Claustrophobes, look away now: if being trapped in small, enclosed spaces isn’t your thing, then Silo is not for you.
That’s because Apple TV+’s latest show is set in a dystopian hellscape where the outside world is toxic and the last 10,000 people surviving are living in an underground bunker. The only people who go out are those who have committed grave crimes and are forced out into exile; usually, they last all of three minutes before succumbing to the poisonous fumes.
So far, so cheery. Based on the bestselling Silo book series by Hugh Howey, Silo is Dystopian with a capital D. And the lore is deep – the first few episodes treat us to a lot of backstory about a mysterious rebellion, reams of legal procedures and the base’s very own quasi-sinister celebration, Freedom Day.
There’s a lot going on: frankly, too much. This is a show that’s trying to tick too many boxes, and as a result squanders its interesting storylines. On the one hand, it’s billed as a murder mystery – but we don’t get onto solving that until at least episode four (of 10). On the other, it’s a gritty survival thriller where the machinery responsible for keeping the Silo up and running keeps breaking (this takes up most of episode three).
Hanging over it all is an overarching plot concerning whether or not the outside world really is as dangerous as the higher-ups say. None of this is helped by the dialogue, which sometimes veers towards the unforgivably hammy.
The cast, too, suffer from the show’s scattergun approach. Rashida Jones and David Oyelowo do their level best with the limited screen time they have in episode one as lawmaker Holston and his wife Allison – and in fact are so good you want to see more of them.
It’s hard to form attachments to characters as so many die. Given that the Silo’s population is only 10,000, the rate at which people are being offed should be a cause of significant concern to the powers that be. As it is, the only person who sticks around for any length of time is the main character, Rebecca Ferguson’s Juliette Nichols.
She’s a mechanic who works in the ‘Down Deep’, responsible for fixing that vital machinery; though a series of unlikely circumstances, she finds herself appointed the new sheriff of the Silo on the trail of a murderer. Ferguson plays her with a permanent scowl and a wobbly American accent that keeps veering back and forth across the Atlantic. She’s not the most likeable character (despite the show’s attempt to curry sympathy via flashbacks featuring a digitally de-aged Iain Glen as her father), which is a shame as there’s not really anybody else to root for.
At least the setting is atmospheric. The Silo itself has been brought lovingly to life by the show’s creative team – it’s all brutalist concrete angles, Star Wars-esque market scenes and dark, poky corners. It feels believable, and interesting, but it’s all so depressing. The problem with working with such a limited palette (basically brown, grey and shades of black) is that everything looks like it’s been washed in sepia.
And it’s dark. For those who like watching characters poking around dark, dusty corners or seeing the same set used over and over again, then this is likely manna from heaven. Personally, I was left squinting at my TV screen as yet another scene played out in semi-darkness. One fight that happens towards the end of episode four is so dark that I genuinely didn’t know who was fighting whom – and who won at the end.
So, is it any good? For lovers of Howey’s books, likely yes. For others, the uneven plot and performances take their toll: this might prove hard going.
