Silo (2023) s01e03 – Machines

Is Machines a great episode, or is it a sign “Silo”’s going to be great? It’s a phenomenal fifty minutes of television (in an hour-plus episode), but the show’s still got all the existing problems. There’s just this one outlier. So far. But the episode, writing credit to Ingrid Escajeda, is fantastic. If director Morten Tyldum, who wouldn’t know if a cinematic shot if it were a hundred-foot-tall steam generator spinning around, ready to slice up the heroes going to replace it so the silo doesn’t lose power forever… well if it weren’t Tyldum, it’d be better. Even with his profoundly banal direction, it’s great.

And the cast can find the energy in the action, even if Tyldum can’t bring it, even if the weird accents continue. They’re intentional. I’m pretty sure. Based on Iain Glen having the same weird, not quite anything, but definitely a very white European-ish accent. Glen hasn’t given this bad of an accent since he was in Resident Evil and has spent his subsequent career showing off his ability with accents and middling directors. So if he’s giving a bad accent now, it’s because they told him to give a bad accent.

Harriet Walter’s back with her weird one too. However, she has some okay scenes. One opposite Geraldine James, who’s walking down the silo to offer Rebecca Ferguson the sheriff job while also getting in some quality time with Will Patton. Halfway through the episode, I turned to my wife and asked her if she thought it was weird Patton has become a soulful, sensual type in his old age. She hasn’t seen H40 so she was very confused.

But it’s fine. I’m here for it. It’s at least not wasting Patton.

And James, with her weird, weird, weird accent, is more likable this episode. This episode should’ve been the first episode, and they should’ve figured out how to get the backstory in later. It’s got an excellent three-act structure for a feature narrative. James needs to decide if she’s hiring Ferguson or if she’s going to kowtow to her rival branch of government (an unnamed female judge, who will be a stunt cast later on) while Ferguson needs to convince boss Shane McRae they’re running out of time to fix the generator.

If they don’t fix it, the silo loses power, and everyone dies. Badly.

Along the way, we finally find out Tim Robbins really is an asshole and doesn’t just seem like one in the flashbacks. And Common threatens James, which is a weird moment, but later on, we find out Common’s just a good dad trying to get by in a bad future. Common works for Judicial; James is the Mayor, so her rival is the Judge.

I wonder if it’s Diane Lane. There’s a somewhat deep cut.

Susan Dey would be baller.

Especially if they make her do an accent.

Anyway, the stuff with the generator is great. It’s not a real-time episode because Tyldum’s bad, but it’s exceptionally tense, with big stakes.

It’s so good it makes up for the cliffhanger resolve being almost entirely toothless.

Ferguson also gets to run a room instead of brood or moon. She does okay. Not great, but successful.

The episode also doesn’t shy away from comparing how worker-class boss McRae supports and values women to how Robbins hates them.

I was reluctant on “Silo.”

Tedious Tyldum or not, I’m much less so now.

Machines is great.

Silo (2023) s01e02 – Holston’s Pick

As is the way since, what, “The Shield” in 2002, “Silo” changes its opening titles to adjust for last episode’s big “surprises” as far as lead actor deaths. Also in this episode’s titles is Harriet Walter, which made me happy. I couldn’t wait until Harriet Walter showed up.

And I’m glad she’s getting work other than her standard British lady stuff. Maybe someday it’ll even be a good part. And, maybe someday, her director will tell her—and her British costars—to work on their freaking accents. It wasn’t until Walter shows up I realized… none of the British cast members in “Soil” can hold their accents. Now, “Silo” takes place in an unknown future location. There’s no reason to think it’s not in the UK. Maybe it’s just a Brexit thing.

But neither Walter, Rebecca Ferguson (who’s Swedish, sorry; director Morten Tyldum doesn’t care either), David Oyelowo (who has more to do in this episode than last, even though he’s dying in the present), nor Geraldine James (as the mayor) can do normal sounding accents. They all sound like they just remembered they’re supposed to be doing American and did anyone notice they weren’t. Except Walter. Walter’s doing a voice out of a fantasy cartoon.

This episode opens with Oyelowo walking outside the “Silo,” presumably to his death—only, as all the people inside the silo watch, it’s obvious they’re not going to reveal it right away at the start of the episode. “Silo,” the previous episode established, is all about leaning in on the timeline manipulation. Like in this episode, which establishes Oyelowo is walking out three months after he met Ferguson last episode and had his “connection” with her, or whatever Will Patton called it.

Except as we find out later on in the episode, not only is calling it a “connection” tenuous, they only meet the one time. Oyelowo’s just a special guest star. They have a relatively eventful first meeting—including Ferguson revealing she and Ferdinand Kingsley are lovers and have been exploring the history of the silo—the forbidden history. Also, they’re forbidden lovers. Kingsley’s an amateur archeologist, which is super-illegal, and he doesn’t want to put a ring on it because then Ferguson would be liable for his crimes or something.

This episode also introduces Common—who may have been in a crowd shot last time—as one of the future KGB guys or whatever. They all dress in black, and they make people disappear and whatnot. It’s pointless because the show’s obviously waiting to explain it for emphasis later, not just telling the audience what they need to know. Then, the content might have to be interesting rather than its presentation.

But it’s 2023, and presentation over content is how streaming prestige series roll.

Director Tyldum failed some very basic sci-fi imagery last episode and continues to do so here, except this episode’s also where AppleTV+ apparently told “Silo” to cut back on the CGI a bit (not a good sign telling them to cut back on episode two, obviously). The composites are particularly poorly lighted, but since Tyldum’s not interested in making it visually engaging or compelling… it doesn’t matter?

They promise things will get interesting next episode—unraveling conspiracies and solving murderers interesting—but it’s also their TV show. They could’ve just made it interesting from the start.

Silo (2023) s01e01 – Freedom Day

“Silo” is about future humans living in a giant, hundreds of levels deep silo because the outside atmosphere is toxic. They don’t remember why it’s toxic; just it’s toxic. They also don’t know how they got to living in the silo. If you say you want to go outside, you have to go outside. And die. They ask you to clean the single video camera with a piece of wool as you go outside.

“Silo” is based on Wool, by Howey, the first book in the Silo series. I read the comic book adaptation, Wool. I sort of assumed the series was a one-and-done, but if it’s a series now, maybe they’ve got future seasons in mind. I don’t remember the comic very well, other than it being pretty good and thinking a movie or TV show would be solid.

The TV show’s okay. I’m not sure if it’s solid. It’s prestige-y streaming, with Rashida Jones playing a rare dramatic role in a special appearance. She’ll come back in flashbacks later, I’m sure, but the cold open—slowly—spoils she’s dead, having gone outside, and her husband, the sheriff, played by David Oyelowo, is going out after her. Sometime later. We later learn it’s two years later. There are lots of indeterminate time periods used for dramatic effect, which the show can get away with because it takes a full day to walk from the top of the silo to the bottom.

Would it help to understand how life worked in the silo? Oh, heck yeah. I skimmed my old posts about the comic and the show’s following its narrative structure (and presumably the novel’s), but it’s a bad structure for TV. We start in the present with Oyelowo, jump back to Jones’s story, jump forward in Oyelowo’s a bit so the show can introduce eventual lead and executive producer Rebecca Ferguson, then jump forward back to the present to get ready to kill Oyelowo off.

Neat trick in a novel if the writer can pull it off. Neat trick in a comic if the writers and artists can pull it off. Neat trick in a TV show if the showrunner, episode writer, show director, cast, and crew can pull it off. Director Morten Tyldum really doesn’t get it. Graham Yost—also the showrunner—gets the writing credit, and he doesn’t not get the relatively simple noir structure, but Jones isn’t playing for it. The actors in “Silo” don’t get much direction, whether Tyldum’s got a good idea or not. Professional competence and affability get them through.

I mean, Will Patton’s the deputy. There’s basically a genre of “Will Patton’s the deputy” TV shows now.

The flashback’s about how renegade IT clerk Jones and husband Oyelowo got permission to try to have a baby for a year, and over that year, their continued failures to get pregnant will drive Jones to question their reality. Oyelowo’s got an iffier part the longer the episode progresses, as he eventually manages to gaslight Jones both as a lawman and just as a man. It should be a better part, and it’s not Oyelowo’s fault at all. In this case, it’s mostly Yost’s.

Jones teams up with computer repair guy Ferdinand Kingsley to uncover the secrets of “Silo,” and then she can’t live with them. Fast forward two years but not to the present, Kingsley’s dead, and Oyelowo’s investigating. Patton’s voiceover tells us Oyelowo then has some reinvigorating due to Ferguson (who may not even have an audible line of dialogue, just sweaty biceps).

Then the episode’s over, and they’ve killed off (imminently) two likable protagonists.

Tune in next time for a third?

It’s nice to see Jones in a dramatic thriller, I guess. And it’s decently produced. Unfortunately, there’s just nothing particularly exciting yet.

Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023, Jamie Payne)

“Luther” show creator and Luther: The Fallen Sun writer Neil Cross started talking about him and Idris Elba doing a Luther movie for at least a decade before Fallen Sun. Like everyone else, Cross assumed the singularly charming, extraordinarily talented Elba would be too busy being a movie star to do another “Luther” TV series. Except, as Cross and most other white people learned in the 2010s, the world’s super-duper racist and Elba, the most obvious James Bond casting pick ever, actually, would never be a movie star.

So they kept doing the “Luther” series, even soft-booting the show a couple times over five series and nine years. The Fallen Sun, which is never called The Fallen Sun onscreen and has zilch to do with the movie itself, takes place after the last series… but retcons a bit. Fallen Sun is more of a spin-off than a sequel to the series, with only Dermot Crowley returning from the show with Elba. The series ended with Elba headed to prison, something Fallen Sun sort of continues, but changing the circumstances and removing the character development Elba had been building since the first series.

Because Fallen Sun’s about Elba doing streaming movie series, not about him doing a TV series. And to prove it’s really a movie, Fallen Sun runs over two hours… which actually just makes it a two-part episode, but I suppose they shoot it in Panavision. Well, Panavision aspect ratio. It’s also director Payne’s first film credit after twenty years of TV work.

Cynthia Erivo plays the no-nonsense new copper on Elba’s old beat. Erivo’s fine, but she’s got very little to do. But she does add some movie cred. More than villain Andy Serkis, who’s a Bond villain serial killer. Everything’s very elaborate but also very disturbing, even though Payne can’t manage a single suspenseful sequence in the picture. Not when Elba’s fending off his fellow inmates in prison or when Serkis is stalking teenage girls. As far as suspense goes, Sun’s inert.

It’s also full of pointless subplots to pad out the run time. Cross stuffs in a bunch of filler to make up for Elba not having a character to play anymore. His backstory doesn’t matter, and thanks to the retcon, having him go to prison isn’t even necessary. Sun goes to multiple unnecessary places, but thanks to Elba, it basically works out.

And it’s got an astoundingly dull Serkis performance too. Serkis is better than it seems like he’ll be initially, but only because he threatens to be godawful but just ends up one-note. Late fifties Serkis is less believable as a criminal mastermind than as a forty-something (which makes me wonder who Cross originally envisioned in the part). Serkis is also an inexplicably capable knife fighter; Sun establishes Elba—while not “Black Superman”—can fisticuff his way through a prison riot, only for unassuming Serkis to out-street fight him.

Why? Because it’s a movie, remember? So it can’t be over at the hour mark.

The supporting cast is all solid, though dippy copper Thomas Coombes is too dippy, and it reflects poorly on Erivo’s character, who ought to be better at her job. Elba’s only an impressive detective because he’s doing better work than Erivo and her team. Unfortunately, neither Elba, Erivo, or Crowley (who gets a bunch to do) ever quickly figures out the clue; they need that two-hour runtime.

Writer Cross also has an annoying device where one character tells another character a secret, which allows the second character to act on it without the audience knowing what’s about to happen. It’s exposition doubling, and the only time it needs to pay off–the lethargic third act—it noticeably doesn’t.

It also doesn’t really matter because it’s Elba mesmerizing his way through the silliness. Sure, it’s grotesque, cruel silliness, but still. It’s silly plotting.

I really hope they do more.

Doom Patrol (2019) s04e06 – Hope Patrol

This episode picks up some hours after last episode’s “all the characters are probably babies now” cliffhanger. While fixing up a car (with some great Riley Shanahan bodywork), Brendan Fraser explains to Diane Guerrero he’s had an epiphany, and they’re all about to die, so they better get their houses in order. Guerrero wanted to fight the bad guys (whoever they may be) and expected buddy Fraser to be all set to go.

Instead, he shrugs her off, and she’s left on her own. Heading down to the Underground to consult the other personalities, she also finds them unwilling to help. The conflict gives Guerrero some great material, and she does really well. This season might be the one where she becomes consistently good.

But not having Fraser (and Shanahan) to hang out with means Guerrero doesn’t get to pair off with anyone, while the rest of the episode’s spent on duos.

Matt Bomer (and Matthew Zuk) and new friend Sendhil Ramamurthy get trapped in the big bad’s alternate dimension. Well, not exactly trapped because Ramamurthy can open portals, but Bomer’s not sure what’s going on. Especially not when the omnipresent stooges are walking around with giant scissors, ready to cut off heads.

Bomer and Ramamurthy have an excellent episode “together,” to the point I got curious about how they shoot the scenes. Does Zuk read Bomer’s lines? Do they have them played back? Is Ramamurthy just vamping? Regardless, great work and some excellent character development from Bomer, who’s usually working through old emotional shit instead of getting new stuff to navigate.

Speaking of new and old stuff to navigate, April Bowlby and Michelle Gomez are still paired off. Their reconciliation from last episode—made under extreme circumstances—is holding; right up until they find out they need to break into the Ant Farm, which is the Bureau of Normalcy’s headquarters and full of terrible memories for both–like Bowlby’s boyfriend getting murdered by Gomez’s stooge, again played by Daniel Annone.

It’s a good arc for the two of them, but it’s not as much about character development as exposition and figuring out how the season’s big bad ties into past events on the show. It’s very nice to have Bowlby and Gomez pals again, though. They’re excellent together.

The final dynamic duo is Joivan Wade and Elijah R. Reed. We got to see a kid version of Wade show up at Reed’s door last episode, but we missed the (occasionally mentioned) baby version, whose diapers Reed had to change.

It’s a solid friendship arc, even as it backtracks over Reed’s previous appearance when he told Wade it was too late for them to save the friendship. Given Wade’s continued reluctance to talk to anyone about getting rid of his superpowers and Reed just being a regular guy, their scenes end up making Reed the protagonist. It works out, but if there’s anyone the show doesn’t seem to know what to do with this season, it’s Wade.

Doesn’t he have an ex-girlfriend turned terrorist out there still?

Anyway, another excellent episode. It’s the mid-season finale, so it’ll be a while for the cliffhangers to resolve, but the show manages to get most of the team together for the last scene.

Some outstanding music from Kevin Kiner and Clint Mansell, particularly during Fraser’s second epiphany scene. Fraser (and Shanahan), as usual, do fantastic work.

It’s going to be a long wait for next episode.