Silo has been discussed a lot on the various accounts that I follow on Twitter, and thus was on my radar. However, I really wasn't planning on watching it because I thought it would be too much like Fallout. However, we picked up Apple TV+ for the holidays and I was waiting for Severance season 2 to release, so decided to watch Silo in the meantime. If focuses on a group of people living in an underground silo, unable to leave and go outside. They know it is dangerous outside, but they don't know why and they don't know the history as to how they got in the silo. Similar to the Fallout series, an entire society has developed, complete with factions from "Judicial" and "IT", as well as "Mechanical". Important people include the "sheriff", "judge" and the "mayor". Whenever someone does something bad, they are sent outside of the silo to "clean". This involves cleaning the camera which shows the view outside the silo. Anytime anyone goes outside, however, they are shown collapsing and dying shortly after they clean.
Season 1 starts when Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) is elected Sheriff. Juliette is more interested in solving the mystery of her friend's mysterious death than playing sheriff for the silo. Not long after taking position of sheriff, however, she starts to suspect that things aren't exactly how they seam. She suspects IT is hiding the truth, and eventually gets sent out to clean because of her actions and all of the questions that she is asking. When she sent out to clean, she doesn't die because she figures out how to manipulate her suit to survive (the suits had been designed to purposefully fail). While outside, the camera zooms out and we discover that the outside world is in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic state and that there are 10s or possible 100s of surrounding silos where presumably other people are living (or once lived).
When season 2 starts, Juliette is in the new silo trying to figure things out. She quickly runs into Solo (Steve Zahn) and learns that his silo's demise was a rebellion of the common people against those in charge (Judicial & IT). When she learns of the rebellion and its outcome, she realizes that her rebellious actions could be creating a similar situation in her home silo. After spending most of season 1 trying to escape her home silo, her mission in season 2 almost immediately becomes to return to home silo. Meanwhile in her home silo, the people are starting to rebel against IT and the new mayor (Tim Robbins). As Juliette makes it back to her home Silo, the rebellion is out of control and the mayor is on his way out of the silo, which is where the season ends.
I liked season 1 a bit more than season 2. The show uses the carrot and stick technique, where you commonly do not completely know what is going on and are awaiting for secrets to be revealed. As season 1 progressed, I felt like we learned quite a bit about the different factions in the silo as well as the reality of the situation outside of the silo. I was thinking that it really wasn't dangerous outside at all, but that turned out not to be the case. In season 2, the rebellion occurs in the main silo, and you kind of assume they're going to be successful but you don't completely know what will happen once they win. One of the challenges of having characters stuck in a silo is that it is difficult to introduce new characters and locations. Juliette's second season is almost exclusively with just herself and Solo, and if it weren't for the fact that Rebecca Ferguson and Steve Zahn were great actors (and Tim Robbins, for that matter), I don't know how enjoyable their part of the story would've been. The pace of the plot was a bit slow as well, especially in season 2. There were a few episodes where not really much happened and the season probably could've been shortened by an episode or two.
Despite the sometimes slow progress of the plot, the show overall has been enjoyable and the acting has been great. It is distinct enough from Fallout to make it worth watching, and I look forward to seeing what happens in season 3.
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