When I saw Apple was adapting Hugh Howey’s Silo series into a show, I immediately added the show to my “to watch” list. For one thing, I really enjoyed the books. For another, they’re one of Denisa’s favorite series, and I knew she’d be all over an adaptation. Of course, any time you’re dealing with an adaptation of something you love, you run the risk of . . . not loving the changes they made. So I was both excited and apprehensive. So much so that we decided to hold off watching it until we could binge it all at once.
I’m glad we held off, if for nothing more than the fact that we blazed through the series in record time, and we had a blast doing so.
If you’re not familiar with the source material, it’s about a group of around 10,000 people who live inside a giant metal silo. Maybe 140 levels in all, with each level being quite tall. So we’re squarely in the “post-apocalyptic” genre, with the twist here being that the people of the Silo have no idea why they’re there, other than that they’ve been told it’s not safe to go outside. Their only window to the outside world is a camera that looks out into the surrounding. Every so often, someone is sentenced to go outside the Silo, and so people get to watch as they leave . . .
And then drop dead.
It’s a great book, full of twists and turns all a very memorable setting, with strong characters. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.
And if you haven’t watched the TV show, you definitely should. It was superbly done. The Silo comes alive on screen. It looks like a place that’s been run non-stop for over a hundred years, with little in the way of long term repairs. It’s grimy and claustrophobic, and just wonderful. The acting is great, the plot is spot on, and it doesn’t waste time with episodes that don’t make significant progress. It’s TV-MA for language and violence. 9.5/10.
Give it a shot.
And as an aside, as I look over my list of movies and television watched over the year, I’m seeing a couple of trends. First, I don’t think I’m watching as much as I used to watch (believe it or not). This likely has to do directly with the fact that I’ve just gotten busier, as has my family. Something’s had to go, and that “thing” has been media. This makes me sad, because I both love watching movies and television, and I also feel like it’s helpful to me as an author.
However, a second trend I’m seeing is that television series are steadily eating into the movies I watch. Years ago, I’d watch a season of TV here and there, but most of my watching was all about the movies. These days, there are just so many great shows to watch, that it’s hard to find time to watch movies, it seems. It helps that when you find a really good show, it’s good for 10 hours or more of watching, whereas a great movie can just net you about 2 or 3 hours. (Then again, it’s a much lower commitment, with a movie . . .)
Not that any of this has to do with Silo, other than the fact that here’s another TV show I loved.
Okay, so I am going to buck the crowd on this one. The basic plot of the series is pretty interesting and Rebecca Ferguson nailed her role and character within the limit of a sometimes confusing script. Tim Robins did okay as well but again, he was hampered by a silly script. Whoever wrote the film script clearly has zero awareness of engineering or the basics of how generators and such operate. For a dumb viewer that may not get noticed but I found myself shaking my head or laughing at the supposed “technicians/engineers” and their antics most of the time. The series really drags painfully at times, especially in the 2nd season. And a lot of the support cast are severely one-dimensional and act like this is their first acting job. But what really blew the series for me was the stupid stuff. So many of their actions were simply unbelievable for adults. Twelve year olds maybe, but not adults supposedly responsible for running the place. The final nail in the coffin was the ending. I will not spoil it for potential viewers but just be warned… it makes ZERO sense and leaves you frustrated and wondering, “what the hell was that?” In my opinion they completely fail to leave you happy you invested all those hours watching the series. In fact, had I known it was going to end the way it did, I would never have bothered watching it at all. I happen to be a script writer and I could have definitely done a better job on this myself.