Silo Season 1 Review – A thrilling and intriguing mystery

Episode Guide

Episode 1 – | Review Score – 5/5
Episode 2 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 3 – | Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 4 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 5 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 6 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 7 – | Review Score – 4.5/5
Episode 8 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 9 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 10 – | Review Score – 4/5

Creating a compelling mystery box is not easy. Giving answers too early will turn people away and lose the initial allure and intrigue – especially if those answers aren’t particularly good. Similarly, dragging out a mystery needlessly does no one any favours, and ultimately leads to apathy and indifference from fans who slowly lose interest and tune in out of necessity rather than compulsion.

Hugh Howey’s Silo book series then is certainly an example of a story that maintains mystery and intrigue while not overstaying its welcome, with an increasingly interesting and complex world that’s drip-fed over the three books. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here!

Silo, AppleTV’s latest thriller project, adapts the first book, Wool, making a few changes along the way but largely staying true to the source material. And it shows. The series is tightly constructed, playing on what makes mystery dramas so compelling and doing so with strong characterization and inhabiting the world with people that you can’t quite figure out.

For those unaware, Silo centers on a seemingly dystopian future where humanity has constructed a giant silo underground where the last of the human race lives and works. This is apparently here to protect them from the toxic and ruined world on the surface… but no one really knows.

As doubts start to creep in, any “rebels” are sent outside to clean, a death sentence unto itself as it means those people can’t return to the Silo and seem to drop dead outside, all viewed from monitors inside… but can this really be believed? Or is there a higher power at work here?

After an intriguing prologue, the attention turns to a woman down in Maintenance called Juliette, who starts to uncover a conspiracy that runs far deeper in the Silo than she could have ever imagined. She’s appointed the role of Sheriff from the former guy in that position, Holston, where she starts investigating the death of a man called George Wilkins.

As the series progresses, Silo cleverly drip-feeds out compelling bits of evidence to show what’s really going on, but then wraps that up in further questions and mystery as you’re never quite sure whether what you’re seeing is real or another trick or illusion.

In fact, this growing sense of paranoia is partly what makes this mystery drama so compelling. It’s very easy to root for Juliette, who makes more than a few mistakes in her quest for the truth.

It also helps that the production design is fantastic across the board, with a lot of thought gone into the general worldbuilding and aesthetic for this Silo. Runners charge up and down the spiral staircase delivering goods to different floors, there’s unique lexical choices used by different people depending on what floor they’re on in the Silo, and there are clear societal divides here, with those down the lower rungs looked down on by those higher up.

All of this adds up to a very believable world, inhabited by believable characters, and brought to life in a believable way by a talented cast that includes Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Iain Glen and Tim Robbins. Thus helps this give the show some gravitas, which is manages to maintain across its run.

However, there are parts of this that feel a little slow, particularly during the middle portion of the series. There are whole segments that easily could have been condensed down, while a couple of plot inconsistencies surrounding the security team, especially during a big revelation halfway through the show, is a bit disappointing. However, these are minor points and certainly don’t detract from the enjoyment.

With a second season already greenlit, Silo excels as one of the best dramas of the year. It’s easily one of Apple’s strongest projects, and almost every part of this production is nailed. This is a must-watch show and anyone after a good mystery or thriller should check this one out.

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