Amazon’s Upload is kind of a downer compared to The Good Place

What Happens When You Die? According to the latest television, you have a few options.

We saw what comes after you throw the bucket in The good place, Miracle worker, Forever and the Black mirror episode San Junipero. Now is the latest show to tackle the great afterlife Upload, in which the dead are uploaded to a luxurious digital life after death – where they find their problems alive and well.

Upload premieres on Amazon Prime Video 1st of May. The vain encoder Nathan, played by Robbie Amellwhen he unexpectedly shuffles from this mortal shell into the vast and expensive paradise called Lakeview, thanks to the size of his rich friend. But he is attracted to a living Lakeview employee who is played by Andy Allowhen she suspected that his death in a faulty self-driving car was not an accident.

The 10-episode comedy drama was created by Greg Daniels, who worked on it The office and Parks and recreation With Mike Schur. Upload therefore inevitably draws comparisons to Schurs’ acclaimed 2016 show The Good Place, which also features an unlikely protagonist who has gotten into a crazy sky full of crazy characters and more than a few secrets. It’s a high standard for upload, a show that just isn’t as good as The Good Place.

However, the upload is contemporary. One of the opening scenes shows a commuter who is clumsily stuck in a subway next to people with medical masks. And the Coronavirus pandemic gives the show’s vision that a guy at home with everything he needs but is still haunted by soul-destroying fears gives an extra resonance. The economy of his situation is also stressful and familiar: the first episode includes a neat visual gag with a mini-bar full of in-app purchases, while the less affluent find that their lives are now capped.

Research into inequality is a powerful and crisp subject, but the gritty satire sits awkwardly next to gags about VR sex suits. Lakeview’s VR firmament offers many opportunities for surreal and imaginative comedies. Highlights include Nathan’s first encounter with a urinal or power disorder that turns the characters into blocky versions of themselves with low resolution. But they’re more of a throw-away gag than springboards for novel and eye-catching storylines. I wondered what a bolder show Rick and Morty or, yes, The Good Place – could handle this out-there setup.

A fitting metaphor for the lack of depth of the show is that Lakeview takes its name from a lake that, on closer inspection, is actually just a flawed loop picture. The representation of the real world is even flatter than that of the virtual world, since the world building is obvious jokes about self-driving bicycles, food printers and well-known company names. In fact, they are often so painfully close to reality that they are hardly considered jokes.

And it’s a red flag that the first episode launches a gag that’s as hackneyed as it is the joke “classical music” seen everywhere from Star Trek Beyond and Futurama to Doctor Who in the 1960s.

Despite the crazy premise, Upload is not an inflammatory sitcom. It relies heavily on the romantic and mysterious elements, and Amell and Allo are a likeable couple. By the season finale, there are some really heartbreaking obstacles between them. But it never hits the emotional depth of Black Mirror Tearjerker San Junipero, who is also a love story in a virtual afterlife. And even if the leads become more likeable, the wafer-thin supporting characters are not as appealing as the lively supporting cast of The Good Place. It introduces more than one interesting character who spices things up for a scene or two and then completely forgets them.

Despite the intelligence, heart, and imagination, Amazon’s entry into life after death isn’t as novel, fun, or fascinating as similar shows we’ve enjoyed lately. Uploading is not entirely lifeless, but not as heavenly as you would hope.