Amazon Prime Video's recent television show Upload is about the afterlife. An app programmer named Nathan Brown dies, and his consciousness is uploaded to a virtual reality world for the dearly departed.
Upload just so happens to be another show about life after death. For all those fans who finished the first season and are looking for something similar to watch, here are a few similarly themed recommendations. Each one deals with death in different ways.
Updated on October 22nd, 2020, by Richard Keller: Death is a subject people like to examine because it's the true unknown. This is why so many shows have been created that delve into the world of the afterlife and what could possibly be. Sometimes, these programs show the darker side of resurrection. In other situations, their return results in positive circumstances — regardless, there's plenty to pick from and so this article has been updated to include more options for fans of Upload.
Quantum Leap (1989-1993)
While Dr. Sam Beckett wasn't technically dead, his spirit certainly left his body to land in individuals from other times. These weren't random travels. Sam was placed into other individuals to help them resolve thorny issues. This is the core concept behind NBC's Quantum Leap, and it was one that allowed the creators to be truly inventive with the people Sam possessed.
Pushing Daisies (2007-2009)
Created by the prolific Bryan Fuller, Pushing Daisies is known as a comedic forensic fairy tale with musical influences. It follows the character Ned, also known as "The Piemaker," who can restore objects to life with a touch. That includes dead people.
Ned's services are brought in to investigate the deaths of numerous individuals. Unfortunately, touching these people again causes them to die once more. Though it had a dedicated fan base, Pushing Daisies was canceled after two seasons.
Warehouse 13 (2009-2014)
The fan-favorite Warehouse 13 brought people back from the dead numerous times. For instance, the resurrection of Agent Steve Jinks by Claudia. The downside to this return was a physical connection between the two that caused both people to feel each other's pain.
Other examples of bringing back people from the dead included Agent H.G. Wells, who is a woman, and the evil scientists known as Paracelsus. Since it was Warehouse 13, these resurrections had unfortunate circumstances.
Doctor Who (1963 -)
In the other shows listed, most of the characters die and come back in a similar form of themselves. In Doctor Who, the main character dies and comes back as someone different. Sometimes, they come back as a different gender.
The staying power of Doctor Who in its first iteration and 21st-century relaunch is not only the storylines — the concept of the Doctor regenerating instead of dying is innately intriguing. Viewers want to see how similar or different they are when compared to the previous version.
The Santa Clarita Diet (2017-2019)
Everything seems normal in the life of Joel and Shelia Hammond. Until that is Shelia seemingly throws up an organ while selling a house, that is. Turns out, she's undead, and the only way to keep her whole is for her to eat other people.
In other words, The Santa Clarita Diet is a typical single-camera horror-comedy. However, there are more comedy moments than horror. In the end, the show is about the maintenance of a loving relationship when your spouse is undead.
Dead Like Me (2003-2004)
Georgia "George" Lass is an aimless, teenage college dropout whose mother forces her to find a job rather than moping around. After an interview, George is killed by a falling space toilet. She's not dead, though. Rather, George has become a Reaper. George has found herself a job, but it's not an orthodox one.
Now, George must remove souls from people who are about to die. It's not an easy task, nor is it a paying one. Along with other Reapers, George navigates through death.
Dead Like Me was Bryan Fuller's debut as a show creator. The series was canceled after two seasons, but there was a supplemental TV-movie.
Forever (2018)
Lasting only one season, Forever is another Amazon Prime show that sounds like the basis for Upload. A wife (Maya Rudolph) becomes a widow after her husband (Fred Armisen) dies; she later dies herself. The two then end up in the afterlife together. They come to realize that even in this idyllic resting place, their relationship is far from perfect.
Unfortunately, Forever's title is an ironic one—the show was canceled after one season.
Russian Doll (2019-)
Natasha Lyonne is the co-creator of as well as the protagonist in Netflix's dramedy Russian Doll. A game developer finds herself caught in a time loop. Every time she dies, she wakes up at the starting point inside the bathroom of her friend's apartment. The only apparent way to escape the loop is to find what's truly causing it.
Russian Doll was a critical hit; it was renewed for a second season.
Miracle Workers (2019-)
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Steve Buscemi star in the first season of this comedic anthology from TBS. The inaugural seven episodes chronicle God giving up on humans and optioning to destroy Earth. Two low-level angels must convince him to change his mind. The problem, though, is they're given the difficult task of getting two people to fall in love.
A standalone second season, called Miracle Workers: Dark Ages, aired in 2020.
Six Feet Under (2001-2005)
HBO's seminal and somber dramedy Six Feet Under deals with death, but only on its terms. The Fisher family runs a funeral home. A wayward son returns to inherit his rightful place at the business after his father dies. Now, he and the other characters become a sort of purgatory before the clients enter that sweet hereafter.
Six Feet Under is a critically acclaimed show that helped change HBO's direction in the 2000s.
The Returned (2015)
In this English-language remake of the 2012 French show Les revenants, a town's residents are shocked to find their loved ones have all risen from their graves.
The plot sounds like a horror story, but The Returned is a drama that doesn't adhere to classic zombie tropes. It is more of an affecting examination of those who can and cannot move on when death appears.
Glitch (2015-2019)
Similar to The Returned, the Australian drama Glitch is also about dead people who return to the living. It all happens in a small town where six former residents — some of whom are from different periods — come back to life. The reason why is unknown.
It may seem like a happy occasion, but it's far from that. Not everyone who's awakened from their eternal rest is happy about it.
iZombie (2015-2019)
Rob Thomas was inspired by his seminal teen drama Veronica Mars when he crafted iZombie, a police procedural series based on the comic series of the same name.
Liv was on her way to becoming a doctor when she was bitten by a zombie at a party. Now a member of the walking dead, Liv chooses to isolate herself from society. So much so she dumps her fiancé (without an honest explanation) and retreats to working in a morgue. In the meantime, Liv aids a detective in solving the mysterious deaths of those who pass through her workplace, all the while looking for a cure to her reasonably manageable craving for brains.
Drop Dead Diva (2009-2014)
After a vacuous, aspiring model named Deb dies in a car accident, she shocks heaven's gatekeeper because she has no good or bad deeds to her name. Deb then surprises him by sending herself back to Earth. The only problem is, her soul ends up in the wrong body. Another woman — a lawyer who is the shallow model's total opposite — died around the same time as Deb.
Inside her new body, Deb has to learn how to be a better person. Of course, she has some heavenly guidance to keep her in line.
The Good Place (2016-2020)
Eleanor (Kristen Bell) is among a group of strangers who wake up in the "Good Place," a heaven for people who accrued a sizable amount of goodness in their lives up until death. Things are not what they seem, though, as someone here doesn't exactly belong in the Good Place.