Apple TV+ is making its name by creating high-end shows with great production value and Rebecca Ferguson‘s Silo is no different. The new Apple TV+ series is based on a book series of the same name by Hugh Howey and adapted for Television by Graham Yost (Justified). Silo takes us to a dystopian future that exists in the deep underground where the last ten thousand surviving humans live in the Silo, and they are told that the outside world is uninhabitable but skepticism about that statement is baked in from the start both in the characters and the audience. The one in the Silo everybody has to follow is to not say that someone wants to go outside it because if they do they will be sent outside to die alone.
In the beginning, we see a couple of Holston (David Oyelowo), the sheriff of the whole Silo, and Allison (Rashida Jones) works in IT, who are trying to have a child but when some strange truths come to light they find out that the higher-ups are lying about the Silo and they are also conspiring to stop anyone from having children that they don’t want to. After hearing the truth Allison goes out and after some time Holston follows her but between that Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson), a mechanical worker is introduced who wants to find out what really happened to the man she loved. After Holston goes out Juliette becomes the sheriff and tries to solve the mystery of the Silo.
Silo has 10 episodes and each one is about an hour long. The whole series is shot in dim lights, which makes this mystery literally even darker. Uncertainty and deception are in every fabric of the story and while most of the characters in this series seem to be hiding something, Juliette is the only character that is stirred and her dogged pursuit of the truth makes her seem more and more likable. Ferguson puts on a brilliant performance alongside Tim Robbins as Bernard, Chinaza Uche as Paul Blling, Avi Nash as Lukas, Ferdinand Kingsley as Wilkins, Harriet Walter as Martha Walker, Shane McRae as Knox, Iain Glen as Pete Nichols, Common as Sims, and Rick Gomex as Patrick Kennedy. Almost everybody in the cast plays their respective roles brilliantly.
There are 10 episodes in this first season and not every episode is great, as some of the episodes feel a bit dragged out as the story seems to meander but Silo never feels boring or uninventive because of the cast of characters, who keep the intensity building until the very end. The feeling of dread is ever present in each and every person living in the Silo and subsequently the audience and as the body starts piling up to keep the secret from coming out, fear takes over and never lets go. In many ways, Silo feels like Bong Joon-ho‘s 2013 film Snowpiercer, which is also a dystopian film and it also has levels that divide people just like in Silo. The only difference is that Snowpiercer takes place on a train and Silo takes place in a well an underground society.
Silo is an intense mystery drama set in a dystopian world. It is gripping till the very end and while sometimes the story meanders but it always finds its way back to being a solid series that will be liked by both the audience and the critics.
CinemaBlind’s Review for Silo: 8/10
Silo is all set to premiere on May 5 on Apple TV+. Check out the trailer and synopsis below:
Silo is the story of the last ten thousand people on earth, their mile-deep home protecting them from the toxic and deadly world outside. However, no one knows when or why the silo was built and any who try to find out face fatal consequences. Rebecca Ferguson stars as Juliette, an engineer, who seeks answers about a loved one’s murder and tumbles onto a mystery that goes far deeper than she could have ever imagined, leading her to discover that if the lies don’t kill you, the truth will.