Becoming The Muse

Silo is a 2023 sci-fi dystopian drama series created by Graham Yost based on the Wool series of novels by Hugh Howey. The ten-episode season began streaming on  Apple TV+ from the 5^th of May 2023 with season finale airing on the 30th of June 2023.

The premise of the show is centred around a community of people leaving in a Silo to stay safe from a toxic outside world under stifling restrictions not to question the way of things with one cardinal rule being don’t ask to go outside as you will be sent outside and that’s a death sentence… .

The Good

The series opens with an intriguing first episode that sets the world building and introduces the setting in an unspecified not too distant future, 140 years after the Silo was built. It’s a bit of mystery box show where you know nothing and the answers of what’s happening are slowly revealed with each episode.

We do not know why we are here.
We do not know who built the Silo.
We do not know why everything outside the Silo is as it is.
We do not know when it will be safe to go outside.
We only know that day is not this day
-Silo

For the most part you are as clueless as the majority of inhabitants of the Silo and stumbling around in the dark with them to find answers. Some of the unanswered mysteries are predictable while others are red-herrings and plot-twists that will keep you guessing to the very last episode.

Silo series is an adaptation of the philosophical concept of Plato’s Allegory Of The Cave where people confined to a cave or in this case a Silo perceive their reality of the world from the lens of the limited knowledge of what they are told and shown.

Another intriguing aspect of the show is how the show pivots from the characters introduced in the opening episode as the central characters to an unforeseen protagonist in their quest for answers. Silo has quite a lot characters and they get their fair share of backstories and character development.

The Bad

Not fully knowing whats happening can make Silo a bit of a frustrating watch, you want answers… but they are fed to you piecemeal and sometimes never. There are characters who know more than others or maybe even know exactly whats going on making the show heavy on dramatic irony.

The show has an almost existential quality to it but for the most part it masquerades as a murder mystery set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world… but the reality of the world is kept hidden.

The Ugly

The Ending!!! When my mum finished watching Silo she called me to ask me what she I had made her watch. Now we will have to wait, who knows how long till the next season comes out to get the answers.

Even set in a post-apocalyptic world, the show’s theme reflect our society, classicist behaviour, where people at the lower levels of the Silo the Down-Deep despite doing the manual work that keeps the Silo running are the least appreciated or respected, the power struggle between the Judicial and the Sheriff’s department where truth and justice are weaponised to control the masses…

Final Thoughts

Season 1 of Silo is adapted from Book 1 in the Wool Series and according to reviewers its mostly true to the source material. The show was approved for a second season in June 2023.

Fun Fact: Zimbabwewan actress and director Chipo Chung plays Sandy in Silo.

I am not going to wait till the next season to figure out whats going on and instead on my TBR is The Wool Series. 📙

Have you watched Silo?