Upload season 3 review: The sci-fi comedy loses its charm

Oh, Upload, what the hell happened? The endearing, inventive sci-fi comedy sadly loses grasp of its unique appeal in season three, returning as the dullest version of itself. The new season, which premieres October 19 on Prime Video, is disjointed and messy as it spins in circles instead of pushing the story forward. Greg Daniels’ series still has the same beating heart: an unexpected, moving romance between Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell) and Nora Antony (Andy Allo). Their chemistry is intact, but Upload feels otherwise aimless and—deep sigh—boring. And it’s because season two’s finale trapped the show in a tricky corner that it struggles hard to escape.

That second season sendoff ended with Nathan, killed and uploaded into a virtual afterlife called Lakeview, finding his way back to the land of the living. He successfully “downloads” into a new body, finally meeting his handler and love interest, Nora, in person. They’re not in a long-distance relationship anymore (“distance” meaning dead vs. alive or real vs. virtual, of course). So how does Upload chart this new territory, where both leads aren’t in different dimensions of reality? Poorly, despite Amell and Allo’s charming banter.

As it turns out, Upload’s main selling point is the tech-driven Lakeview and the challenge it poses to Nathan and Nora’s relationship. With that hindrance gone, the premise that made the show stand out dissipates. Now both characters are saddled with a generic arc in the drab, dreary real world instead of navigating crazy hurdles in a colorful, fake afterlife. (It’s akin to The Good Place, created by Daniels’ regular collaborator Mike Schur, stripping away its utopian setting.) It’s not that Lakeview is wholly absent (a secondary and disappointing subplot occurs there), but the magic of Upload largely is.

Nathan and Nora now race against time to bring down Horizon, the massive company behind the virtual afterlife. Upload feels timely on the surface because of its war on big tech, AI, and corrupt CEOs. Yet these angles are painted with such broad strokes that they rob the show of an emotional core. It’s almost comical how, in one scene, corporate honchos sit in a dark conference room, mulling over how to profit off of the poor, as we barely even know any of the execs. The stakes are too distant to care about, even with the knowledge that Nathan’s head could literally explode at any minute.

Upload also suffers from fragmented storytelling, as if everything was pieced and edited together last minute. A major crisis at the end of an episode is barely acknowledged in the next; and you might scratch your head and wonder if you missed important developments. Here, Upload rushes without sitting with its twists, a problem the previous two seasons didn’t have.

This fragmenting applies to characters as well. Nathan and Nora are off on their own adventure, while their friend Aleesha (Zainab Johnson) is left on her own. Johnson was season two’s MVP, yet her arc now is limited to spending time with her new partner/potential foe, Karina (Jeanine Mason), an evil Horizon leader. Johnson doesn’t get to show off her humorous chops or fun chemistry with Allo. Even Aleesha and Luke’s (Kevin Bigley) will-they-won’t-they situation, now complicated by a love triangle, doesn’t land.

The other nosedive comes with Ingrid Kannerman (Allegra Edwards), Nathan’s wealthy former fiancé who was on a path of self-awareness last season. Ingrid isn’t the main character in this show, but she’s the most complex and interesting one. And Edwards’ performance perfectly balances being unhinged and vulnerable. But instead of continuing her evolution from a one-note bitchy antagonist to a somewhat likable anti-hero, Upload regresses her. She’s latched onto Nathan even though he always chooses Nora. With him out of Lakeview, her antics are applied to a “copy” of Nathan still inside. You’ll be tempted to throw your remote at the screen and yell, “Again? Really?” Three seasons in, the lack of growth is frustrating.

Upload doesn’t completely miss the mark. There are flashes of its endearing self when it focuses on the central romance or the unexpected but brief scenes with Ingrid and Nora in the second half. However, everything else is a pale comparison of what it used to be. The jokes and references don’t sing (there’s a lame running gag about Nathan gaining 10 pounds) and the anti-tech agenda feels murky. Unfortunately, Upload’s third season is a prime example of how dragging out an interesting premise can be a death knell in this TV landscape.

Upload season three premieres October 19 on Prime Video