan. That plan involves shifting the voting demographics in swing states, which is entirely shoehorned into the show; it’s a contrived crisis, starting last episode.

Anyway.

They need to get Amell’s retina scan to save the United States, basically. Except Amell’s dead and his avatar in the digital afterlife uses templates when you zoom into the eyes close enough. Though there’s a great scene with Allo gazing into Amell’s eyes, and who cares if the plot’s contrived.

Luckily, as the audience found out at the very end of the previous episode, Allegra Edwards has cloned Amell so she can reinsert his personality into the brain. Of course, Amell knows nothing about it, but Edwards is going to reward him with the information once he signs on the dotted line for having a creepy virtual baby with her.

Except, of course, the process for reinserting personalities into clones results in the subject’s head exploding. This subplot also seems a little rushed, like if they’d had a couple more episodes to the season, it wouldn’t feel so abrupt. They’ve been testing the procedure on pigeons, which leads to some funny (but, you know, not nice to pigeon) scenes.

But in addition to Edwards’s cooperation, they’re also going to need help from the Luds. Allo has to convince the Christian fundamentalist terrorist pastor Peter Bryant, and she’s not getting much help from now ex-boyfriend Paulo Costanzo. But she does get an unlikely supporter in fellow double agent Josh Banday, who thinks Allo’s really cool, actually.

There’s also some danger for Amell’s mom, Jessica Tuck, who’s going to have herself uploaded into the forthcoming freeware afterlife so she can hang out with him. Also, because she’s so poor, it makes more sense to stop existing. Amell doesn’t know anything about it, but it’s the first life-or-death stake in the episode. It’s not the last, which is kind of a big swing for a sitcom, only they did the same thing last season and then spent most of this one ignoring that shift.

The only people with regular arcs are Zainab Johnson and Kevin Bigley. Johnson’s boss, Andrea Rosen, wants to promote her one more time, which means bigger bucks and a much better living situation. It also means Johnson will have to commit to the very likely (but still nebulously) evil company.

And then Bigley’s just excited for Edwards to ruin things with Amell so they can bro out.

It’s a tense, dramatic, occasionally wonderful season finale. With three big cliffhangers and no resolutions if they don’t get a renewal.

There are some great scenes for Allo and Amell, some funny ones for Costanzo, and a lackluster finish for Edwards, who deserved more after the season she’s had.

Even with the limited opportunity for Allo and Amell charm this season, the actors still manage to deliver and up the charm. They’re delightful together. Also, “Upload”’s got a solid supporting cast who deserves to finish some character arcs.

I really hope Amazon renews it.

Upload (2020) s02e06 – The Outing

This episode very much does not feel like the penultimate episode of the season. Most of the episode is character development and relationship arcs, with Andy Allo and Zainab Johnson taking Robbie Amell and Kevin Bigley on a field trip to New York City. Despite it being the near future and there being human-to-AI conversion software—not to mention actual cloning—Allo and Johnson are still stuck with iPads hung around their necks with Amell and Bigley looking out.

The procedure makes little sense given the show’s technology—seriously, no one brings back Google Glass?—but it’s clearly just a way to keep Amell and Bigley present in scenes. It’s also nonsensical Allo—now a star bug hunter in the programming department—would be allowed to be Amell’s guide.

Those hurdles aside, it’s a pretty darn good episode. Allo and Johnson haven’t gotten to hang out much this season—most of their scenes are talking about boys no less—and their trip will bring some building issues to the fore. Johnson’s gotten multiple promotions and is shining in the company. She sees a future not requiring her to work two full-time jobs for a crappy studio apartment. Her experiences aren’t corresponding with Allo’s, who might not be a full-blown Lud revolutionary, but she and Amell are trying to rock the foundation of the digital afterlife thanks to the latest development in their murder investigation.

In the previous episode, Amell and Allo found out his odious rich guy neighbor (William B. Davis) had him killed for potentially witnessing something related to the freeware version of the digital afterlife. Suddenly, this freeware afterlife is opening in five days, meaning Amell and Allo have to rush to figure it out. Davis is downloading into a robot to go to a meeting in New York; Allo finds out, hence the field trip.

Meanwhile, Allegra Edwards has her post-virtual baby evaluation to see if she and Amell can have a “real” virtual baby, not the NPC version. But first, Edwards has to get through the evaluation with Josh Banday, Mackenzie Cardwell, and Owen Daniels. There are some great lines about Banday the incel. It’ll be another strangely touching arc for Edwards and entirely unreal AI guy Owen Daniels, one of the season’s most consistently successful subplots.

In the real world, Edwards also gets a visit from mom Teryl Rothery and brother Lucas Wyka, who are mean to her, but there’s a decent punchline to the whole season. Also, potentially some actual character development for Edwards. Though much like the iPad technology in the A-plot, Edwards needing to be evaluated for a paid software add-on seems a little unlikely.

Then again, when Allo and Amell discover Davis’s evil plan… it’s entirely based on current-to-2021 events. Though I suppose if “Upload” were more thoughtful about its future, the show wouldn’t rely so wholly on Amell and Allo’s charm together.

Good acting from Allo, Edwards, and Johnson. All of Amell’s scenes (until the end) are basically video calls, so he doesn’t have much to do. Ditto Bigley, who’s entirely support, though he gets some funny stuff and a decent, sincere moment for once.

And then the cliffhanger reveal’s a genuine shocker.

Upload (2020) s02e05 – Mind Frisk

After last episode teasing the return of Nathan and Nora (Robbie Amell and Andy Allo, respectively) chemistry, this episode delivers. The episode also works to disentangle them from their ill-suited love interests, with Allo having a potentially relationship-ending argument with her boyfriend, Paulo Costanzo. Costanzo’s thrilled at the success of their cyber-terror attack on the digital afterlife, and Allo’s not sure about deleting sentient data.

During their argument—which has some more great material with Josh Banday’s sex robot crushing on Costanzo—they have no idea what else their attack has wrought; as a direct result of the hack, the U.S. government (off-screen) has changed the law to allow the digital afterlife company to read the thoughts of its customers. And to put them up online if they’re spicy enough.

Spicy enough meaning Kevin Bigley’s sex dreams about Zainab Johnson are going to make her a real-world celebrity whether she likes it or not. The company’s thrilled with these changes to privacy laws, including Andrea Rosen, which makes her a lot less likable. Her cyber-peeping on Bigley has been one of the show’s running gags, but now she gets to more forcibly intrude on him (when she screen caps his showers now, he hears the snapping sound). It’s gross and ghoulish. “Upload” sometimes doesn’t seem to realize how unlikable it makes its regulars.

Once Allo finds out about the mind-reading upgrade, she realizes the bad guys will soon be able to discover Amell got his memories back. It’s particularly problematic since he was murdered for corporate espionage reasons, so they’ve got to work together to stop the mind-reading software from going live. Along the way, they’re going to flirt, be adorable together, and uncover another clue in his murder.

Amell has time to hang out with Allo all episode because girlfriend Allegra Edwards is busy raising one of the virtual babies. She hasn’t told Amell she’s doing it, and Karens her way through the interview process with Rosen. Throughout the episode, the virtual baby ages, always with some variation of AI guy Owen Daniels’s face. It’s creepy but amusingly.

It’s kind of a busywork plot for Edwards, but it’s amusing and eventually somewhat touching. The subplot also allows Vic Michaelis to do something besides being drunk and horny; Michaelis is Edwards’s (dead) grandma, living in the virtual afterlife too, and they have a scene talking about parenting.

This episode’s the first time Amell’s gotten to really do any character development in season two, which is nice—it’s a tad late (there are only two episodes left after this one), but it works out. Amell’s got so much more potential, as a character, with Allo around; with Edwards, the joke is he’s suffering her obnoxious behavior (and profound deceit), and—despite last episode apparently introducing depth to Bigley—there’s no character development with him around either.

With Allo, however, Amell gets to do some development. And it makes all the difference.

Upload (2020) s02e04 – Family Day

It’s Family Day in the virtual afterlife, which means Robbie Amell’s mom, Jessica Tuck, and adorable niece, Chloe Coleman, get to visit. Of course, since Amell’s now got Allegra Edwards in the afterlife with him, it means uncomfortable interactions as Edwards tries to ingratiate herself to poors Tuck and Coleman. To minimal success, leading to Edwards’s surprisingly affecting subplot where the AI guy (Owen Daniels) offers her emotional support.

But having people visiting the virtual ghosts in the afterlife also presents “Lud” revolutionary Paulo Costanzo an opportunity for mischief he can’t pass up. Now’s the time to unleash a virus in the system. The plan’s contingent on Andy Allo being in the virtual afterlife, but when she got the new job last episode, Costanzo was dismissive about it. The show never made it clear if she didn’t get that one job, she’d still need to go back to her old job and be a mole. Though I guess Josh Banday could’ve done it.

Doesn’t matter.

What matters is Amell and Allo reunite, finally. It’s halfway through “Upload: Season Two,” which has either got the Covid-19 lockdown reduced episode order, or the first season’s ratings weren’t quite there, but Amell and Allo are back. He spots her fixing something from across the way and runs over, thinking it’s still Mackenzie Cardwell using Allo’s avatar, but no, Cardwell’s got her own and Allo’s back.

They have a very awkward interaction where Amell acknowledges Edwards is with him in the afterlife, and then Allo mentions she’s dating Costanzo. There’s nothing about Amell’s phone messages to Allo, which he was leaving her all throughout the first episode of this season, so one assumes she never retrieved her phone, which seems weird.

Again, doesn’t matter… even somewhat frosty and awkward to one another, Amell and Allo still have their wondrous chemistry, and all of a sudden, “Upload” just feels right again.

Other significant developments in this episode include Allo, Costanzo, and Banday infiltrating a clone factory—there’s a phenomenal punchline if one’s familiar enough with their terrible white YouTubers—and then the virtual afterlife company introducing virtual babies. Edwards wants a baby, Amell doesn’t, mom Tuck gets in the middle of it. At least until the terror attack.

There’s also a subplot for Zainab Johnson and Kevin Bigley. Bigley has invited his army bud Klarc Jerome Wilson to visit him, and Johnson plays tennis with them. Well, their version of tennis. It’s an entirely comedic subplot until the end when Johnson’s forced to look at Bigley from a different perspective. Similarly, Allo’s starting to realize she’s more uncomfortable with Costanzo and his tactics than she thought.

Good acting from Allo, Edwards, and Johnson. Allo and Edwards get more material, but Johnson’s got to make Bigley’s juvenile humor funny longer than the initial bit.

Also, there’s some amusing stuff with Costanzo and Banday.

It’s either the best episode of the season so far or just feels like it because Allo and Amell have real scenes together. Possibly it’s both.

Upload (2020) s02e03 – Robin Hood

It’s an excellent episode for Allegra Edwards. She gets to play out of character—in the real world, Edwards’s talking toilet has been chastising her for too much time in VR, so she’s going to take a break. To ensure Robbie Amell doesn’t ask any questions, Edwards hires a “job gerbil”—for an Amazon show, “Upload”’s real comfortable showing what a Bezos-led dystopia would look like. The job gerbil, a phenomenal Paloma Nuñez, has to pretend to be Edwards in the virtual afterlife.

Except Nuñez isn’t terrible, so Amell and buddy Kevin Bigley will think Edwards is just being awesome all of a sudden. The episode opens with them discovering they can siphon data off the rich guys and give it to the poor people on limited data plans. You pause until next month when you run out of data in the virtual afterlife. Amell’s got a code editor device (from last season) to do the hacking.

He and Bigley take it upon themselves to play, you guessed it, Robin Hood.

They have a great suspense comedy plot with Edwards. It’s casino night (or afternoon) in the afterlife, and they’re going to win big against the richies, thanks to a complicated cheating system. Suspense factors in once real-world boss Andrea Rosen catches the code hacker in use, so she and debugger Ryan Beil try to find the culprit.

Their investigation coincides with Andy Allo’s job interview with Beil; while she’s usually in customer service, the Luds want her to drop some physical items around the programming floor, so she’s got to do a job interview. She’s ostensibly unqualified, but the show established from the start she’s really good at the programming side when she gets to do it.

Since she can’t go back to her apartment, she’s rooming with fellow Lud and fellow virtual afterlife customer service rep Josh Banday. It ends up being an excuse to show off Banday’s profoundly gross and funny lifestyle and get some laughs.

Allo also reunites with Zainab Johnson and meets her not-exactly-replacement Mackenzie Cardwell. No reuniting for Allo and Amell just yet, though she does check in on him once she’s back.

Rosen gets a lot this episode; cop Hiro Kanagawa is investigating—which freaks out Rosen because she spies on Bigley in the shower and then Beil for an indeterminate reason—so Rosen enlists Johnson’s help hiding evidence. It all will tie together with Allo’s arc by the end.

It’s a good episode for Allo too. It’s a decent character development arc amid her saboteur stuff and then the silliness in the virtual world.

But Edwards gets the best material by far; just a splendid showcase.

Upload (2020) s02e02 – Dinner Party

Both Robbie Amell and Andy Allo spend this episode getting used to their new normals (without each other), with Allo having a much better time of it. She gets to hang out with new beau Paulo Costanzo, which means a bunch of flirting, but also finding out some of the Luds anti-digital afterlife plans.

Amell’s just got to suffer through fiancée Allegra Edwards throwing a dinner party; the audience now knows Edwards is lying to him about being dead. She’s just in a VR suit in her bathtub 24/7. She invites the worst people she can find around the place, letting Amell invite his poor friend Phoebe Miu for some contrast. Kevin Bigley’s there too, but he’d either be an Amell invite or as Vic Michaelis’s plus one. Michaelis is Edwards’s grandma, who spends her digital afterlife drunk and knocking boots with Bigley.

Michaelis also gets a conversation with fellow rich guest William B. Davis (as a Koch brother analog) about how much fun it is to be racist and how women getting the vote caused the Great Depression. Davis has some unlikely, seemingly empathetic ideas about the poors receiving a digital afterlife, too, surprising Amell and horrifying Edwards. Bigley gets it in his head there’s something to Davis’s interest concerning the big conspiracy against Amell (Amell having programmed a free digital afterlife and apparently murdered for it), but Amell’s too busy with the dinner party. Specifically the help.

In addition to Allo’s adventures with the Luds, the episode’s also got Zainab Johnson and her new sidekick, Mackenzie Cardwell, trying to keep up with Edwards’s demands for the dinner party. Edwards is just too much of a Karen for the AI to keep up with her; there are some great scenes for Owen Daniels, who plays all the in-world AI characters. When Cardwell enters the digital afterlife, she uses Allo’s existing avatar, sending Amell into conniptions.

While there are some funny faux pas moments for Amell and Cardwell Allo, it’s also some jarringly unlikable Amell for a while. Once he gets the identities sorted out, he gets really short–a complete reverse from when he doesn’t know and is falling over himself to pay attention to Cardwell Allo in front of Edwards. Although Amell told Edwards he’d had a digital afterlife fling last episode, it’s unclear if she knows it’s Allo.

Anyway.

They use Amell’s brief foray into unlikable as a character development arc, as well as a way to further establish Cardwell. Johnson’s got a great line about Amell being a “human bowl of oatmeal” who drives the other girls wild.

Meanwhile, the real Allo ends the episode getting even more involved with the Luds, specifically their plans for hacking the digital afterlife and leveraging her experience (and job) to do it.

Upload (2020) s02e01 – Welcome Back, Mr. Brown

“Upload” starts its second season making some immediate changes from the previous season cliffhanger. One’s a reveal at the end of the episode and a good twist. The other’s Andy Allo’s not great real-life love interest Matt Ward getting axed in the first scene. They’re on the run in upstate New York, and Allo ditches him at a bed and breakfast to run off with dad Chris Williams to the off-griders.

With lead Robbie Amell still stuck in the reduced data area of the digital afterlife, Allo’s adventures with the “Luds” (as in Luddites) takes up the first half of the episode. Despite being a tech junkie in her regular life, Allo takes to the Lud colony, where she’s soon teaching the orientation classes and flirting with community leader Paulo Costanzo.

Besides growing their own vegetables and not having any wifi, the Luds also have a fundamentalist Christian terrorist thing going on under the leadership of pastor Peter Bryant. Allo and Costanzo bond over being charming, attractive, and not extreme like Bryant. And gardening.

Meanwhile, back at Allo’s job, her absence has coworker and bestie Zainab Johnson getting a lot more responsibility and a promotion. She and boss Andrea Rosen get to be better pals with Allo gone too; they’ve got to suffer a particularly obnoxious new upload (a dead person’s consciousness uploaded into a virtual afterlife paradise)—Amell’s fiancée Allegra Edwards.

Edwards waits a few weeks to wake Amell up from his data cap, wanting to make changes to his existing apartment. Amell’s immediately worried about Allo, who was almost killed in the previous season’s finale because she and Amell found out he’d been murdered (by Edwards’s dad), and runs off to check up on her.

Except she’s entirely off-line, so he can’t find any information or get in touch. All his calls go to voicemail, including the one where he finally tells her he loves her too.

There’s some bro buffoonery with Amell’s neighbor and dead bestie Kevin Bigley (who’s semi-dating, i.e., getting horizontal, with Edwards’s dead grandma, Vic Michaelis, which continues to be hilarious). And Mackenzie Cardwell joins the cast as the temp Johnson hires to cover for missing Allo.

There’s also cybercrimes detective Hiro Kanagawa, who seems like he’s going to have something to do with the season—the whole Amell hacking the real world to save Allo last season.

It’s an okay season starter; Allo’s extremely likable, Johnson’s excellent, and Bigley’s broadly funny. Edwards is very intense as the de facto villain. Amell’s kind of got nothing to do except cyberstalk, which is a bummer. Allo’s his only human connection on the show, and they’re not talking.

Upload (2020) s01e10 – Freeyond

After ignoring the initial A plot but actually the B plot because Robbie Amell and Andy Allo are cute for eight episodes, this episode’s almost entirely about the mystery behind Amell’s death. And his missing memories. The ones he didn’t find out about until halfway through the season but didn’t care about because… bad writing?

Except the show wants to do some big twists, starting with Amell waking up after—presumably—getting his memories back as a side effect of a system upgrade. Think there’s a chance a show like “Upload” would pull some twisty shenanigan so it can split Allo and Amell onto their own subplots for a while before bringing them back together.

Except it runs twenty-four minutes so it’s like three minutes of the show, maybe four. If Greg Daniels had just written it out, he might have given Allo and Amell something sincere to perform (so obviously not) but it’s frustrating how lazy “Upload” gets.

Though there is a lot of action this episode. Daina Reid directs. She does a good enough job given the constraints. See, it’s time Allo to be put in actual danger. Season finale only has nineteen minutes to go and the show has three big changes it needs to get set up.

Instead of doing anything with its first season, “Upload” has done a “totally different season two” setup. I didn’t see some of the twists coming—mostly because they’re all pretty terrible—but I’m still not exactly disappointed. I didn’t have any hope for “Upload” to get to a good place with this season or to get set up well for next season.

Amazon ought to cancel this one and put Allo and Amell in something else, something with better writing. Zainab Johnson ought to get her own show, however. Then you’ve got all the best pieces of “Upload” in at least not this project. Because it’s not a good showcase for Allo or Amell.

Maybe I did expect the season finale to be better.

Upload (2020) s01e09 – Update Eve

Turns out “Upload” is able to surprise me. This episode reveals the Horizon app where all the dead people live is getting an upgrade. Including having more than two seasonings, which is a heck of a long time into the show to reveal none of the digital dead people eating are tasting anything the viewer can imagine.

Of course, I shouldn’t have expected any episode-to-episode continuity—creator Greg Daniels is back to write the season finale two-parter, starting here—and we’re just now finding out reality can be upgraded. It’s like the season finale for a traditionally plotted sitcom season versus streaming tenner “Upload”.

Not only is the system upgrading, it’s also a chance for Robbie Amell to get his memories back because even though they’ve been stolen and hacked and erased, Andy Allo’s fairly sure if they break the rules and keep him awake during the upgrade, he’ll remember everything.

Everything like what? We still have no idea because the show’s done a laughably bad job establishing Amell’s supporting cast. So it’s going to be a surprise for the season finale. We’re just getting to that surprise, which involves Allo bringing causal sex partner Matt Ward to an office party no one had mentioned until this episode because of course they didn’t.

So Allo’s got to sneak around the office party to play with Amell on the computer while she’s supposed to be making out with Ward to keep boss Andrea Rosen from being suspicious (if Rosen were good, “Upload” would be a lot better, instead it gives her a bunch of time but no content). Meanwhile, Zainab Johnson is trying to convince her dead virtual ward—Kevin Bigley—to cheat on the Easter egg hunt for money.

They also don’t say Christmas in this future.

Because SJWs.

Because Greg Daniels is a rebel.

Anyway.

If “Upload” were good it’d be an Imagine Entertainment movie from the late eighties, like if Tom Hanks’s career went differently. Instead, it’s a middling, underdeveloped, underproduced—albeit occasionally charmingly casted. Hopefully it’ll get Johnson, Allo, and Amell better work in the future; and in that order only.

Upload (2020) s01e08 – Shopping Other Digital After-Lives

The episode opens with Robbie Amell getting Andy Allo in trouble for their relationship. Except she can’t let him know she’s in trouble so when she gets sent home… he assumes she’s still at work. Only it’s her boss, Andrea Rosen, who shuts him down. See, he’s ready to commit to their romance.

He gets so upset at the rejection, he decides he’s going to leave the afterlife he’s in and shop around. He never wants to see Allo again. Also there’s the whole “fiancée Allegra Edwards pays for Amell’s afterlife and he wants to be independent” thing, which gets a lot of talk but never figures into much.

Until Edwards finds out Amell has left the afterlife of her choice and she teams up with Allo—who’s flown across the country (only a half hour though, right)—to let Edwards know about Amell “checking out.” So they confront his mom, Jessica Tuck, and try to get everything sorted out.

Even though there’s some shady person following them.

Sadly there’s no subplot involving Zainab Johnson. Instead it’s just Edwards, who’s not good, and Tuck, who’s not good. Edwards messes with Allo, Tuck messes with Amell. All the show ever tries to have going for it is Amell and Allo being cute together, looking like catalog models. Well, unless it’s Johnson. Then it seems to know it can do more.

But this episode isn’t just thin, it’s thin for “Upload.” It’s memorable because of the character team-ups, but we never really get to see anything interesting. When Allo starts perving on real-life and dead for a while now Amell’s clothes? The show doesn’t know how to make Allo cute when she’s creepy.

Because the show doesn’t really know how to do anything.

For “Upload,” it’s an engaging episode. It just never delivers on the comedy or the romance. And it really just puts the latter in a “do-over” position… the episode’s fairly pointless overall.

“Upload” would do better with less episodes.