Relationships scatter all across the board in Season 2 of Upload, but one that continues to hold strong is the bromance between Nathan and Luke. Starting off as strangers in Season 1, the characters played by Robbie Amell and Kevin Bigley quickly flowed from awkward acquaintances to tentative friends, then graduated up to besties before making the leap into a full bromantic relationship by the end of Season 2. In doing so, they pointed out how hard it is to write a bromance correctly — and how much it means when one works.
While most people are familiar with the term used to describe a close friendship between two men, many don’t fully understand the parameters that qualify a relationship as a true bromance. A lot of media creators and even viewers assume that any friendly relationship between two men is considered a bromance. There’s actually much more to it, and trying too hard to create the trope and missing the mark can have negative effects on a show and its fandom (as in Netflix’s The Witcher, which needs to return to its source material). But what The Witcher and other series got wrong, Upload got wonderfully right.
Throughout both seasons of The Witcher, disgruntled fans pointed out creator Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich’s failed attempts at showcasing the Witcherverse’s popular bromance between leading character Geralt and his traveling companion Jaskier. While it was established in the show that Geralt does somewhat care about Jaskier, it’s a very one-sided relationship, with Jaskier often seemingly pining for Geralt’s approval and affection. The relationship comes off as more of an unrequited love scenario, which also has some viewers accusing Schmidt-Hissrich and Netflix of outright queer-baiting as opposed to trying to establish a close friendship.
Other relationships that are often mislabeled as bromantic are those in which two men are close but they don’t quite tip all the way into the ride-or-die, not-ashamed-to-show-feelings-in-public style of friendship, or they wind up depicted as a leading character and his sidekick rather than an actual friendship. There are certainly plenty of best friends out there, and lots of mains with their tagalongs, but there’s a distinct difference between those types of friendships and one in which a potential wife could state, “This is my husband and this is my husband’s husband.”
In the almost too anticipated Loki, some fans have labeled Loki and Mobius as having a bromance. While it could certainly get there, their relationship isn’t hitting the mark just yet. They’re closer to a probation officer who winds up forming a bond with one of his charges. While there’s eventual trust that leads to a friendship, they aren’t close enough by the end of Season 1 to be bromantically involved.
On the flipside, some of the best examples of true bromance relationships are J.D. and Turk in Scrubs, Shawn and Gus in Psych, Chuck and Morgan in Chuck, and Matt and Foggy in Daredevil (which may be about to get rebooted). In all of these relationships the two best friends often loudly and shamelessly declare their superior friend status in front of others. They aren’t afraid to say, “I love you” to each other whether they’re in front of colleagues or not, and they’re often physically affectionate with one another. These characters talk to each other about how much they mean to one another, and they help each other even through difficult, wild, or even outright dangerous scenarios. If they fight with one another or have to be apart for any length of time, they feel it as one would when going through a breakup. In a real bromance the two characters aren’t just close friends, they’re family.
Upload nailed all of these bromance requirements between Luke and Nathan, particularly on its journey through Season 2. Luke is consistently Nathan’s go-to man in both illegal activities within their digital world, and also in social settings where Nathan is otherwise generally uncomfortable with the people around him. Despite his depiction as being somewhat of a dunce, Luke steps in to help Nathan and protect him, to offer advice and to support him without being asked to do so. They sleep over at each other’s places, they share hugs, laughs, and admit to missing one another when they have to be apart.
Luke is critical to Nathan’s success on his various missions both within and outside of their uploaded universe, and Nathan is critical to Luke’s mental stability and emotional health. They see each other as equals, they help each other, and they love each other. Most importantly, as with all the previous greats in the bromance world, they aren’t afraid to show it no matter what other people might think of their relationship. As long as Upload can keep it up, Nathan and Luke are on their way to becoming one of TV’s great bromances.
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