There's a lot to Silo that, in the simple description of it, sounds like a shopping trip to "Apocalyptic Fiction 'R Us." Yup, there's a stratified caste system here, and a "defiant" female protagonist with a "hunger" for upsetting the norm. (See what I did there?) Yup, there are people in power going to cartoonishly extreme lengths to maintain their grip on society. But there's something more subtle and clever in the execution of Silo (on both page and screen) that make it more interesting to me than more well-known hits of the subgenre. (Though don't get me wrong -- young adult fiction is perfectly acceptable reading for us older adults.)
As a TV series, Silo has even more going in its favor. It's adapted very smartly, spearheaded by series creator Graham Yost. Yost has a pedigree here in adapting Elmore Leonard's writing for Justified (as well a wonderful "canceled-too-soon" crime drama called Boomtown). He and his writing staff have identified and retained all of the best parts of Howey's original story. Then, to expand the tale for television, they've beefed up the roles of many secondary characters and have invented more of their own -- each in ways that actually support those core pillars of the story. Silo is one of those rare adaptations that's "better than the book."
But that's not just thanks to the writing; the cast of Silo is truly excellent. That ranges from people you will know by name -- Tim Robbins and Rashida Jones -- to people you should know by name if you don't -- David Oyelowo -- to great working character actors you'll recognize immediately -- Iain Glen and Will Patton. Two performances right at the top of the cast sheet are especially great. Rebecca Ferguson (who between this, Mission Impossible, and Dune, is gonna have a helluva year) stars as Juliette, the determined and talented engineer who must sink or swim as she tries to uncover a sinister conspiracy. Common is a spectacular foil as Sims, arch "fixer" for the Silo whose "power ranking" among Silo heavy hitters seems to change from episode to episode.
There are some slow stretches over the 10 episodes of Silo season 1. Yet there are also some truly stunning episodes too. There's masterful suspense in episode 3, centered on (of all things) a speedy repair job. The plot revelations of episode 8 (even for me, who read the books and knew they were coming) were stunningly delivered with the force of a gut punch.
Silo has been renewed for season two (though you can expect a delay on that, until Hollywood executives come around to paying writers what they deserve). I'm truly fascinated to see what that season is going to look like, because I'm convinced the TV show is going to have to take more radical departures from the source material. (Season one of the show has essentially been book one of the trilogy; but there's no way that season two will be a literal adaptation of book two -- it would upend everything expected about making a TV series. Oh, but would they actually do that?!) I also felt as though the best part of the Silo books was actually the material the show has now already covered; but since they've improved on the source material in every way so far, I want to see how they'll do that going forward.
I give Silo an A-, putting it in the "reason to subscribe to Apple TV+" category (alongside many other worthy reasons).
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