This interview contains spoilers for “Silo” Season 1.
In the cliffhanger season finale of the dystopian saga Silo, streaming on Apple TV+, Bernard (Tim Robbins), the true force of the closed Silo community, is cast as condemned protagonist Juliet (Rebecca Ferguson). , let you sneak a peek at the hidden secrets. truth.
First, he uncovers surveillance mechanisms that are used to monitor unseen people. And sitting in a cell before his mysterious banishment to the outside world (a supposed death sentence), Bernard tries to convince Juliet (and himself) that his authoritarian actions were for everyone’s sake. and
“For me, that was a really big scene,” said series creator and showrunner Graham Yost (Justified). “Being Bernard is no easy feat. You get the sense that this man we’ve come to believe to be stone evil is someone with a burden of his own.” You know you’re in the worst possible job.”
The word “silo” refers both to the massive underground cities that evacuate 10,000 people, and to the practice of information siloing, filtering data through narrow, highly manipulative networks. The people who live in the silo believe themselves to be the last humans on Earth, at least in this silo, and believe that life is impossible in the wastelands outside.
The echo chamber is closely monitored by Bernard’s IT team, who themselves are unaware of the extent of the lies being told on the screen within the silo. While the image everyone sees is an inhospitable, gray and toxic world, the contraband version depicts blue skies and green trees, possibly evidence of manipulation by the Silo leadership. Which is the true description of the world?
Banned by Bernard in the finale, Juliet witnesses the ugly truth. In fact, it’s bleak and toxic outside. She also discovers that there are more silos besides her own. But unlike her doomed predecessors — Sheriff Holston Becker (David Oyelowo) and his wife Alison (Rashida Jones) — Juliet is fed by her allies down the silo. I survived thanks to the heat tape in my space suit, which had excellent sealing power. The subject of the running subplot.
“Essentially, this is a mystery show,” Yost said. “We are trying to find out what happened that forced people to live underground, when it will be safe to go out, what is happening and why.”
In an interview last month, Yost was careful not to spoil the many mysteries, but curious viewers can find answers in the Hugh Howie novels that form the basis of the series. (Howie himself makes a short crowd scene cameo in the finale. )
Regarding the future of Silo, Yost said he plans to cover the previous three books in the series, Wool, Shift and Dust, in four seasons. (howie said He is also writing a “Silo” novel. ), a second season is currently in production in the UK, but Apple TV+ has yet to announce a further season.
While on vacation in Newfoundland, Yost spoke on the phone about his “silo” game plans, helpful notes from Apple, and the ensuing Writers Guild of America strike. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Many TV writers aren’t talking about their series right now, so why are they? And how will the strike affect plans for Season 2?
I’m on strike But I ran this interview by WGA and I think it’s fine. Let’s see if it yells at you. It’s a strange time. Following the Guild’s request, I stopped all production activities and refused promotional activities until the show started. It’s been a month and a half since then, and he’s happy to talk about the strike if given a chance.
The reality is that we should have started long before we announced Season 2. I imagine they might have been canceled if the show did poorly. But as we speak, the scene is filmed in England. Because all the scripts were written for season two long ago, we scrambled ahead of the strike to make sure we were answering the actors and director’s notes as best we could.
Howie’s first book tells us early on that the green screen is a virtual reality simulation, but the show doesn’t tell us that until the finale.
At the end of the written story, when Halston takes off his helmet, he finds that the world is dead and that the indication inside the helmet is a lie, but the indication on Silo’s screen is actually telling the truth. . It’s a really nice inversion. That’s one of the things that made me fall in love with this piece. But we decided not to.
why?
Frankly, this was a notice from Apple. They said, ‘What if we don’t find out until the season is over? ‘ And the great thing is, when I was writing the script, I could read through it all and say, ‘Oh yeah, let’s not do that.’ It should be. But we wanted to.
Even before we put the writers room together, we knew Juliet’s outing would be a great end to the season. Then we debated how much to publish. Revealing balms in other silos or not? In this example, I wanted to make clear that the world is really dead. What Halston saw, what Juliet saw, it’s not true. It’s augmented reality.
I also wanted to add another big question with an additional silo. hatch On “Lost”: What does this mean? I think it’s a great start to a new season.
We’ve established the show’s universe, but will season 2 give us more story room? Perhaps more flashbacks, like in the second book?
When I pitched Season 2, I thought we were going to tell more of the backstory than it actually was. Sure it comes out, but I won’t say more about it. You have to hit the brakes and leave, no, the audience can’t enjoy it. They want to be able to focus on solving one big chunk of the mystery at a time.
The show is loosely blocked throughout the four seasons. There may be a world in season 4 where it’s like, ‘I need two more seasons,’ but I honestly don’t think that’s going to happen right now. we’re so far along. We looked in the book for things like, “Wow, this would be a great end to season two.” “This is going to be a great end to Season 3.” “This is how the series should end.” Then I worked backwards from there.
The narrative seems to be on the edge of technology in general. IT is used for surveillance and manipulation, and even some of the “artifacts” that at first seemed like important clues ended up being misleading.
After all, we are very afraid of technology. This is a cautionary tale. What happened to the world? was it the nucleus? Was he sick? Was it AI?
So back to the story of the writers’ strike. AI wasn’t really high on our agenda last year, but then ChatGPT came along and I was like, ‘Oh my God. Not great, but you can learn. AI is not the devil and we need to understand this. that’s how to use it.
I don’t think it’s a good thing when studios and networks want AI to write scripts and then one writer to clean up. It’s not just because we’re afraid of losing our jobs. It’s also because we love the media in which we work. We want it to remain vibrant, humane, humane, smart and groundbreaking. It would be a shame if things were mass-produced simply because AI is a cheaper method. No director is required. Digital models of actors are also available. “It might cost him $1.98, but what effect would that have on the human psyche?”
