One of the best series of the year has come to an end on Apple TV+: Silo, a ten-episode dystopian film (which will have a second season) starring an outstanding Rebecca Ferguson, very well accompanied by Tim Robbins or Common. It is the story of the last 10,000 inhabitants of the earth, locked in a silo 1,000 meters deep, a place where a very special society develops. The level of complexity of the characters is notorious (forget black and white, the evil bad guys and the good guys good guys) and the ending is far from restful but narratively great. At a time when tastes for the dystopian and conspiracy have already crossed several frontiers, finding a measured, well-written product and, more complicated still, finished without fuss and sober seems almost like a chimera go.
However, it’s what’s happening with Silo (based on Hugh Howey’s trilogy) and what’s happened to other Apple series before it. His commitment seems to be aimed at the quality space in which good writing and successful staging come together. Evidence of this tradition, despite some excesses, is Foundation, based on Asimov’s novel series; the surprising adaptation of The Lights; or the excellent Slow Horses, which brings Mick Herron’s black humor spy novels to the screen with a great Gary Oldman and a top-notch supporting cast. But the Apple platform didn’t stop there: it gave author Dennis Lehane his first shot as showrunner (for the disturbing thriller Locked Up with the Devil, which, among other things, hid quality dialogue in its chapters).
Rebecca Ferguson as Juliette Nichols.
Silo has been the most-watched series on the platform for several weeks, ahead of a production that seemed unbeatable: Ted Lasso. The latter is the Apple TV+ fiction that everyone knows and we don’t want to steer away from now, but it’s nowhere near as round as some of its billboard peers. It is to be celebrated that quality and a certain audience success coincide from time to time.
Not all good books end up being good series. Game of Thrones took so many liberties with the George RR Martin series that we can’t really place it in that category. But there they are, to name just a few recent examples, in HBO’s The Leftovers (based on Tom Perrotta’s book), the first seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) or Open Wounds (Gillian Flynn); or on Netflix, the strange Black Butterflies (Mody). The list could span multiple paragraphs. It’s not about writing everything either, and sometimes it’s even better that there isn’t a book to start with and we have examples there on all platforms.
But it shouldn’t be more than a celebration: the most valued company in history (the market capitalization is almost three billion euros) has decided to create a television content department where quality and good literature prevail. Someone is having a great time at Apple.
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