Silo on Apple TV+ is trolling me with masterful storytelling.

Silo is the other new series I started this weekend. As I promised on Monday, I wanted to talk about it, and the three episodes I've watched thus far.

If you don't know, Silo is the big story that came out of Wool, which was originally a short story that was penned by Indy author, Hugh Howey. It emerged at about the time that some authors were taking the internet by storm by shedding traditional publishing and then getting millions of fans on their own and scooping a much larger share of the pie.

For a while, the internet was mesmerized by these self-made stars like Amanda Hocking and E.L. James, because they were just like many of us: scrabbling out an existence in the United States and enduring underpaid positions working for companies who had bosses and policies that ultimately felt abusive...but we never had any power to change. This is because "there's the door, and don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out" was the clarion call of those in power (FYI, it hasn't changed much in the years since). Maybe it will always be their battle cry. However, on a much smaller level...many of us may be in better positions now due to exploding values in stocks, in real estate, or the fact that we now have longevity in the careers in which we were toiling (which can come with a few privileges).

So, yeah. We were kind of collectively mesmerized by people who were part of the writing community who soared to incredible heights of fame and money, and it looked relatively easy (all magic tricks look effortless). Americans tend to equate that kind of thing to hard work. I take a more salty view and recognize that luck plays a huge part in those kinds of things. In other words, I think there are plenty of super skilled wordsmiths out there who will never get paid. It's unfortunate, but that's just how the cookie crumbles. The difficult task for those people is going to be giving up the dream of riches, looking for fulfillment in other ways (perhaps this is finding a regular job), or trying to prevent bitterness at another's success from seeping in and poisoning their ability to experience joy in their lives.

When I saw that Silo had the kind of production values I was wanting in a telling of Hugh Howey's story, I couldn't have been happier for this author. I don't even know him, but he should be proud of what Apple has done. Just three episodes in, I'm hooked. I want to watch more, but I'm watching it with people who are also hooked, so I don't want to get too far ahead. In the following paragraphs, I'm going to talk a little bit about what I've seen thus far, so if you're going to read further, here is your spoiler warning.

Silo's story is told way different than I'm used to. For one, we don't even get introduced to what must be the primary protagonist until the very end of episode 1. Instead, episode one is about the Sheriff and his wife. These middle aged people are living in this silo (surviving really), and we are slowly fed bits and pieces about why there are so many people living in this concrete tube in the ground that has something like 140 different levels. So it's the size of the tallest building in the world except it is sunk into the ground. We get to know the sheriff and his wife. They are mixed race, highly intelligent, and they are well-liked. The story opens with them being greenlit to have a baby, and a countdown timer starts that lasts an entire year (there are many time jumps). The wife gets her "birth control" thing removed, and they get around to the business of procreating while also working their jobs. But the wife never does get pregnant.

During this time, there are people in the Silo who believe there is a conspiracy aimed at controlling them. One puts the idea in the wife's head that she's not the kind that "they" (the mysterious they) don't want to have a baby. At first she dismisses this. But then she meets a guy (George) who has a hard drive recovered from "somewhere" that is over 140 years old (so this is the time before people had to live in these silos). By the way, it's mind boggling that people would be closed up in these things for entire generations. That is just crazy, and it makes you wonder what is going on outside that forced these people under. The hard drive has on it a feed from someone who was sent out to clean the camera, which is the Silo's only view of the outside world. It gets grimy over the years, and if someone doesn't go out and clean it up with some wool, then the view gets really bad. But the view is basically unchanging: a desolate landscape with a few dead bodies lying around left over from the last people who went out to clean (it's essentially a death sentence because the poison out there just kills you no matter what kind of suit you wear). Only in this feed on this hard drive, it shows that everything outside of the silo is green and nice, and there are things flying in the blue sky.

As expected, this is deeply upsetting to the viewers of this footage. And I have to admit that I know if I was in this same setting, I would not be able to let this go. It would just eat away at my brain, thinking that we were being forced to live in these wretched conditions all of our lives while there was a whole world out there that could support human life. The wife gets a kind of double whammy. Not only is she left with doubts about the validity of what they are seeing of the outside world (is it a deepfake?) but the comment about "you aren't the kind of person they want to have a baby" is also present and worming its way into her brain. So, on the last day of authorized fertility, she takes a knife and cuts into her body and finds a birth control device that was never (in fact) removed. So she was unable to get pregnant this entire time (a year). That's when she loses it.

She declares "I want to go out." And this is a one-way ticket for her to go out and clean. Well, she does go out, but before she does, she tells her husband in secret, "If the world is actually screwed, and I've made a mistake, I won't clean but I will wave goodbye to you. However, if the world is beautiful, I will want you to see that. So I will clean the lens." And then she does exactly that...she cleans the lens while smiling...and then she wanders off and on the screen that everyone is watching, she keels over dead. But again...is this a deepfake? 

That is how this show draws you in. And in many ways...it's becoming the world that we live in now, where people are going to have a lot of difficulty trusting what we see on screens. Is this a deepfake? or is this really happening? What does it actually look like? The kind of themes that are present in Silo feel like they are well-designed for our lives in modern society. I also can't help but anticipate the next episode in the hope that we will get one more tidbit from the show that will unravel the story just a little bit more. It's honestly masterful storytelling.