Silo season 2 arrives in mid November.

How was everyone's long weekend? In my own world, I was dealing with a kidney stone again. I had one in 2013, and my urologist (at the time) told me that there was a 50% chance that I'd have another debilitating one within ten years. Well...I made it eleven years. Anyway, this particular one is one I had to pass naturally (it was much smaller than the 2013 one). However, it was still painful. I'm pretty sure as of the writing of this post that it has descended low enough that it is in my bladder, so the tough part is over with.

Feeling otherwise uninspired really to write anything, I did see that Silo season two is coming back in November (on Apple TV +). I finished season one about a year ago if memory serves. I remember being a blogger when the writer behind Silo, a Hugh Howey, made it pretty big and caught the imagination of other people who were trying to self-publish. He had some pretty great ideas, although I haven't gotten around yet to reading any of his lengthier works. I hear that he's retired now and just living on his millions. I think that's a good way to go about doing things: make a big splash if you can and then just ride on the coattails of your success. I've also heard that he wholeheartedly embraces ai, which can rub a lot of artists the wrong way. So, maybe it's good that he has enough power to be able to ignore the people who are upset about ai and its intersection with the arts.

Season one of Silo showed a lot of promise. The story itself is not ultra-complex, nor does it have a deep premise. In the end, the reasons why you tune into this show are for the characters and their underground dystopian world. The labor of their daily lives never does give you answers to the burning questions of "how did all of these humans end up in this Silo?" It also triggers that "conspiracy theorist" that resides in all of us by giving us little bits of information that elude to the fact that not everything may be as it seems. The idea that "those in charge" might have malevolent control issues resonates with just about everyone who worries about a "deep state" hiding information and making our suffering an intentional act, rather than making us victims of circumstance. 

Because I never read the extended novels (I only read the short story "Wool" that kind of started it all), the first season of Silo never really had an opportunity to fall flat with me. A lot of the time, readers and fans of a book or story won't like the show because they have imagined what the scenes should be like and what they end up seeing doesn't match up properly to that vision. That being said, Hugh (apparently) worked really closely with the showrunners and explained to his fans that the show is what he wants, and that the slight changes in the show are things that he desired. Sure, you do have to get used to Rebecca Ferguson trying to do an American accent (she's terrible at it) but it's honestly just a minor distraction.

I'm embedding the trailer for season 2 of Silo below (also I can't believe that it is almost November and it is still 85 degrees outside here in Salt Lake--ugh). Anyone else excited for this show's return?

Silo on Apple TV+ is a really good science fiction mystery that answers most of the big questions by the end of season one.

I finished up Silo that was on Apple TV+. It honestly is some of the best science fiction on television right now. I get excited about it in the same way that I felt looking forward to Expanse seasons when it was still going on Amazon. The production values are really high, and it's been greenlit for a season two, which makes me happy. It got me reinterested in reading the Wool series of novels. I recently learned about them, because of my interest in the show. I've no doubt that the brilliance of the series has a lot to do with Hugh Howey's obvious genius/talent in just writing good stuff. I think I might wait until after the whole series has been aired though, as I've read online that the adaptation of the television show holds pretty close to the book. In other words, if I go and read the book, then I'm going to spoil the whole plot. Silo is at its core a mystery. And I think it would take a lot of the punch out of the story if I read the books and then know how it all ends.

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So, how did the first season go? The main character in this show is Juliette, who is played by Rebecca Ferguson. We actually don't even get to meet Juliette until the end of the first episode, when we see her at work at the bottom of the Silo trying to repair the generator that keeps electricity flowing. Without this generator, everything would basically shut down and pretty much, everyone living in the Silo would end up dead. It would be an awful circumstance were it allowed to happen.

Then over the course of the remainder of season one, events unfold. There's a huge machine that probably dug the silos located in its own chamber that few people in the Silos actually know about. And when I say, "huge" I really mean that this thing is "colossal." Like, it would be the size of a Star Destroyer in Star Wars if it were filmed in that universe. At the bottom of this pit that holds the digger there is supposedly a door that a man named George found (he's dead at about episode two, and his death spurs Juliette to do a lot of things to uncover the facts around his death). But we are never told where the door leads. There's also the problem that the bottom of it is filled with water, which is pretty intimidating if you breathe air. 

There's also an ancient hard drive making the rounds in the Silo that contains (among its many files) a view of the outside world that doesn't match anything that they see through their big screen in the cafeteria, which looks out on a pit with a dead tree and a bunch of dead bodies scattered around in a landscape that is desolate of all life. The alternate view of the outside world is one with a blue sky, green grass, flowers in bloom, a tree that is vibrant and healthy, and birds are flying in the distance. You don't really know which one is real until the very end of season one, but you suspect that the "green view" is the real view and that everyone in the Silo is being lied to because of some kind of Machiavellian need to rule over others. It plays very well into human nature, due mostly to the fact that every single one of us has interacted with people who crave power. I myself have never craved power, but I had a friend who admitted to me point blank that it was all he even cared about, and that he was frustrated that he failed to achieve the kinds of power that he desired in life. In the years that followed, I tried to understand that feeling, but I never could. It just seemed so pointless (and it still seems pointless) unless you just want to abuse people (which seems like a mental illness to me if I'm right).

In episode after episode we are slowly fed facts. Judicial has a few members that actually run everything in a secret room labeled "Janitorial" that is filled with screens that monitor all things in the Silo. You find out that it is a complete surveillance state, with cameras behind mirrors in people's homes, there are boogey men that murder people who know too much, institutionalized gaslighting, and doctors who don't remove birth control from women who are greenlit to have a child because they don't actually want that person to reproduce but don't have the guts to tell them. I mean...it's a dystopia yes...but it's just people being at their worst most of the time. It would be a horrible situation to live in, and I think knowing all that we know by the end, I'd prefer to "go out and clean."

By the season finale, Silo actually does a good job at answering most of the questions I had. Juliette does eventually get rounded up after she becomes extremely problematic for the boogey men/shadow government who decide that she needs to go out and clean. However, she has enough friends and enough acumen and skill that they are forced to broker a deal with her and reveal their hand. They show her a video of George actually choosing to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge. So he wasn't murdered. However, he chose suicide because he was just being led somewhere to be tortured until he revealed the location of the troublesome hard drive with all of the damning files and footage on it. Juliette also has a tinkerer friend named "Walk" that manages to replace the heat tape with her own homebrew heat tape that Judicial uses to seal suits with for those people forced to "go out and clean," which is a death sentence since you aren't allowed back into the Silo. The heat tape that Judicial uses to seal those suits allowed lots of toxins into the suit, which slowly killed the person wearing it. We are to assume that this is intentional. Somehow, I missed a detail that might have alluded to someone figuring that out. But they did, and it ends up saving Juliette's life when she walks out to clean.

And yes, that happens at the end of the season finale. Juliette walks out to clean with the special wool they put in a pocket, and she sees this beautiful green world. Now, this ends up being a lie, and she figures that out pretty quickly, because the footage is identical to the footage on the hard drive. In other words, she recognizes it all as a gif or some kind of video (probably helped by the fact that a dead George left a "video" for her to view that then explained what a "video" was). Juliette also refuses to clean, which is something no one has ever done. The reasoning that Judicial has for the fake green world shown on the inside of the visor/helmet of the vac suit that they wear when they go outside is that if the person sees a green and gorgeous world, then they will be compelled to clean the lens so that those inside will "see the truth."

Juliette manages to break the feed to reveal the real world through her visor. Because she has good heat tape keeping the toxins out, she doesn't die. And we see her walk up to the rim of the ridge, stand there a moment, and disappear, leaving everyone else watching inside gasping. I mean...no one has ever done this. And then the camera pans out on Juliette walking through a post apocalyptic landscape where there's circular ridges everywhere, indicating that there may be dozens if not hundreds of other "silos" where people live. It's a pretty incredible reveal, and I'm super excited to see where it leads. However, I've no idea how Juliette is going to survive when her air runs out, or when she needs food or water. This is a cliffhanger for sure, and season two can't get here soon enough. However, because of the writers strike, it may be 2025 before I see a follow-up to this series. At least, I hope so. It could be 2026. Ah well, the writer's strike is important, and I hope that it ends well for everyone involved.

Anyway, if you have Apple TV+, Silo is definitely worth your time unless of course all of the above spoilers have ruined the show for you. If that's the case, I apologize. But, I just wanted to talk about it.

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.