Toronto native explores virtual afterlife
TORONTO — It took a while for Amazon Prime Video’s new Vancouver-shot sci-fi comedy series Upload to make it to the small screen — so much so that Canadian star Robbie Amell aged two years in just the first handful of episodes.
But its arrival today turned out to be timely, as the story of a nearfuture in which humans can buy a spot in a virtual afterlife mimics the virtual social life many people are experiencing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amell stars as an app developer who questions his formerly superficial life when he’s “uploaded” to a luxurious postmortem existence following a self-driving car accident.
The Toronto native, now based in Los Angeles, first auditioned for the series in October 2017, shot the pilot in January 2018 and filmed the rest in the ensuing months and years, providing a time capsule of sorts for his life.
“I’m 29 in episode one, I’m 30 in episodes two, three and four, I’m 31 in episodes five through 10 — and I’m 32 when it airs, which is so weird, especially in the TV world,” he said in a recent interview conducted via video conference during the pandemic lockdown.
“We shot the pilot and then Amazon had a changeover of who was in charge and they didn’t pick up most things, and then they decided to give us a shot.”
Emmy Award-winning writer Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) created the series, which is like a mix of The Good Place and Black Mirror as it delivers a humorous look at futuristic technology exploited by major companies.
Amell, who starred in the 2015 film The Duff, plays Nathan, whose virtual afterlife fate is largely decided by his rich and vapid girlfriend Ingrid, played by Allegra Edwards.
“What I really liked was that this guy starts off as this shallow douchebag, and it takes him dying and going to Lakeview to grow up a little and figure out that he wasn’t really living much of a life while he was alive,” Amell said.
“He meets people who become better friends than he ever had when he was actually living his life. But I also think it shows some of the things that you enjoy about life or things that you take for granted.”
As Nathan navigates the cushy digital world of the Horizen company’s “Lakeview” property — a place where upgrades for things like snacks and data plans can be purchased, and funerals can be sponsored by companies — he realizes even the afterlife has a class divide.
Not everyone can afford such a fancy experience, and Nathan discovers a less affluent, pay-as-yougo version of Lakeview, where those who’ve run out of data for the month are essentially frozen until their plan resets.
Those in the virtual world can use their data plans to communicate with loved ones who are living. Helping them navigate through the afterlife are Horizen customer-service “angels” who exist in the world of the living.
For Nathan that “angel” is Nora, played by actor/singer Andy Allo, with whom he becomes close.
Amell, whose other credits include the CW series The Tomorrow People and The Flash, said he’s now working with writerdirector Jeff Chan on a sequel to their 2019 Canadian sci-fi feature film Code 8.
Amell was part of the Code 8 producing team, which also includes his cousin, fellow Toronto-bred actor Stephen Amell of TV’s Arrow fame. The Amells also starred in it.
The team is developing the sequel through a deal with the mobile-focused streaming service Quibi.
“The next iteration of Code 8 takes place about five years after the first one and I’m coming straight out of prison,” Amell said from his home, where he lives with his actor-wife, Italia Ricci, and their baby.
“So my plan during [the COVID-19] lockdown is to put on about 10 to 15 pounds of hopefully mostly muscle,” he continued, adding with a laugh: “All I’m doing is eating all of our stockpiled food and working out and hanging with the baby.”