TL;DR – The tension ramps up as the power shuts down.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Silo Review –

I think that as a society, we take the connection to water and electricity for granted and would have no concept of what to do if it went out for an hour, let alone more. But what happens when you live deep underground and that power generator is the only thing keeping you from living in the dark, allowing you to breathe … well suddenly, you need to care about it much more.  

So to set the scene, we discovered two very interesting things at the end of Holston’s Pick. First, Holston (David Oyelowo) picked Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) to be his replacement as sheriff. Also that Juliette’s late partner found a hidden door in the deep caverns where they hid the machine that dug the Silo. As the mystery abounds, Mayor Ruth Jahns (Geraldine James) and Deputy Marnes (Will Patton) make the slow trip down 140 levels to the bowels of the Silo, where it is not just the generator that is shaking things apart.Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

This is an episode of two parts, both just as fascinating, so we will begin with the march of the Mayor. As the Mayor makes her way down the 140 levels to the bottom, she takes the time to interact, or pointedly not interact, with all the powers in the Silo. Not only do we get to see where the real power structures are, but who controls the numbers, the minds and the fears of the people. It is telling that, even though the Mayor purposely thumbed her finger at the judicial, she is still clearly afraid of it. This sequence brought new contours to the society of the Silo and what makes it tick.

From the walk to the top, we then descend to the danger in the deep. Since we were first introduced to Juliette at the end of Freedom Day, we learned that all is not well with the Silo’s generator. Something is causing it to wobble, which will eventually rip the whole thing apart, and even their stop-gap measures are now only lasting a day or two before coming apart. The generator might as well be the beating heart of the Silo so that you can feel the trepidation of every person, and even the possibility of shutting it down for a minute, let alone hours, understandably scares people to their core.         

The whole sequence as they shut the generator down was extremely tense. I loved the shot of the lights turning off, one by one, as they went up the Silo. I was so captured that I was completely caught off guard, but that split second when the outside image on the monitors changed before turning off. All these little touches keep reinforcing that mystery, and I like that they are there. I do want to give my respect to the editing team because there were a lot of moving parts in that generator repair scene, but you always understood where everyone was and what the flow of the action was.

In the end, do we recommend Silo: Machines? Absolutely. This was a fantastic episode that brought more to the world of the Silo while also delivering a decently tense set-piece scene; thermodynamics be damned. Though, I think the “I’ll vote for you in the next election” line might be up there with “I’m two days away from retirement”.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Silo yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Silo
Directed by – Morten Tyldum
Written by – Ingrid Escajeda
Created by – Graham Yost
Based On – Silo by Hugh Howey
Production/Distribution Companies – Nemo Films, AMC Studios & Apple TV+
Starring – Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Harriet Walter, Tim Robbins & David Oyelowo with Will Patton, Geraldine James, Shane McRae, Chipo Chung, Remmie Miller, Billy Postlethwaite, Matt Gomez Hidaka, Peter Gadiot & Iain Glen and Angela Yeoh, Olatunji Ayofe & Oscar Coleman