'Silo' review: Apple's sci-fi slow burn is a dystopia lover's dream

It's been a little over a year since Apple TV introduced us to the dystopia of Severance, which blended science fiction with workplace woes. The streaming service presents a more overt dive into dystopian sci-fi with its new drama Silo, about the last 10,000 people on Earth, who are living in an underground community.

Silo shares less DNA with Severance than it does with the young adult dystopia boom of the 2010s. Think film franchises like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, or Divergent, all of which depict post-apocalyptic societies where the upper class conceals resources — and secrets — from everyone else. These general themes extend to Silo, which makes sense given that its source material, Hugh Howey's novel Wool, came out in 2011 just as dystopia was becoming all the rage.

Still, Silo is not at all a retread of The Hunger Games and its brethren. For starters, it's geared toward adults, boasting a cast of world-weary grown-ups instead of defiant teens. It also swaps blockbuster pizzazz for the darker, moodier trappings of prestige TV, like a non-linear timeline complete with many, many flashbacks. In these ways, Silo acts as both a return to and a progression from the YA dystopias I devoured as a teen — so it should come as no surprise that I devoured it eagerly now. Despite my occasional frustration with its chronology, Silo proves to be an engrossing and rewarding watch, one that devoted fans of dystopia and sci-fi will relish.

Silo introduces a mysterious, painstakingly realized new world.

Silo welcomes us into the mile-deep home of Earth's last 10,000 inhabitants. Made up of hundreds of levels, the titular silo is an incredible feat of engineering — and of TV production. Like Apple's 2021 sci-fi series Foundation, Silo is exceptionally polished, boasting everything from lush indoor farms to hulking mining machines. Each of these environments is rendered with an enormous amount of care. The end result is a futuristic world that looks and feels lived-in, right from the moment you lay eyes on it.

Whether through visuals or through dialogue, Silo's world-building doesn't let up. As we learn, no one knows who built the silo, or why. A rebellion from more than a century ago led to the destruction of the silo's history, so now citizens use retro technology, if they use any at all. Anything from the "before times" is considered a forbidden relic, to be immediately turned over to the frightening judges in Judicial. If you ever try to discover anything about the silo's origin, you are sent outside. It's a death sentence, as Earth is now a toxic wasteland... or is it?

Despite Judicial's orders, there are those in the silo who firmly believe they are being lied to, and wish to uncover the truth. Among them are IT worker Allison (Rashida Jones), her husband Sherriff Holston (David Oyelowo), and mechanic Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson).

Juliette is the silo citizen we spend the most time with; she's trying desperately to solve the murder of her lover (and relic enthusiast) George (Ferdinand Kingsley). Her quest for truth will take her from the deepest depths of the silo, where she toils to keep the generator running, to the tippy top, where powerful figures like Judicial's Sims (Common) work to stop her. With her conflicted past, quick thinking, and dogged determination, Ferguson's Juliette makes for a great addition to the sci-fi hero canon.

Silo starts slow, but delivers big.

Before we get into the meat of Juliette's detective procedural, Silo guides us through stories that feel like false starts. There's an in medias res opening involving Holston that immediately jumps into an episode-long flashback centering on him and Allison. The next episode features a similar structure, in which Juliette recounts a key discussion with Holston that plays out in — guess what? — an extended flashback. These flashbacks all prove key to Silo, but it's still frustrating to be jerked around through time while the show tries to figure out where to settle.

Luckily, the worst of this chronological toil is over after the first two episodes — which, to their credit, are still engaging introductions to the world of the series. Silo only improves as it settles into Juliette's story. There are still a few kinks, such as Silo's predilection for often unnecessary flashbacks to Juliette's childhood, but the show's mystery is propulsive enough that it maintains its momentum all the way up to its final frame.

Another concern with Silo's first episodes was that I worried they gave away too many of the show's secrets too early. Trust me when I say they don't. Juicy plot twists that keep you guessing are just one of many of Silo's delightful offerings, especially toward its later episodes.

Silo's action set pieces are another strength, especially those that use the science fiction location to its fullest potential. The only way to travel through the silo is by a central staircase (no elevators here, folks), resulting in some truly inventive methods for evading capture. As the scope of Judicial and Juliette's cat-and-mouse game grows, Silo gets even more creative, delivering some exceptionally suspenseful chase sequences. You may have to wait a few episodes for them to kick in, but between the slow burn of Juliette's mystery and its in-depth world-building, Silo has far more treats to offer dystopian sci-fi lovers than it does tricks.

Silo premieres on Apple TV+ May 5, with new episodes streaming weekly.(opens in a new tab)