LONDON: There’s a certain level of suspended disbelief required with any dystopian thriller. Each comes with its own, unique backstory about how and when the world ended, what caused it, who’s to blame and what society looks like when it’s several steps removed from the familiarity of our lives today. And each requires us, as viewers, to buy into that backstory and decide whether or not we care about those who survived. Sometimes, it’s a huge struggle — after all, for every “Walking Dead”, “The Last of Us” or “Handmaid’s Tale”, there are considerably less-captivating shows like “The Last Ship”, “Revolution” or “Falling Skies.”
Rebecca Ferguson in ‘Silo.’ (Supplied)
So a certain degree of skepticism is to be expected when greeting new, sprawling dystopian shows like Apple’s new 10-part “Silo”. But, in this case, the leap of faith is worth it. Adapted from US author Hugh Howey’s series of novels, “Silo” tells the story of an underground society living in an immense, brutalist bunker stretching deep down into the Earth. They have a strict set of rules, an authoritarian reproduction policy, and a Stasi-esque security bureau. What could go wrong? Well, initially, nothing, as the inhabitants of the Silo seem happy to abide by the rules and go about their business, so terrified are they of a return to the lawlessness that resulted from the initial apocalypse.
During a gripping first two episodes, however, sheriff Holston Becker (David Oyelowo) and his IT specialist wife Alison (Rashida Jones) begin to suspect there’s more to the backstory than everyone is being told. They both decide to take the ultimate gamble. In this world, if you say you want to go outside, you have to don an environmental suit and head out into the supposedly poisoned environment to see if your suspicions are right.
Add Rebecca Ferguson as a Silo engineer with similar suspicions to the Beckers and you have a powder keg of a setup. Everything about “Silo” simply works — the performances from Oyelowo, Jones and, especially, Ferguson are pitch-perfect, the pace of drip-feeding exposition is supremely judged, and the lived-in, low-tech world of the Silo itself is stunningly realized. This is one dystopian world that you’ll want to revisit.
