Hugh Howey’s bestselling "Wool" trilogy has been adapted to screens by Apple TV+. The sci-fi series starring Rebecca Ferguson centers on a new sheriff who tries to crack secrets of authority in the underground silo, a giant shelter for the last society of mankind. While some parts of the plot remain a puzzle, "Silo" leaves the audience with more questions than answers about this post-apocalyptic world.

Dystopian fictions continue to gain a wide following as our reality creeps closer to them. Alarming news on global warming, political tensions or technological disasters usually reminds us of the worst-case scenarios for the not-so-distant future. Apple TV+ is one of the platforms that makes a point of sci-fi shows taking different approaches to this genre. "Severance," "Foundation," "Extrapolations" and "See" draw attention in this respect among their original series.

Their most recent offering, "Silo" based on the "Wool" trilogy by Hugh Howey takes place in a subterranean silo built underground and accommodates the last civilization on Earth. People in the silo sustain their lives without daylight and stepping outside, but they don’t even know what happened to the surface of their world and why they have to be stuck here. The only thing that matters to them is there is no place safer than the silo.

However, anyone can leave the silo for good to see what is out there, which happens rarely ever. The chain of events starts with the shocking decision of the sheriff to go outside and transfer his duty to a woman who works as a mechanic. Much as those choices seem irrelevant at first, Sheriff Holston’s connection with Juliette Nichols becomes one of the milestones to upset the balances in the totalitarian regime of the silo. Jules enters her new career as the sheriff by investigating the murder of someone who was really close to her.

Forgotten past

Residents of the silo live in peace here for uncertain periods of time, and it looks like they managed to accommodate themselves to maintain their lives underground like an ant colony. Every individual uses the spiral staircase at the center of the silo to travel through the floors for their daily commute.

Of course, there is a pecking order between dwellers who reside on different floors just like in every social system. The hierarchy functions as an important constituent of authority over the silo from above to the ground floor.

Juliette Nichols used to live in the Down Deep since she was a child and left her father to work in the Mechanical after a family tragedy. Juliette was just a composed and accomplished engineer who works to keep the generators running until she met George Wilkins, a programmer who possessed a hard drive full of hidden files from the past of the silo.

She knew very little about the silo’s history as much as the next person because their only information source was the judicial department. According to the judicial, there had been a rebellion against the top of the silo that destroyed the public’s memory 140 years ago. Rebels attempted to open the door to the outside despite the risk of poisoning the entire silo, and during their rebellion, they burned books, destroyed computer drives and shredded files from the past. Therefore, nobody knows what kind of catastrophe happened out there, how their ancestors survived, why the founders built the silo, and how long they have to stay there.

In spite of the judicial blaming the rebels for the lack of historic knowledge, they disapproved of truth seekers who are collecting illegal relics and digging into the past. Jules has been involved in this cause unwillingly because of George, but his death became the tipping point that led her to assume the mantle of sheriff after Holston’s exile and dig down deeper into the shadow history of the silo.

Forbidden truth

As it is understood, "Silo" offers a dystopia branching off into various themes like sci-fi and post-truth with some air of mystery. The series might move at a slow pace since the plotline doesn’t breathe a word about questions and alleged facts throughout the episodes, but it manages to keep arousing interest in the noir atmosphere.

The elaborate designs of the set make a significant contribution in this regard as well. The silo has been decorated as an extensive bunker which provides a dynamic environment full of people walking around but also reflects a claustrophobic ambiance at the same time. Furthermore, close surveillance of the government turns up the pressure on independent souls like Jules. The brand new detective catches the eyes of the judicial during her search for answers and consequently, she has to pay a heavy price for the revelations that might collapse the silo on itself.

Despite the seeds of mystery that were planted in the script, the first season leaves off without lifting the veil of secrecy completely. So, we have to wait to see how the story will unfold in the next season and find out whether the chain of events will conclude in a satisfying way or not.

By the way, Rebecca Ferguson gives a good account of herself as a leading actress. She proves that this year is her time to shine beside "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" and "Dune Part Two." The rest of the cast performs as well as Ferguson, including Iain Glen, Chinaza Uche, Harriet Walter, Tim Robbins, Rashida Jones and David Oyelowo.