Upload Season Premiere Review: Double the Nathan, Half the Fun
Jasmine Blu
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We got a double dose of Nathan in more ways than one.
Upload's return feels more timely than ever, as Upload Season 3 Episode 1 wastes no time delving a bit into the technology revolution and pushes back against some of it.
Given the nature of the strikes and what is at stake for entertainment as we know it, the storylines that touch on AI feel particularly apt.
With the season premiere we pick up where things left off, as Nora and Nathan are on the cusp of orchestrating a plan to break into Choak and dismantle the nefarious acts in store at Freeyond.
Of course, the pacing of the opener and Upload Season 3 Episode 2 is a bit of a mixed bag as the first hour and a half of the season works to balance a few different storylines, including the overarching quest against corporate capitalism and political fraud with other minor bits.
The drama and excitement kick off with some fairly high stakes as the first installment has Nathan Brown set on this mission with the Ludds to use his retina scan to access the servers as Choak and stop Freeyond's plans.
And there are some stakes and excitement in that, particularly when the mission results in the deaths of Matteo and Sato. As of now, they're casualties of the plot with little impact on Nora and Nathan, who seemingly move on from that as if nothing had even happened.
In the background, it's evident that there's some impact of those respective deaths. It's the perfect opportunity for the Luddites to take the blame and a hit in the media, as everything gets pushed off on them as the culprits in attacking Freeyond and killing Sato.
And undoubtedly, the Ludds will have to regroup somehow after Matteo's death. But there was little feeling to derive from his sudden death in this narrative.
He's simply Nora's ex who died for the cause, all the while spending his final moments during this mission dissing Nathan and plotting to get back together with Nora after Nathan's "demise."
In that sense, whatever good will they were building up for characters like Matteo and Sato during Upload Season 2 all dissipated with their deaths, and they didn't leave much of an impression from there, not garnering anymore beyond a bored sigh.
Matteo: So you won't be around for long. We just need your retinas for a couple of days, and then you can pop off to where you came from. Well, you are legally dead, so you can't get work. In fact, yeah, how would you even support yourself? Oh, you could just mooch off Nora like you did with Ingrid; isn't that kind of your thing?
Nathan: Right. Well, I guess if the hottest woman I've ever been with rejected me for a dead guy, I'd be a little salty, too.
We know the characters are expendable, but you still want to feel a little something when they're discarded, you know?
Another plot point of this season that will already irk is whatever they have in store for Ingrid.
Allegra Edwards' ability to bring so much to this character is one of the few things that can make an Ingrid plot worth watching, especially when they retread water.
It was rewarding when she asserted for mere seconds that she'd give up on Nathan and start to put herself first. She feels she deserves a man who loves her for who she is and wants to be, and she's not wrong about that.
Why should I treat him like a priority when he treats me like an option? I'm playing myself. I have made chasing after this man my entire identity. I don't even recognize myself anymore. Well, this stops now. I'm going to make myself into someone I love, and then I will attract love, the love that I deserve.
Ingrid
It felt like a satisfying moment of opening the door to more growth for Ingrid as she evolves as a character with layers, vulnerability, and complexities that make her compelling.
But then we slipped right back into some of the more stagnant aspects of the character when Copy Nathan reached out to her, this version of him unaware of her most recent misdeeds, and she had the chance to be with him all over again.
And she jumped at it, diving right back into that damn suit and holding herself up in the freaking bathtub for days and weeks on end to keep up this ruse and be the perfect girlfriend.
Worse yet, regardless of how one feels about Ingrid Kannerman, you don't want to see her becoming anything other than who and what she is to maintain this relationship with a copy version of Nathan.
It's admirable that she wants to do and be better, but that consists of her trying to mold herself into some version of Nora right down to an unflattering haircut and eating food she doesn't care for in hopes of impressing Copy Nathan.
But all the while, her willingness to "be better" is only in the sense of her relationship with Nathan and doesn't extend to others, like Tinsley, whom she took great pleasure in blackmailing and humiliating upon learning the truth.
Ingrid is that character who reminds you of the adage that "If a person is nice to you but horrible to the server, they're not a good person."
While some of this is nothing we don't already know, that's where they could run the risk of this portion of the storyline getting dull and redundant.
We're in the same space we've always been with Ingrid, where she's wonderfully vulnerable in endearing ways, but her growth feels stagnant.
Although, we could dig deeper. Ingrid confessed to Copy Nathan on her terms that she lied about uploading, and she's been in this suit the entire time.
But it's also a truth that doesn't cost her nearly as much as all the other things she's done that she likely won't be honest about in the end.
Ingrid takes this admission as a sign of her vulnerability and honesty, and she's thrilled with Copy Nathan's response, which means she continues to lead the life she desires, with Nathan Brown being the center of her focus and all-consuming.
I want you to have fucking back problems, bitch!
Ingrid
But is it growth? Or are we in the same boat we've always been with Ingrid? She's the character where we have the most significant question mark on where things could lead with her as the season unfolds.
Copy Nathan makes sense regarding the desire to have Nathan's tracks covered while he's in the outside world. There's no way they continue sustaining this story unless they have some version of him to hold everyone over while he's away.
But even though we get double the Nathans, it's only half the fun with this plot.
So far, Copy Nathan is just there to fill in the gaps of a potential plot hole and give a character like Ingrid something to do, which is unfortunate.
It's not even a compelling angle to play for Robbie Amell, doing double duty, because so far, there's nothing too distinguishable about Copy Nathan to make playing him or seeing him this fun, an exciting alternative to the OG.
They still wanted to hold on to the Lakeview world, and Copy Nathan was a way of doing that.
However, it severely underestimates the power of Zainab Johnson and Kevin Bigley, who can easily carry the Lakeview plots independently while Nathan and Nora are away in the real world.
Something compelling at Lakeview is how much Luke struggles with these changes and the absence of two people he genuinely cares about.
He's often played off as a goofball, but Luke's depth of character is always interesting, especially when they take the time to delve into him more.
It makes sense that he would struggle tremendously with Nathan no longer being there. He's his best friend and doesn't have that type of bond with anyone else.
He feels like Nathan abandoned him in many ways, and you can sense that it brings up some things for Luke emotionally.
And then compounding that is that he's helplessly in love with Aleesha, and she's no longer his angel. As a secondary romance, Aleesha and Luke are interesting and somehow manage to have their own thing despite the similar setup of Nora and Nathan.
Horizon wants the AI to be more human than our human engineers.
Lucy
It's a perfect slow burn, fun, and their chemistry is excellent. You can even sense the shift in things between them as they've obviously grown closer to each other and care about one another, but they're not inclined to let it show or verbalize it.
Luke's happy memories of spending time with Nathan and Aleesha became sad because he missed them so much, slipping into a depressive state that had him self-medicating with mindless cartoons to fill in memories where having to feel emotions was turned off.
Luke Crossley is such an intriguing character in that way, and I genuinely look forward to spending more time with him this season.
But he and Aleesha having to navigate changes they're not accustomed to in Lakeview is more than enough to carry that part of the story.
Aleesha's arc is also interesting on the grand scale of things because of how timely it feels to what we're presently dealing with, as concerns about AI are prevalent.
We're starting to use AI for everything, to a startling degree. The one safeguard against the overuse of Artificial Intelligence as it spreads into various fields and avenues is humanity and what that means.
Feelings, emotions, and human experience are what separate us from what's taking over.
And there, Aleesha was tasked with actually teaching AI in the form of the countless AI Guys, played by an actor whose image has been duplicated and replicated for this and is ironically representative of an issue at the center of current SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Aleesha is essentially training and teaching AI Guys how to do her job and the jobs of her other colleagues. She's guiding them through becoming and coming across as more human through mannerisms, lexicon, and voice inflections.
Why do we have to think for ourselves anyway? We'll just make a rule for every situation.
AI Guy
It's not lost on me that they're also using a Black woman to do this, as it's endlessly discussed how most pop culture and various microcultures appropriate, mimic, and mine the mannerisms, cadence, voice, and subculture of Black women.
Aleesha's attempts at walking three AI Guys through the hilariously apt seven different versions of meanings of "Okay" felt like every moment of trying to explain African American Vernacular (AAVE)in spaces where one's use of it is shunned or dismissed as a dialect all the while being folded into everyday use and repackaged as "Internet slang" or "Gen-Z or Millennial things."
Aleesha Morrison has managed to climb the ranks, which is a tremendous personal gain for her as someone who deserves the opportunity to have more power, get paid more, and things like that, but it's already not as it seems.
It doesn't feel right already, as she feels like she's not succeeding in a job that she'll likely come to regret anyway, and there's this friction between her and Nora as she's mostly out of the loop about the extent of the grand conspiracies.
Worse yet, she's working in this company and unaware of their roles in this Freeyond political fraud and mass disenfranchisement mess.
It was a breath of fresh air for all the issues she was having when she got her moments with Luke again and got that confidence boost and support that she needed.
Nora and Nathan may be the "It" couple of Upload, but Aleesha and Luke are so fun to watch as the relationships' layers slowly peel away.
Nora Antony and Nathan were not without issues during their foray into coupledom.
The sweet and sexy moments are always a treat, and they slip into that domestic crimefighting bond well enough, but there is enough to challenge them as a couple.
For starters, Nathan is the conventionally attractive guy who turns heads, which Nora has noticed and seems bothered by on occasion.
He's naturally charismatic and sometimes even flirty, and women don't pay her any mind when ogling him. It's the typical relationship type of stuff you'd expect and have seen a dozen times before.
Nathan is far more confident in that regard. His security during his exchange with a petty Matteo was hilarious.
But what's scary for him is the unknown of how long he is alive when he's suffering from these nosebleeds, and his head could explode from being uploaded into the real world.
Not sharing these things with Nora is a disaster waiting to happen. You can't start a solid relationship with this type of secrecy, regardless of his attempts to protect and spare her pain with the truth.
Nora is smitten enough to be already deep into planning their future together, whether she voices her intentions out loud or not, and it's bothering her that Nathan is downplaying or keeping things light when referencing a future.
To Nora, without him telling her the truth, it could build up and lead to her questioning if he cares about her as much as she does him in the long run.
They put a salve on their issues while at that twisted farm, but it's only a temporary band-aid until they talk.
It's good that they cleared the air about some things. Nora's feelings about how Nathan would get out of work or want her to do something were valid.
She spent the first year of their relationship having to serve him as part of the job. It's natural for her to want and need some reciprocity and to feel secure in them as equals.
And Nora needed to learn that she doesn't know everything there is to know about Nathan because of what she read in a file. Sure, he was a privileged guy, but that doesn't mean he always was.
Nathan: I had a one-night stand with a Brazilian model. Sorry.
Nora: Yeah, Brazilians make the best lovers.
Nathan: Wait, what?
Her calling him "prince" struck a nerve when she made it seem as though he was out of touch, especially when they're both on this mission to stop corporate bigwigs from essentially enacting genocide on poor and underprivileged people for the sake of political power and gain.
For such a light series at times, the plans were diabolical and so on the nose. Hell, as a girl who is down for the cause and fighting for the little people, even I had to cringe at times over how heavy-handed they were with some of these archetypes and tropes.
The meeting of billionaires mustache-twirling was a lot, but easy enough to roll with.
But the whole farm situation with Bill and Cheyenne, as they tried to have nuance in not so subtly showing these working-class heartland folks susceptible to conspiracy theories by the agenda-pushing media being harmless, good people who are just misled, was a bit bothersome.
It also felt incredibly "off" that Nathan had to rein Nora in and prevent her from arguing with Bill and Cheyenne over the real villains of the story being the billionaires and not the Ludds, who are portrayed as terrorists.
Out of everyone in that room, Nora would have a better gauge of when she can and can't engage in political discussions that could pose a genuine risk to her.
Nora's everyday survival as a Black woman is being aware all of the time and knowing when situations serve her well and when they don't.
She was staying on a farm with gun-toting farmers who got their son a LeBron James poster in which they replaced him with a White man, rewriting history, as commonplace these days.
Nora would have been smart enough and arguably more cautious than a typically aloof Nathan about conversing with these people about this.
The entire bit with Nathan and Nora staying with Bill and Cheyenne dragged and felt wholly unnecessary when we could've been treated to a montage of them visiting all the families and returning their loved ones.
Nora and Nathan unpacking some of their issues and learning to navigate their relationship still could've happened without all their time during Upload Season 3 Episode 2 getting devoted to milking a massive genetically mutated cow of semen-like cottage cheese squeezed into condoms or a nod at genetically modified food with these farmers literally hocking off actual cancer as food.
The happy couple riding away with the saccharine sentiment that Bill and Cheyenne are just good albeit misinformed people who would support the cause and not be working or speaking against their own interest if they knew better whisks in just in time for the holidays.
Copy Nathan: People are a mix of positives and negatives, and I love your mix.
Ingrid: Really?
Many of us will likely have to break bread with some relative or another who has gone off the rails with their political and social views, regardless of their standing.
And there's so much new fodder for those conversations, too.
But that's where Upload can sometimes feel disappointing in that they go just to the edge of issues without wanting to fully commit to them, retreating into the quirky, zany fun as passive observers.
The farm side plot felt like the momentum of discovering that Sato was a dirty cop and Matteo's death was lost.
We learned that Freeyond didn't give a damn about killing millions of people by uploading them into Freeyond early despite not having room for them as long as it meant that those people would be gone in time for the elections.
It's a whole new level of sinister, and a secret room of billionaires plotting against the country and the interest of its people is an entirely different beast that feels beyond what Nathan, Nora, and the Ludds can stop.
In that sense, the season's goal feels ambitious as all hell, and we have a ticking clock on how valuable Nathan can be before the effects of his uploading into a new version of his body catch up to him and maybe even kill him.
That could be why slowing things down on the farm was so dull in comparison to what could've been happening in the immediate aftermath of Nathan and Nora regrouping after what happened.
They don't need Freeyond to work; they just need to lose ten million votes.
Nathan
Nevertheless, Nora and Nathan are still endearing to watch as they navigate their new romantic relationship.
The chemistry between Amell and Andy Allo remains sound. Even when there's this near-impossible task ahead of them, you fully buy into and commit to their ability to give it as good a fight as ever as long as they're together.
Separating them from the confinement of Lakeview opens up so much storytelling for them and things to explore.
It's primarily a fascinating turn of events for Nathan, who feels like he's in this limbo form, as it's notable that he can't consume food like an average person, and other things are happening to him.
Nathan: We're equals now. You're not my angel anymore. You're still my angle.
Nora: OK, you're not a prince, even though you are my prince.
The premiere didn't put us at ease about Nathan's fate and what's in store for him, and that's more than enough to hook us for the remainder of the season as Choak and Freeyond and other threats loom.
Over to you, Upload Fanatics. What are your thoughts on the premiere? Do you have any predictions? Are you enjoying Nathan and Norah dating? Were you shocked by the deaths? Sound off below.
Upload airs on Fridays on Prime Video.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
