If We Controlled Your Remote… 5/1/20

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

Early this morning, Amazon Prime Video released the 10-episode first season of the new sci-fi comedy Upload, from series creator Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation). In the year 2033, people now have the option to upload themselves into a digital afterlife before they die, allowing them to essentially live forever. Those who are still living on Earth can interact with their deceased loved ones using virtual reality headsets – and other specialized equipment, should their needs be a little more intimate. However, much like life on Earth, every bit and byte in these virtual worlds has been monetized, and only the rich can afford to spend their digital afterlife in a luxurious place like Lakeview.

Nora Antony (Andy Allo, Chicago Fire, Pitch Perfect 3) is a customer service representative for the Horizon corporation. It is her job to be an “angel” to the residents of Lakeview, helping them get accustomed to their new digital after-lives and assisting them with whatever needs come up. While she may be good at her job, her boss, Lucy (Andrea Rosen, Episodes) doesn’t appreciate her and is constantly threatening to lower her star rating. Nora also hasn’t had much luck in her personal life, resorting to using a sketchy hook-up app when she feels lonely. However, Nora’s life is about to change when she is assigned to a new Lakeview client.

Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell, The X-Files, The Flash) is a bit of a party boy but also an intelligent programmer. He and business partner Jamie (Jordan Johnson-Hinds, Letterkenny) are working on a freeware program that would allow people of any means to be able to afford to live on in a digital afterlife. However, when Nathan is badly injured in a suspicious self-driving car crash, his wealthy girlfriend, Ingird (Allegra Edwards, Briarpatch), makes the decision to upload him to Lakeview. While Nathan is now “living” in luxury, he also feels trapped as Ingrid has control over his finances and what he can do with his endless time. However, his new angel, Nora, becomes a breath of fresh air…well, if he could breathe.

Once I started watching this show, I couldn’t stop – I thoroughly enjoyed this first season and was screaming to see what happens next after it ended! In some ways the show reminded me of The Good Place – though it does take advantage of the fact that it’s not on network TV and is thus not as family-friendly. The series offers a unique, interesting, and sometimes wacky alternate take on the afterlife, mixing in witty writing, clever humor, topical references, and some really fun, quirky characters. There is a really nice blend of humor and character drama, along with the underlying mystery of whether or not what happened to Nathan was truly an accident. The cast is fantastic and have such great chemistry with one another. In addition to the main characters, there’s also some fun recurring characters, such as the annoying A.I. GUY (Owen Daniels) who seems to be everywhere, Nora’s foul-mouthed 18-year-old client Dylan (Rhys Slack) who’s stuck in a 12-year-old avatar body, and Nora’s co-worker Aleesha (Zainab Johnson) and her clients, young veteran Luke (Kevin Bigley, The Moodys) and bigoted billionaire David (William B. Davis, The X-Files).

The series has some really fun and interesting ideas as to what the future will be like. I just hope the actual future includes another season of this series!

Check out the first season now on Amazon.

I’ll also be watching/recording Trying, Prop Culture, Hollywood, The Blacklist, and The Graham Norton Show.
 
Jump with us to see else we think you should watch.
 

Phoebe’s Choice

When Star Wars: The Clone Wars started out on Cartoon Network in 2008, George Lucas set out to tell an enormous tale – the entire era of the Clone Wars, which fill three years between Episodes II & III of the Star Wars films. Over 12 years now and three platforms, including Netflix and now Disney+, we are finally drawing to the close.

One of the greatest characters to emerge from this series has been Ahsoka Tano, formerly Anakin Skywalker’s Jedi apprentice. After being set up by a renegade Jedi and struggling to prove her innocence, Ahsoka felt betrayed by the Jedi and chose to leave her training before she became a Jedi Master. In watching the Star Wars: Rebels series, we learned that she lived long enough to lead the Rebel Alliance in its earliest incarnations. In that series, we even learned of a rivalry with Darth Maul that had never been witnessed in the Clone Wars episodes…until recently!

Season seven of Clone Wars has provided space to complete the last few months that lead directly into Episode III of the films. This has included an initial arc about the Clone regulars that work alongside Anakin and Obi Wan much of the series but also the completion of Ahsoka’s story, after she left the Jedi. At first she worked with a pair of smuggling sisters, but that led her to Mandalore where she discovered that the fallen Sith Lord Darth Maul was still at large and up to no good. Although the Jedi were pulled away by the events of Revenge of the Sith, Ahsoka confronted and defeated Maul, with her recently restored lightsabers. In the course of their long battle, he revealed both the existence of Darth Sidious & that he planned to make Anakin his pupil, though he was psychotically haunted by the name Skywalker. This gave us some closure and filled holes in the overall story of cannon to help the Epic flow better, depending on which Machete Order you use to view the series. (I mean, you could binge all of this show between Episodes II & III.)

Overnight last night was technically not the finale – that airs on a weird Monday night slot in 3 days. But now is the time to #ketchup and buckle in for the end of this wild ride.

Check out this episode, which aired overnight last night, now on Disney+.

I’ll also be watching the hilarious Harley Quinn.