Season 4 of Greg Daniels’ techno satire, Upload, with just four episodes feels like a gift for fans. And since one is not in the habit of looking gift horses in the mouth, we dived right into the proceedings.
Upload is set in 2033, (which seems closer than it did in 2020 when the show debuted) when people have the option of uploading their consciousness to a digital afterlife and living forever.
Season 3 had two Nathans (Robbie Amell) — one, who is downloaded into a body in the real world and is love with his human handler/angel, Nora (Andy Allo); and a back-up Nathan in the digital afterlife, who continues to be in love with his materialistic, controlling girlfriend, Ingrid (Allegra Edwards). Season 3 ended with one of the Nathans being deleted, with a cliffhanger not revealing which one remained.
Upload Season 4 (English)
Creator: Greg Daniels
Cast: Robbie Amell, Andy Allo, Allegra Edwards, Zainab Johnson, Kevin Bigley, Andrea Rosen, Owen Daniels, Josh Banday
Episodes: 4
Runtime: 31–46 minutes
Storyline: Love, loss and corporate greed run riot in the real and virtual world
‘Wedding Weekend’, Season 4’s opener, with Ingrid preparing for her wedding, and Nora refusing to come out of her room and crying her eyes out, reveals which of the Nathans survives. As back-up Nathan and Ingrid are preparing for their wedding, Nora seems to see Nathan or a hologram of him. Is he alive or a projection of her grieving mind?
Daniels in an interview with this author had described Upload as primarily a love story. He has chosen to return to this core theme in the concluding season. There is Nathan and Nora’s intense love for each other that seems to be able to challenge death. Nora unfortunately seems to have become a one-note character pining after Nathan.
A still from ‘Upload’ Season 4
| Photo Credit:
Prime Video
Back-up Nathan and Ingrid’s love is more flawed and thus more relatable. There is crowd favourite A.I. Guy (Owen Daniels) looking and finding love in A.I. Girl (Anja Savcic), who he creates from his body — very biblical, no?
Aleesha (Zainab Johnson), Nora’s co-worker who has been steadily climbing the corporate ladder, is obsessing about a kiss shared with Nathan’s best friend, Luke (Kevin Bigley). Aleesha being Luke’s angel further complicates things. Ivan (Josh Banday), another of Nora’s co-workers, is in a relationship with a Roomba.
The bigger questions of corporate responsibility and greed, workers’ rights and what constitutes an individual, are fleetingly touched upon with evil millionaire, Choak (William B. Davis), making an unwelcome appearance.
A still from ‘Upload’ Season 4
| Photo Credit:
Prime Video
The villains this time around are sentient A.I., B-HBSG (also played by Daniels) and Jitendra (Lee Majdoub), a middle-management person with eyes fixed on profit margins to the exclusion of all else.
Lucy (Andrea Rosen), Nora’s boss, gets her just desserts while the temp, Tinsley (Mackenzie Cardwell), persists in being chipper even as terrible things happen to her. Aleesha’s clothes and hair continue to be fabulous and her Jane Bond avatar is a hoot.
It would have been good if there were more episodes giving time for the revolution of Season 3 to develop further. If, however, one were to look at these four episodes as a way to hang with these likeable characters one last time, then, like Nora tells her Nathan, “Just because something doesn’t last forever, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.”
Upload is currently streaming on Prime Video
Published – August 26, 2025 03:14 pm IST
