Shot by Shot Reviews of Film and TV

I’ve combined the reviews of these two shows because they have similar strengths and the same weaknesses. They also share one major downside, which I explain along with a potential solution.

Let me begin with the good news.

Silo and From are apples and oranges. They are different and they have simple shapes and colors. Similarly, as TV shows they are separate, with relatively straightforward concepts.

Silo is Apple TV show set in an enormous underground bunker, which is the whole world to thousands of people going about their lives, until a series of events has one of them begin to unravel the fabric of lies that make up their world. From is an MGM+ show about a mysterious town in a strange land where people are mysteriously trapped with monsters and paradoxes. From has the same skeleton (and one of the stars) as Lost, which isn’t a bad thing because the joy of Lost was the unfolding mystery. But share the skeleton for its strengths, and you inherit its handicaps as well.

Lost’s secondary handicap was in the pay-offs, which means that despite the tantalizing mysteries that are the trail of delicious breadcrumbs leading to said pay-off, if that pay-off is no more than a pile of polar bear dung, you come away feeling the whole thing was a sham. The fact of the matter is, the pay-offs needed to “bear” that burden only because of Lost’s primary handicap – its premise, or rather the limitation of its premise (straightforward as with Silo and From). A group of people is trapped on a mysterious island and trying to get off it and back home. This meant that once they escaped, the show was over; which meant, for the show to go on, it did not want them to escape; which inevitably became obvious to the audience as the plot contrivances began to rear their ugly heads in order to keep the characters on the island and in the show.

From suffers both these handicaps. The first two seasons showed promise, and I was fooled into believing the writers had plans to overcome Lost’s limitations. Unfortunately, as with season 3 of Lost, season 3 of From is where the threads have begun to unravel.

Silo shares Lost’s and From’s secondary handicap, i.e., the quality of its payoffs. But its primary handicap differs, since the characters in Silo have no “home” to escape to. This is a plus because what lies outside is also a mystery. Therefore, there’s no obvious finish line. Get out of the Silo, and there is a whole other world to explore outside. So, Silo’s primary handicap is different from Lost or From. However, it is unfortunate that, as with the other two, its premise, while better framed, has its own built-in primary handicap. Which brings me to the strange ongoing trend in Hollywood revolving around constructed worlds that the subjects must break out from – Silo, Severance, Westworld, From(?), Skeleton Crew, Fallout… and you will observe that these all share the same primary handicap. They are each at the mercy of the filmmaker’s agenda.

If you want to avoid spoilers skip below to the sub-heading “The Trouble with 2024” where I cover the main problem with these two shows, and the solution.

It is a fascinating exercise to take each of these shows apart and examine their agendas in the clear light of day. Westworld’s agenda shifts from exploitation (free will) to invasion of privacy to gobbledygook. Its solutions for exploitation? Violent revolution. For invasion of privacy? Violent revolution. Gobbledygook? Violent revolution. Fallout has one of the creators of Westworld, so it might travel along the same rail lines. It is tricky to judge shows like it and Severance that have had only one season so far, so I’ll leave that to future me. Silo, though, is in its second season, and its agenda seems oddly specific—maybe we’re being manipulated and herded by society for our own good, and chasing conspiracy theories down rabbit holes might lead to our doom. Is this buyer’s remorse after a pretty well-done Season 1? From’s agenda (so far with its third season) seems to be that the real monsters of this world are born out of our imaginations.

The Trouble with 2024

The trouble with shows in 2024 is that they were made in 2023, which suffered a months-long writer’s strike in Hollywood. Season 2 of Silo and Season 3 of From are infected with the same ailment – No-story-itis. The plot-line of a quarter of a normal season is stretched to fill an entire season, and it shows. Where once, the plot moved at a brisk pace and had us overlook the inherent handicaps I’ve detailed, now there is an entire season of characters having long-winded conversations giving us way too much time to dwell on them. It isn’t a good sign when each episode can be summarized in three lines, and you are following a dozen characters. I’ve repeatedly switched the new seasons off in disgust and watched something with consistent entertainment value like old seasons of My Cat from Hell, only to return reluctantly a few days later and fast forward through an entire new season episode in a brisk 5 minutes, which means that was all the content that was there to begin with.

It makes no sense why the filmmakers would take such a risk on their hard-won goodwill from the previous season or seasons. I hope it was only because they were contractually obligated to deliver a new season or else be canceled, which forced their hand. Otherwise, they have just kneecapped two good shows for nothing. If, however, the reason was that the producers assumed they could do just as well without the writers during the strike, they were very wrong.

Now we come to the solution I have to offer. And like most solutions, it is no secret. To make a good film or TV show, you need good writers, at the very least. Without them, no matter how good your director, cast, or crew, you will deliver roadkill, or worse – a zombie! – as these two dismal seasons prove. It is unfortunate that the damage done might already be fatal, story-wise, just as it was with Lost and its third season. But my hope is that they will right their course next season and soon find their way yet again. And no longer be Lost.