Silo review: The truth will out in gripping Apple TV+ dystopia
Rebecca Ferguson stars in the quietly thrilling adaptation.
From its first seconds, Apple TV+'s Silo will have any sci-fi fan hooked.
The series, based on the novels by Hugh Howey, follows the inhabitants of an underground silo in a dystopian future. They don't know why they're there, or why they can't leave – only that it's imperative that they don't.
The citizens have to live under a strict set of rules, known as The Pact, with the ultimate punishment seeing them thrown out of the silo altogether.
Anyone who says they want to leave is allowed to. They're given cleaning supplies to wipe down the camera on the outside of the silo, which shows a bleak, unforgiving surface, and are sent off into the wilderness in a space suit with the rest of the crowd watching from inside.
But, as we quickly come to find out, not everything is as it seems.
More like this
Despite their brief appearance in the series, Rashida Jones and and David Oyelowo are mesmerising as Allison and Holston, the couple torn over their beliefs about what lay outside the silo, and are at breaking point after a heart-wrenching event.
But the heart of the story lies with Rebecca Ferguson's Juliette on her quest for truth, stopping at nothing to support Holston's mission to find out the truth of what the silo is, and what lies outside.
The 10-part series faithfully adapts Howey's novel Wool (leaving room for future seasons to adapt the rest of the trilogy), and gives us what we've actually been missing in recent years – a good, classic dystopian drama. It's such a classic dystopia that some moments might seem a little overdone to some, but for fans of the genre, it's a must-watch.
By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
After all, for fans of Howey's writing, it's likely to feel like jumping straight into one of his books. The silo is beautifully brought to life, in a stark, concrete, towering monument at the centre of everything, and even the stories that had the potential to take us too far off-piste (the episode surrounding the generator being fixed, for example) are completely gripping.
The starry cast certainly doesn't hurt, too. Tim Robbins is quietly terrifying as Bernard, the head of IT who later has a much larger role to play, while Ferguson, who also served as executive producer, is pitch-perfect as Juliette. Other stand-outs include Dame Harriet Walter as Martha Walker, the maternal and strong engineer who all but raised Juliette.
The pacing might seem a little slow for some, but in a sci-fi series adapting a rich world, the importance of delving deep into Juliette's backstory, into different realms of the silo, and into the history of the 100-year-old society can't be overstated. It's what makes the final moment of the series – and the very last shot of the drama – so impactful.
Some of us have probably heard enough about the apocalypse to last us a lifetime, whether in real life, in TV and film, or in the teen dystopia renaissance that has rampaged across TikTok (yep, apparently we're all in our Hunger Games era again).
But when it comes to Silo, it's clear that one more certainly can't hurt.
Silo hits Apple TV+ on Friday 5th May 2023. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
