Silo: excellence in dystopian sci-fi

Silo is 100% available for streaming on Apple TV+ now. The first season ends with a brilliant reveal and surprise. The second season is already approved. There’s plenty more story to tell about this mysterious underground world.

Silo stars Rebecca Ferguson as the main character, Juliette NIchols. There are many interesting characters in this underground world populated by 10,000 people. The idea of a woman as the protagonist in this complex series is a winner.

Silo contains a huge multi level set containing everything from crops to generators to air handlers that this buried population need to survive underground. The world they live in is brilliant and convincing. Mystery, suspense, human drama, and danger keep the plot at a boil.

When the story begins, Sheriff Houston (David Oyelowo) is keeping order in the silo. His wife (Rashida Jones) works in IT. She is asked by a man from the “down deep” named George (Ferdinand Kingsley) to help with something illegal. These three characters don’t last long in the story, but they are essential to getting things going.

George has a hard drive that reveals something the people in charge of the silo don’t want known. The hard drive is an illegal relic from the before times. People make a living trading in these relics, such as the mysterious PEZ dispenser that changes hands often in the series.

George is involved with Juliette Nichols. Her job is to keep the generator running. George shows her secret places and things. When he falls from the stairs, Juliette is sure he was murdered and takes her ideas to Sheriff Houston.

Mayor Jahns (Geraldine James, #EldersRock) tries to control the story Juliette is telling. Behind the mayor are the head of Judicial, Sims (Common), and the head of IT, Bernard (Tim Robbins, #EldersRock). Sims and Bernard know many more secrets about the Silo than anyone, and they try to keep them all hidden.

People can ask to “go out.” Once you ask, you must go. People who go out are asked to use a wool cloth to clean the glass over the camera showing the outside world. They’re dressed up in a flimsy protective suit and appear to die after walking just a few feet away from the silo. I say appear to die because part of the mystery is what the outside world is really like. Is it what the camera shows, or is it something else?

Unusual and disturbing events bring Juliette up to the top levels of the silo and see her installed as the new Sheriff. She investigates George’s death and the mysteries he described to her. There are other deaths and unrest among the residents.

Juliette is a terrific character. Brave, smart, strong, determined, and full of heart. She loved George. She loves her mother figure, Walker (Harriet Walter, #EldersRock), a woman who hasn’t set foot outside her workshop in 25 years. Her friends are the people she worked with in maintenance.

As the new sheriff, Sims and Bernard tried to thwart her every move. She had to deal with Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche), the man everyone thought should be sheriff instead of her.

Juliette thought she’d learned the truth about what was outside. She was determined to let everyone know what it was. That led to the big reveal at the end of the final episode of the season. Season 2 should be very interesting!

Bert & Bertie were the only women directors, doing 2 out of 10 of the episodes. The series was created by Graham Yost based on a series of books by Hugh Howey. Lekethia Dalcoe and Jeffery Wang did much of the writing. Rebecca Ferguson executive produced. She said some interesting things about the series to Deadline.

The series is excellent. The world building, the cast, the writing, the urgency in the story – it all worked together to create a winner of a series.