Silo – Review [Apple TV+]

SILO on Apple TV+ is a new dystopian sci-fi series with an amazing cast. At first, each episode focuses on a few new characters, but the star of the series is Rebecca Ferguson. Fortunately, she is as amazing as ever. Read our Silo Season 1 review here!

SILO is a new Apple TV+ series in the sci-fi, thriller, and drama genres. Don’t let any official labeling of “drama” fool you into thinking this is anything but a dystopian sci-fi story. It is very much sci-fi and since it takes place after some seemingly apocalyptic event more than a century ago, the world we’re introduced to is very much dystopian.

Rebecca Ferguson both stars in the series and is onboard as an executive producer. Season 1 has ten episodes and each tends to be close to one hour in runtime. If Wikipedia is to be believed, season 2 started filming last month (April 2023). As the series is based on a book series with many volumes to work from, I can easily believe the continuation is already well underway.

Continue reading our Silo Season 1 review below. The series premieres with two episodes on May 5, 2023.

Set in one location – a big one!

In Silo, we meet the last ten thousand people on Earth. They all live in a silo (hence the title), and their mile-deep home is to protect them from the toxic and deadly world outside. The founders built this new home safe from the toxic world to save the last of humanity.

Or so the story goes. The one told from one generation to the next.

The truth is, no one really knows when or why the silo was built. Of course, this means there are plenty of curious people in this underground world. However, asking questions is not exactly encouraged. In fact, it comes with possibly fatal consequences.

Don’t say you want to go outside!

There is one cardinal rule of the silo; Do not say you want to go outside! If you do, then you will. And you cannot be let back in. However, you are definitely free to leave, so it does happen. Both as a punishment and due to people making the request to do so.

When someone goes outside, they’re always asked to please clean the camera that shows everyone underground a glimpse of the dead world. To honor those left behind, they always do. And then everyone can see them drop dead shortly thereafter. Well, that’s what they see anyway.

Very early on, we learn that not everything is as it seems. But you will wait quite some time for most answers. Not every answer, but a bigger picture. Then again, where’s the fun in just knowing everything upfront? This is a sci-fi mystery, so we need to peel back the layers one by one.

Rebecca Ferguson leads a stellar cast

Rebecca Ferguson (Doctor Sleep, Dune, Life) stars as Juliette Nichols. She’s an engineer with the most important job in all of the silo; She keeps the lights on and the airflow going. However, for most, it’s considered grunt work as it takes place at the bottom of the silo. Oh yes, some things never change.

In any case, when we meet Juliette she is looking for answers. A loved one’s death is considered self-inflicted and she knows it must be murder. While looking into this murder, she finds herself unraveling a mystery that goes far deeper than she could have ever imagined.

Silo has an amazing cast, and while Rebecca Ferguson plays the lead character and main protagonist, she really isn’t in episode 1. In that episode, the main characters are portrayed by Emmy nominee Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) and David Oyelowo (The Girl Before, The Cloverfield Paradox).

In every episode, we meet more characters who each play a part in getting to the bottom of what the truth is.

The ensemble cast includes Will Patton (Halloween trilogy), Common (Alice), Harriet Walter (Burial), Tim Robbins (Mystic River), Chinaza Uche (Dickinson), Ferdinand Kingsley (The Sandman), Avi Nash (The Walking Dead), and Geraldine James (Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes). To name just a few!

Silo is based on a self-published book

The new Apple TV+ series is actually based on a book that was initially self-published through Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing program. Why on Earth this series isn’t on Amazon’s Prime Video is beyond me.

However, the amazing production quality of the series on Apple TV+ leaves nothing to be desired. This one is no exception, so I’m just happy we get this adaptation on one of the bigger streaming platforms.

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As mentioned earlier, there are many books in this dystopian sci-fi book series by Hugh Howey. If all goes well, we can look forward to several seasons of stories from the world of the silo.

Watch the Silo series on Apple TV+ 

Silo is based on Hugh Howey’s New York Times bestselling trilogy of dystopian novels – the first one titled “Wool”. The series is executive produced by the series creator Graham Yost. He was the screenwriter of Speed (1994), and a producer on amazing series such as The Americans.

He is an executive producer on Silo along with book author Hugh Howey, star of the series Rebecca Ferguson, and director Morten Tyldum. The Norwegian director Morten Tyldum (Apple TV+ series Defending Jacob, The Imitation Game) directs the first three episodes.

The new Apple TV+ series Silo is produced for Apple TV+ by AMC Studios. The very same studio that gave us series such as The Walking Dead (and Fear the Walking Dead), The Terror, and even Shudder’s Creepshow since 2019.

Season 1 has 10 hour-long episodes and the series will debut globally with the first two episodes. These are followed by one new episode weekly every Friday with the season finale coming out on June 30, 2023.

Season 1 of the Silo series premieres on Apple TV+ worldwide on Friday, May 5, 2023.

Details

Creator: Graham Yost
Directors: Morten Tyldum, David Semel
Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Harriet Walter, Chinaza Uche, Avi Nash, David Oyelowo, Rashida Jones, Tim Robbins