As someone who tapped out after Season 2, Episode 7 of Severance, I can personally attest that the only thing more galling than waiting years for the next season to arrive is how the show continues to pose more questions than provide answers. As if it’s one big, brain-busting tease, the show continues to go in circles, amounting to little more than a spiral staircase that leads to nowhere. Perhaps that’s the point: to convey the repetitive routine of office work. However, given the maddening tedium, sci-fi lovers should turn to Apple TV’s most riveting series yet.
In the past half-decade or so, Apple TV has emerged as the go-to streaming service for highly captivating hard science fiction. Between the adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and the expert world-building in For All Mankind, Apple TV is cornering the market on the most intriguing and cerebrally challenging sci-fi stories. Yet, as fans cling to Severance and wait for a third season to be released sometime in 2027, the best Apple TV sci-fi mystery series returns for Season 3 this July.
The Vivid World-Building in Apple TV’s ‘Silo’ Eclipses The Books
Based on Hugh Howey’s popular Silo book trilogy (Wool, Shift, Dust), Silo builds its dystopian world even better than its source material. Set in the future, the story follows an Earth that has devolved into a ruinous landscape, forcing the surviving humans to live underground in a massive vertical silo that descends 144 levels. Told that the noxious air will instantly kill them if they venture outside, the 10,000 survivors form a societal hierarchy. The wealthy and privileged enjoy the top levels, and the less fortunate dwell at the bottom.
The story mainly centers around Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), a skilled engineer tasked with maintaining the generators at the lowest level of the silo. As she makes alliances and steers clear of enemies, a strict, oppressive environment with harsh rules, regulations, and false narratives is established. These maintain the hierarchy and prevent mutiny among the less fortunate and force Juliette to solve the long-buried secret behind the superstructure.
Beyond the compelling concept, exquisite world-building, and Ferguson’s gripping performance, Silo actually provides enough exposition to keep viewers thoroughly invested. Unlike Severance, whose liminal office space remains nebulous, Silo deepens its mysterious conspiracy when Juliette survives her venture outside the underground structure. Viewers also learn that those who instantly die outdoors don’t do so due to the toxic air, but because their protective suits have been designed with a deadly breach.
What to Expect in ‘Silo’ Season 3
Premiering on Apple TV on July 3, 2026, Season 3 of Silo will inevitably address the Season 2 cliffhanger, in which Juliette was trapped in a blazing incinerator with seemingly no exit. With the latest trailer revealing Juliette’s memory loss and her attempt to regain flickers of her past, Season 3 will also feature a chronological split, and the action will be divided into the post-apocalyptic present and flashbacks to Juliette’s pre-apocalypse life. With a new false narrative brainwashing the inhabitants and an even grander conspiracy coming to light, Season 3 is poised to be Silo‘s most dramatic yet.
Whether you’re starting from the beginning or resuming after Season 2, Silo‘s deeply absorbing mysteries and hard sci-fi world-building are second to none and far more rewarding than the sadistically mystifying Severance. With a 90% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a much faster production schedule that doesn’t leave viewers in the lurch for three years between seasons, Silo continues to help cement Apple TV as the definitive go-to streamer for hard sci-fi that expands upon its source material.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
