Apple TV+’s “SILO”
Review by Dennis D. McDonald
Silo’s world building is extensive and ambitious. The series dramatically and creatively builds on familiar themes including:
The implications of managing a society isolated for many years from the outside world.
What happens over time when history is forgotten—or obliterated.
How rebellion can emerge from a traditionally manipulated underclass (i.e., those who live and labor on the bottom levels of society).
How science, information, and access to health care can be manipulated to maintain the status quo.
The production design reflects a curious mix of hardware distributed throughout minimalist and often shabby office and domestic spaces. Technologies such as radio and video recording are almost unknown or heavily restricted. Elevators are unknown forcing reliance on couriers to take messages up and down the Silo’s massive spiral core staircase.
Multiple character arcs and stories are cleverly integrated and include a number of racially and ethnically mixed couples that are key to the story’s evolution. Is this diversity just an artifact of casting or is it evidence of the shadowy Silo government’s behind-the-scenes genetic engineering?
Scripting and direction are exemplary throughout. The final episodes are especially intense.
While I thought Rebecca Ferguson was seriously miscast in Dune, here her performance as the nerdy, uncompromising, and persistent engineer and sheriff is key to both the story’s mysteries and its fundamental coherence.
And, yes, there are plot twists.
Review copyright © 2023 by Dennis D. McDonald