Upload Season 2: Greg Daniels weaves Prison Break into hit sci-fi series

Upload season 2 dropped on Prime Video last Friday, and The Office (US) writer Greg Daniels has some explaining to do when it comes to the beloved Nathan Brown – we can’t get this parallel out of our heads! Did you spot it?

17/03/2022

Upload Season 2 review

If you didn’t catch Upload season 1 when it premiered on Prime Video at the beginning of the pandemic, stop what you’re doing and binge it now. Seriously. This show is going to get you in the feels, especially the sci-fi fans. And to be honest I'm not the biggest sci-fi fan, but this show surprised me. Admittedly, I was drawn to Greg Daniels’ name pasted on every article because The Office US is easily one of my favourite shows, but Upload is just so different. It’s unique, and it’s fresh, and it doesn’t disappoint in the comedy department. The show follows Nora Anthony (Andy Allo) and Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell), the latter of which dies, and his consciousness is uploaded to this virtual reality afterlife – a place called Lakeview. Nora becomes his ‘angel’ or handler, an assistant working in an office in the real world, helping him adjust to his new ‘non-life’. Check out the trailer for season 1 below if you haven't seen the show yet >>

Be warned, there are spoilers for season 1 below...

Season 1 left us wanting so much more when Nathan downgraded to Lakeview’s limited 2GB floor, a sinister, prison-like space, where he attempts to tell Nora how he feels, however when Nora explains her feelings towards him first, she incidentally drains all of his 2GB and he’s left frozen in time, unable to respond. Of course, this forces Nora to wonder whether he had feelings for her at all.

So stepping into season 2, we know that Ingrid re-animated Nathan and upgraded him back to Lakeview because she decided to upload with him – kind of like a Romeo & Juliet situation, except in this case Romeo wants to run the other way. But where does that leave Nathan and Nora? Well apparently that question gets answered pretty quickly, because season 2 moves at a pace so fast you’ll find you’ve binged it in one evening and you didn’t even realise you’d gotten through an entire grab bag of Maltesers. With only 7 episodes to cherish this season, we’re quickly introduced to a new romance, that of Nora and Byron, who helped her escape New York. Meanwhile Nathan decides to rebound with Ingrid, his ex-girlfriend, when he thinks Nora is ignoring him. So we’re almost back to square one with their relationship.

The season 2 story arc heavily focuses on the criticism of Capitalism, with the episode entitled Robin Hood, where characters literally steal from the rich to give to the poor, as well as a group of anarchists called Ludds whose goal is to infiltrate and destroy Lakeview. Nora is in on this plan, and even helps them set off a device that targets the code. They also weave in the setting of the 2GB floor, a stark white space with little-to-no colour, clearly mirroring that of a prison, of which is a system that heavily incarcerates the poor.

We’re about to talk about the season 2 finale, so please stop reading if you’re yet to watch!

That ending, though...

So what we know now is that Nathan Brown is a real boy again, Ingrid grew his head back to his body and Nora and Byron helped ‘download’ him. But of course, Daniels wouldn’t make it that easy. There had to be that nail biting twist that left fans heartbroken. Is Nathan Brown the Greg Daniels version of Prison Break's Michael Scofield? We know in the drama series that Scofield also gets a nosebleed, just like Nathan when he escapes from his metaphorical prison in Lakeview. This focus on physical health is just the dramatic flare we needed at the end of the season to make us wonder what Nathan’s fate will be in season three, that while everything seemed to work out perfectly, there’s now a looming threat to his real-life existence. Re-watch the download scene below...