Silo review: Apple’s new sci-fi show is a gripping dystopian mystery starring an excellent Rebecca Ferguson

But when a man discovers a ‘relic’ from the past — a hard drive with blueprints of the silo — it sets into motion a twisty plot that combines elements of police procedural, upstairs-downstairs drama, and social commentary.

Even though Silo is ostensibly a science-fiction show — it’s based on a series of self-published books by author Hugh Howey — the tech on display isn’t particularly futuristic. In fact, it appears to be stuck in the 80s. There’s no internet, not even the North Korean kind. Nor is there any convenient method to travel up and down the silo — there are no lifts; instead, the inhabitants spend hours on endless flights of stairs, which raises important questions about communication that the show doesn’t really bother explaining. For instance, on certain occasions, characters overtly acknowledge how long it has taken them to travel from one floor to another, but on other occasions, they seem to be able to access emergency services without much trouble.

The silo, like the train in Snowpiercer, serves as its own ecosystem. Those with relatively more power — the judiciary, law enforcement, the mayor — live ‘up top’, while the working class occupies the bottom floors, the ‘down deep’. But there’s little interaction between the classes. When an incident compels the well-liked mayor to pay a visit to the very bottom of the silo, she reveals that it has been decades since her last visit.

Her mission, by the way, is to locate and enlist our heroine Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) as the new sheriff, on the instructions of the last one, Holston (David Oyelowo). Sheriff Holston decided to follow in the footsteps of his wife and take his chances on the outside, but not before leaving Juliette a trail of clues about the ‘truth’ behind the silos, and the mysterious overlords tasked with maintaining order. The big conspiracy theory teased in that excellent pilot episode directed by Morten Tyldum — and really, this hook is strong enough to pull you along some of the more convoluted stretches in the middle — is that the outside world might not be as toxic as they say, after all.

Silo raises some interesting questions about authority, and the human tendency to defer to it. It also examines the socio-economic privileges that allow certain people to challenge those in power. For instance, the downstairs folk are so preoccupied with simply surviving, they have to time to wonder why their lives are so restricted. The plot is only set into motion when Holston — a well-respected man whose station in society affords him the ability to raise concerns — takes matters in his own hands.

The lived-in world of the show isn’t as minutely fleshed-out as one would imagine, considering the possibilities. The Brutalist architecture of the silo is, however, fittingly austere. There’s little that sets the upstairs floors apart from the downstairs, though, despite the inequality in existence that we’re reminded of over and over. Nor do we get an insight into the quote-unquote villains of the story — the judiciary, represented by a tough enforcer played by Common. Tim Robbins appears briefly as a managerial type who has the tendency to exclaim, ‘Thank the founders!’ and based on casting alone, it’s safe to assume that his character will have more to do in future episodes. Robbins’ character is the chief of the IT department, which, we’re told, ranks unusually high in the hierarchy of power.

Silo treads similar thematic ground as Apple’s greatest show, Severance, but in a more conventional sci-fi set-up. And in the age of streaming, it’s a reminder of what solid episodic television used to be like.

Silo
Creator – Graham Yost
Cast – Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, David Oyelowo, Rashida Jones, Common
Rating – 4/5