Compelling sci-fi series ‘Silo’ asks big questions inside a massive underground bunker

What TV shows are dominating the conversation, capturing the zeitgeist, have something interesting to say or are hidden gems waiting to be uncovered? We take a look ahead of your weekend watch.

Ignorance is a key trait of the postapocalyptic society in “Silo.”

For the 10,000 or so people who live inside the massive 144-storey underground bunker known as the silo, history began just 140 years before with the quelling of a rebellion — all evidence of what came before that, every book, every computer drive, was supposedly destroyed by the rebels.

Nor are attempts to dig into that lost history encouraged: objects from the before times, known as relics, are seized and incinerated, and their owners punished.

But can you really stamp out human curiosity? Luckily for viewers of this compelling Apple TV Plus show, you cannot.

Attempts to answer questions, to access forbidden knowledge, drive the action in this adaptation of the Hugh Howey novellas. At first, it’s highly respected sheriff Holston Becker (David Oyelowo) and his wife, Allison (Rashida Jones), doing the asking.

When they’re both sidelined — I won’t spoil things by saying how — Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) takes over. She’s a brilliant engineer who toils in what’s known as the “Deep Down” but rises to an important position in the “Up Top” as the new sheriff, to considerable skepticism and hostility.

Juliette takes the job so she can uncover the truth about the death of her lover, George (Ferdinand Kingsley), whom she believes to have been murdered. But her inquiries begin to reveal a bigger and more insidious conspiracy, and a higher body count.

Among the questions: Who built the silo and why? Is the outside world really as dangerous as its inhabitants have been told? Why is knowledge of the before times forbidden?

Can Juliette learn the truth without being deposed — or worse — by Sims (Common), the head of the shadowy secret police force known as Judicial?

Each of the episodes ends with a cliffhanger and they ramp up in intensity as the season progresses (since I’m a TV critic I get to watch ahead; I’ve seen eight of 10 episodes so far).

“Silo” has a conspicuous Canadian connection: it was created by Graham Yost, the Toronto-born writer and producer who also created “Justified” and executive-produced “The Americans” and “Slow Horses.”

If you’ve watched the other shows and movies Yost has had a hand in, you’ll know he’s no slouch when it comes to suspense and action, but also nuanced character relationships.

“Silo” features careful world building — the massive structure with its vaguely steampunk esthetic and never-ending spiral staircase is almost a character in itself — and also careful character building.

Ferguson’s Juliette is highly intelligent, intuitive and tenacious. Initially her only goal is to keep the giant generator that powers the silo working — the third episode, in which she and her team have to repair the behemoth on a tight deadline, is utterly tense and thrilling — but she transfers her considerable energy to the mysteries of the higher floors.

The supporting cast are no slouches either, even though some of them are onscreen for far too short a time. Besides Oyelowo and Jones, Will Patton and Chinaza Uche are sheriff’s deputies; Harriet Walter is Juliette’s mentor in the Deep Down; Iain Glen her doctor father; Geraldine James the silo’s long-serving mayor; and Tim Robbins the head of IT.

The silo is vast, as are some of the ruminations it engenders: on individual autonomy vs. societal well-being, on who gets to decide which is more important and why. But the human element of the storytelling in “Silo” keeps it on an easily digestible scale.

‘Sweet Tooth’ at its best when it focuses on its deer-boy hero

Postapocalyptic drama meets fairy tale in “Sweet Tooth,” the Netflix series based on the comic books by Canadian Jeff Lemire.

Set in the United States 10 years after “the Great Crumble,” when a virus known as “the Sick” began wiping out humanity, the heart of the series is hybrid deer-boy Gus, a.k.a. Sweet Tooth, played by Vancouver actor Christian Convery.

Human-animal babies began to be born around the same time the virus emerged and, thus, they were blamed for it and targeted by the remaining human population, particularly a militia known as the Last Men.

Season 1 was essentially a road trip after Gus, left alone by the death of the surrogate father who protected him for the first 10 years of his life, teamed up with jaded ex-football player Tommy “Big Man” Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) to find the woman Gus believed to be his mother, but who was actually the scientist who created him.

In Season 2, Gus has been captured and imprisoned by the Last Men alongside other hybrids. Tommy, wounded during the capture, has teamed up with Aimee (Dania Ramirez), a foster mother to numerous hybrids, to rescue Gus, her daughter Wendy (Naledi Murray), who’s part pig, and the other prisoners.

The second season suffers somewhat from the separation of Gus and Tommy, whose evolving relationship gave the first its emotional heft. There is also a sometimes distracting number of plots and characters, including the search for a cure for the Sick by Dr. Singh (Adeel Akhtar), also imprisoned by the Last Men along with wife Rani (Aliza Vellani).

But when the show returns its focus to Gus, who maintains his heartwarming innocence despite the disappointments of his new world, you remember why you kept watching in the first place.

Debra Yeo is a deputy editor and a contributor to the Star’s Culture section. She is based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @realityeo

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