{"id":3317,"date":"2026-08-29T21:25:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T21:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=3317"},"modified":"2026-08-29T21:25:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T21:25:40","slug":"neo-medieval-charms-of-silo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/08\/29\/neo-medieval-charms-of-silo\/","title":{"rendered":"Neo-Medieval Charms of \u201cSilo\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So I\u2019m a late convert to the Apple TV series\u00a0Silo<\/em>. There are so many post-apocalyptic movies\/shows that they\u2019re a bit overwhelming and, let\u2019s face it, somewhat clich\u00e9. Yet the series is streaming Season 3 so I gave it a try. Now I\u2019m hooked.\u00a0Silo<\/em>\u00a0portrays a neo-Medieval world in which survivors of some yet-to-be identified apocalypse live in a gargantuan \u201csilo\u201d that has over a hundred levels, scavenging and recycling lost technologies and materials, ruled by a bureaucratic overlord known as Judicial. It has a great sense of mystery about the creation of the silo\u2014or silos, plural, because apparently there are 51 of them, each housing some 10,000 people, although by start of Season 3 we know of only two of them, Silos 17 and 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Silo promo poster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Ferguson (of Mission Impossible<\/em> fame) stars as Juliette Nichols, an engineer of sorts, who is determined to reveal the lies of the Silo overlords. But one reason the series is so watchable is its atmosphere of stubborn decline. The Silo world has very little color. Almost all the visuals are of muted tones, grays and browns and hybrid earth colors. It recreates a Medieval world vibe.\u00a0Everything seems a bit run-down and moth-eaten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing to note about Medieval cultures\/eras: They usually follow periods of progress and learning that culminate in some destructive war, usually a fight over territory: the Bronze Age collapse followed the warfare of the Trojan War era, and the Fall of the Roman Empire ushered in the European Medieval era. There\u2019s often a religious element, a sense of blindly following some belief system. In the Middle Ages the Catholic church in Europe followed such a pattern, including devolving into corrupt forms of \u201cworship\u201d or religious behavior, such as the infamous \u201cindulgences\u201d of the Medieval Catholic church (which paved the way for the Reformation).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Silo<\/em> their \u201cbible\u201d is The Pact, supposedly written\/created by the Founders, four centuries before the start of the series action. But in Season 3 there\u2019s a new wrinkle: an A.I. Superintelligence that controls the silo and appears to be both protecting and threatening what\u2019s left of mankind. It\u2019s also become quite relevant\/timely: While the plotlines involving the present-day Silo people are taking place roughly four centuries in the future, there\u2019s now a plotline that appears to be set in roughly present-day contemporary times: In the series we are at war with Iran, as we are now\u2014though the way TV series are made this was written and filmed much before the present war started. To make matters worse, Iran has detonated a \u201cdirty bomb\u201d in Washington D.C. We then retaliated and encountered strange technology or bio-warfare. This is probably the opening salvos in some WWIII imagined scenario that ends in nuclear destruction. Lord help us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silo has become quite timely: While the plotlines involving the present-day Silo people are taking place roughly four centuries in the future, there\u2019s now a plotline that appears to be set in roughly present-day contemporary times: In the series we are at war with Iran. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[525,526,258],"tags":[528],"class_list":["post-3317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-silo-apple-tv-series","category-post-apocalyptic-movies-series","category-prestige-tv","tag-silo-tv-series"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t