Silo Season 2 Review: Apple TV+’s Dystopian Series is Suffocating and Surprising!
Silo Season 2 Review: Apple TV+’s Dystopian Series is Suffocating and Surprising! - Filmyhype
Director: Graham Yost
Date Created: 2024-11-15 18:51
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Silo Season 2 Review: Starting Friday, November 15, Silo Season 2, the second season of the Apple TV+ dystopian series based on the trilogy of novels by Hugh Howey, will be released every week. Like and more than the first season (if you haven’t seen it, we refer you to our review from that time), Silo Season 2 is a fascinating and repulsive series, which transports the audience and locks them in a world where there is a lack of air and space. Before expressing our opinion in more detail, however, let’s briefly and spoiler-free summarize the plot of Silo Season 2, remembering on this occasion the main characters (and their interpreters) and where we left off at the end of the debut season. Apple TV+ is synonymous with quality, and this is now a fact. One of the most successful post-apocalyptic dystopian series of recent years is certainly Silo, one of the flagships of the platform.
Based on the series of novels by Hugh Howey, Silo has won over the public with a well-structured first season, which delves into the characters in an excellent way (the protagonist, played by Rebecca Ferguson, is a female character as layered and complex as few others) and a truly impeccable management of the pace and narrative twists. Season 2 has finally arrived, picking up where Season 1 left off. Juliette has been forced to leave Silo. In the shocking finale of Season 1, we learned two fundamental truths that completely upend what we thought was the show’s future: the outside world isn’t as green and lush as we’d hoped but as toxic and deadly as we’ve always been told. Our Silo isn’t humanity’s only bastion of survival, there are dozens of others around it, in which hundreds of thousands of people could be hiding.
Silo Season 2 Review: The Story Plot
With the start of this second season, it is not only Juliette’s fate that worries us. The woman’s gesture of not cleaning the external camera, the act of rebellion (and of justifiable curiosity) that led her to push beyond the hill, toward the unknown, will have enormous repercussions on who lives inside Silo. Silo Season 2 focuses on two main narrative threads: what happens after Juliette’s departure inside the Silo and what the protagonist will have to face outside. Soon, Juliette will enter another Silo, whose population was exterminated after a rebellion that occurred decades earlier (as is revealed to us in the prologue of the first episode). The new Silo is, however, only apparently abandoned, inside there is still someone who survives and with whom our Juliette will soon come to clash.
Among the most interesting characters of this second season is someone we meet inside the new Silo, Solo, played by Steven Zahn, whose past will open up several new scenarios for the interpretation of what happened to the human race. What makes the series so interesting are the question marks that continue to follow one another on the nature of the Silos: how many are still populated? What kind of society survives inside them? Are the rules on which they are based the same as those of “our Silo“? Now ex-Sheriff Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) has been forced out of the Silo by IT boss and Mayor Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) and Robert Sims (Common), the Judiciary strongman only nominally serving Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie).
After viewing George’s famous hard drive, Juliette ran away from Sims’ men and ran into Holland, only to realize that the two had always been allies. And so, to save the lives of her father (Iain Glen) and her friends at Mechanics, Juliette agreed to pretend to have said she wanted to go out. But thanks to Martha Walker (Harriet Walter) and Carla (Clare Perkins), Juliette was able to use the quality duct tape they use at Parts and not the purposely defective one that’s used on the overalls of those who “go to clean.” And so, Juliette, once outside, understands that the lush landscape she sees from inside the suit is a projection of the film she had seen on the hard disk, a way to encourage those who come out to clean the screen to show the outside world to those inside. Juliette then does not clean, walks past the corpses, and disappears into the horizon.
Who knows what the population of the Silo who witnessed it will think of this extraordinary event. Of course, she immediately faces the bitter reality: beyond the hill that acts as a horizon to the Silo where she was born and lived, there is a deserted and deadly expanse, ruins in the distance, no sign of life, many corpses, and dozens of other Silos identical to the one she has just emerged from. And Juliette certainly doesn’t have an infinite supply of air to breathe, so the only thing she can do is reach another Silo near hers, to try to get in. But what she finds in front of her is much more terrible than what she left behind, if indeed she left it behind. At the bottom, you can find the trailer for this second season of Silo, if you want to try to grasp some more details.
Silo Season 2 Review and Analysis
Watching this series you get the feeling that you are short of breath. Between the prospect of life underground and under a power as authoritarian as it is mysterious, and that of facing the outside world where the air is unbreathable and the only hope is to find, precisely, another Silo, the lack of space and oxygen is palpable, and made even heavier by dark and arid photography, which even if it is in color seems almost in black and white. And yet you can’t stop following an intricate, dark story that in this season alternates long scenes of total silence with dialogues full of meaning, solitude and multitude, reflection and action, unexpected revelations and mysteries that thicken. What makes Silo so fascinating and engaging is also the interpretation of its protagonist, Rebecca Ferguson. In this season we delve even deeper into her character (the flashbacks are very useful and numerous) and, given the situation of extreme danger in which she finds herself, we witness how resourceful and capable she is.
Her skills as a mechanic will be essential to survive in the new Silo and to face all the difficulties that will arise in front of her, and Juliette will transform – even more than in the first season – into a truly unstoppable action heroine. Ferguson gives life to a complex and articulated character, with whom it is absolutely impossible not to empathize. The sequences set in the “old” Silo are also extremely interesting. By exploring the consequences of Juliette’s actions, we can delve deeper into the nature of the characters we left behind, whose characterization becomes increasingly stimulating and intriguing. It is difficult to find characters who are indisputably good or bad; their choices depend in fact on a sense of morality that, even in the most extreme cases, we can understand. Silo is a fascinating series, both from the point of view of the world-building, truly original, and for the construction of its numerous characters, whose journey captures the viewer right away.
From a technical point of view, the second season is as successful as the first, with breathtaking special effects that make the world of the series even more immersive. Each new location, from the Silos to the outside world, is extremely realistic and well-made. This second tranche of episodes is also full of twists and keeps the viewer glued from the first to the last minute of viewing: the series created by Graham Yost confirms itself as one of the best dystopian/postapocalyptic products around, but we also recommend it to those who tend not to approach the genre but love stories full of narrative twists and mysteries to discover. The idea of a parallel narrative, however risky, proves to be a winning one in the first episodes, especially because it allows us to outline two scenarios with undeniable elements of interest.
In the first Silo, which during the previous season had been the noir theater of Nichols’ investigation, a very respectable rebellion takes place: murders, deceptions, militarization, armed resistance, intrigues of power, spies, interrogations, and guerrilla warfare make the stories of many of the already known characters incandescent, now called to side with or against Mayor Holland, the fundamental pivot of this narrative line. The viewer sees various contrasts moving around him, interesting because they are very current: maintaining the status quo or rebellion? Colossal lies for the greater good (the survival of the population) or a bitter truth and its potentially dramatic consequences? To quote Matrix: red pill or blue pill? While in the first Silo, we question ethics and activism, in the second the setting is completely different. Nichols, overwhelmed by feelings of guilt, desperately tries to go back to warn everyone that the world is still uninhabitable – too bad she doesn’t have a suit capable of saving her from certain death in the passage from one Silo to the other!
Thus begins a desperate search for the means necessary to get out again, which is joined by the revelation character of this season: Solo (a good and successful Steve Zahn). The protagonist of this narrative line is loneliness, the nightmare of living in a world that has suffered a double apocalypse, in which the objects of our present are precious archaeological finds from an irrecoverable Arcadia, the mere thought of which can poison the souls of a population forced to live underground. How do we survive all this? What to anchor yourself to? Two opposing models – the energetic willpower of Nichols and the fragile sensitivity of Solo – meet/discount, outlining an unlikely and successful duo. So far, so good. The problems of this second season of Silo begin precisely when, once the surprise effect has faded, the playing field and the pawns are clear. From this moment on, the series goes into hibernation.
If in the first season a certain slowness was justifiable by having to tell an entire world, moving towards what would have been the final cliffhanger, now that everything is rather defined, an acceleration of peace and more meat on the fire would have been desirable. The authors, instead, opt for the handbrake and begin to wrap the two storylines in on themselves, with entire episodes without noteworthy developments. On the one hand, there is a revolution that is struggling to ignite, with characters who continue to move like crabs; on the other, the character of Juliette Nichols, who seems imprisoned in a Tomb Raider painting: she runs, jumps, swims, builds things and searches for keys and objects, solves puzzles but, inexplicably, is always back to square one… If this measured pace had been expedient to delve deeper into the psychology of the characters, outlining some significant backstory, it would have been appreciable; on the contrary, several figures appear a bit two-dimensional, with often forced behaviors, while others are, for now, underused (one above all: Dr. Pete Nichols, played by Iain Glen).
For something to finally start moving, we have to wait for episodes 7 and 9; in the latter, in particular – the last one we had the chance to see in preview -, a new narrative direction is emerging that is interesting but that will turn many people off… Last April, Rebecca Ferguson stated that two more seasons are in the works, filmed simultaneously, and that they should conclude the series; it is perhaps this prospect that has pushed the production to linger on the progress of this second cycle, which would have benefited greatly from having a smaller number of episodes. That said, the production standard of Silo remains far superior to that of the majority of TV series with a science fiction or dystopian setting, with commendable work on sets and photography. The look between steampunk and vintage that had characterized the staging of the first season this time often gives way to totally post-apocalyptic settings, among which the underwater ones and the control room of Solo stand out.
Being entirely set indoors, and also poorly lit, the photograph can be considered an authentic co-star of Silo: dense, precise, and enveloping, it is his merit in creating the ideal conditions for the right atmosphere of suspense and tension. Impeccable, on the cast front, are Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, Harriet Walter, and, as anticipated, Steve Zahn, whose character is one of the major reasons for interest this season. Punctual and accommodating the music of Atli Örvarsson. The new season of Silo continues the narrative without particular pauses and this detail allows viewers to immediately re-enter the universe created for the small screen with great attention to detail and particulars. One of the most successful elements of the series is the work done on the sets and the creation of the spaces in which the protagonists move. Production designer Nicole Northridge has created a realistic world that manages to convey the feelings experienced by the characters, from desolation and loneliness to oppression and hopes as they try to survive in a harsh and merciless reality.
The spaces of Silo 17 are spectacular in their devastation and each area that Juliette and Solo move through is full of small details that remind us of the lives lost and the past that are still the fruit of the creativity of the people who inhabited them. The introduction of Solo was handled intelligently and emphasized the richness of the new character’s world and at the same time the walls that he had to raise around himself to survive a harsh reality that created unspeakable trauma and suffering. Silo 18 also becomes the stage for a rebellion carried out with improvised weapons with the materials available. However, the story also allows us to discover new spaces such as those in which Bernard moves, thus showing further nuances and exploiting Lukas’ (Avi Nash) new situation, to allow viewers to have their point of view represented in the narrative, remaining amazed and interested like him by the mysteries of Silo.
The episodes are intelligently constructed to continue the stories set in the two different locations in parallel, keeping the attention high on all the events, dividing the chapters of the story with cliffhangers useful to leave the desire to discover what will happen to Juliette, but also to those who consider her a source of inspiration to fight and seek the truth, making her a muse for rebellion almost a bit in the style of Katniss in The Hunger Games. Juliette’s absence also allows us to delve deeper into the other characters, revealing new sides and witnessing their evolution. The couple composed of Knox and Shirley, for example, take on many more nuances as they begin to rebel. McRae and Milner know how to bring to the screen with conviction the dilemmas that distinguish those who are trying to manage the doubts and confusion that emerged after Juliette’s separation and find themselves grappling with a responsibility that is partly unexpected, fueled by anger for the losses suffered and the inequalities existing in the various strata of society in which they live.
Tim Robbins is nearly flawless as the Machiavellian Bernard, weighed down by the weight of secrets he must keep, the danger of losing control, and the consequences of the power he has wielded for years. His interactions with other characters are marked by a fascinating ambiguity and the extreme decisions he makes make him a fearsome, yet understandable, villain. Rebecca Ferguson continues to confirm herself as a perfect protagonist for a role that requires her to bring to the stage a determined figure ready to fight, but at the same time empathetic in the moments in which she deals with the new entries in the story. At her side, Steve Zahn steals the scene more often with his interpretation of Solo, outlined in perfect balance between innocence, trauma, and curiosity towards Juliette.
The actor knows how to bring to the stage the desire to establish human contact and at the same time all the distrust of someone who has witnessed the horror and has always lived as a recluse, filling the solitude in his way. The final result is an exciting character and useful to understand new nuances of the reality that distinguishes the universe of Silo. Now in its second season, Silo confirms the excellent work done in all production phases, from the writing phase that allows the cast to have access to high-quality material to the editing that divides the narration intelligently and perfectly for the distribution of episodes every week. The series has all the necessary elements to make it remain a welcome presence, especially for fans of the sci-fi genre, among the proposals of streaming platforms for a long time and we can only hope for a more than desirable renewal to continue the story set in a dystopian world with countless points in common with contemporary daily life.
Silo Season 2 Review: The Last Words
Silo is a quality post-apocalyptic dystopian series, with a compelling plot and well-developed characters. The first season was praised for its pacing and the psychological depth of the protagonists, especially Juliette, played by Rebecca Ferguson. The second season picks up the story with new challenges for the protagonist and introduces new mysteries related to the Silos and the fate of humanity. The performances, especially Ferguson’s, are all extremely engaging. This second season has once again impressed us with the construction of the world in which it is set and the excellent special effects, which make the viewing experience even more immersive. Silo Season 2 is a series that does not allow distractions to be followed carefully so as not to miss important details, in a challenging mix between science fiction and thriller that does not allow for tension drops. Certainly not ideal for a few light-hearted evenings, but if you are a fan of the genre, you will find what you are looking for.
Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Steven Zahn, Tim Robbins, Common, Rashida Jones, Harriet Walter, Chinaza Uche
Created By: Graham Yost
Streaming Platform: Apple TV+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars)
