What Capitalism Could Look Like in the Future Explained on Upload Season 3!

The new season of the most-watched comedy on Amazon Prime, –Upload-, is already here! And we got the pleasure of talking with Jeff Blitz. Check it out:

Q: I love that the show has a commentary on capitalism. How did you keep it lighthearted and fun while making that commentary?

Jeff Blitz: From the beginning, Upload puts character and story first. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a lot on its mind. Still, primarily, it’s a story about how people live in the near future. Hopefully, it gives us some things to think about regarding how we live right now. Also, there’s a long tradition of comedies being able to broach big subjects. I was recently watching Chaplin films with my family, and we could see there’s actually a pretty straight line from The Tramp to Nora as black-clad accidental heroes of the poor.

Q: In the previous seasons, there has been a love triangle between Nora, Nathan, and Ingrid. Now there is a 4th person, Nathan, back up. How is he different from the real Nathan?

Jeff Blitz: Well, I’d caution you on your description there. Just because he was created later perhaps doesn’t make Nathan Back-Up any less “real.” The original Nathan, after all, was an uploaded and digital version of the original, fully flesh and blood Nathan. Setting aside that mind-blowing question at the heart of human existence… Back-Up is from an earlier moment, so he arrives on the scene not knowing much of what’s happened in Season 2, a condition that leaves him wide open to the manipulations of Ingrid.

Q: What was the most daunting element for you about this season?

Jeff Blitz: Upload is an incredibly ambitious show shot on a tight schedule. The writers, actors, and crew – including a rotating stable of directors – build a world of the future with multiple cities and virtual spaces. Rachel O’Toole’s production design, Farnaz Khaki-Sadigh’s costume design, Simon Chapman’s cinematography, Eddie Anton’s VFX work… all of it needs to come together to support Greg Daniel’s vision of the future and ideas about the stories he wants to tell. The sheer scope of it all is daunting and fantastic when it gets cracked.

Q: What are some of the things from the show you wished existed in real life?

Jeff Blitz: I know this reveals me as a sentimentalist, but I think the Memory Parlor would be a wonderful thing. People say it’s a large-scale approximation of those iPhone slide shows, but to me, it’s more nuanced than that. Memories aren’t literal videos that play for me; they’re not objective and immutable. Memories are the stories that get built, that shift over time, that draw from reality but shape it too. I think a room that allowed you essentially to scan through the living dream of your life would be pretty moving. Maybe we have that already in psilocybin?

Q: If Upload gets renewed, what would you like to explore in a future season?

Jeff Blitz: For me, I think there’s a whole adventure to go with AI Guy as he crosses into a more human kind of self-consciousness. There have been tiny glimpses of it these past few seasons, but a real Pinocchio’s journey for AI Guy would be a total delight to me.