The third season of Apple TV’s hit series Silo has finally arrived and it’s already a big hit. The new season, as of this writing, has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes as we dive back into the sci-fi series based on the books by Hugh Howey. However, rather than this being a slam dunk where the critics and audiences agree, the opposite is turning out to be true. Critics love Season 3, but fans, not so much. The audience rating is presently sitting at just 60%—the lowest for the series to date—and the discourse online matches that. Granted, we’re just one episode into the new season, but so far, fans just aren’t buying it.
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So, what gives? What is causing the gulf between the critical praise and the fan disdain? Is this a case of review bombing on the audience side of things, or is there a more significant and more legitimate critique coming from audiences that deserves a closer look? Let’s break it down and figure out what exactly is going on with one of Apple TV’s best series. And warning: there will be spoilers for Season 3 of Silo beyond this point.
Silo Season 3 Deviates From the Book and Introduces an Amnesia Storyline Fans Aren’t Down With
While there has always been some disparity between critics and audiences when it comes to Silo, Season 3 seems to have the biggest and it seems like there might be some merit to it. Going into Season 3 of the series, audiences already knew thanks to trailers and teasers that we’d be getting an amnesia plot for Juliette (Rebeca Ferguson) which already had audiences a little skeptical and for good reason. That sort of twists in television can often feel a bit forced and like an unnatural way to reset or reboot a character development and, in some cases, prolong a series or story beyond what it would naturally run. And with Season 3’s premiere, many fans feel that is exactly what is happening here. Season 2 ended with some major developments for Juliette as a character as well as the overall story, with Juliette right on the verge of saving Silo 18 from the Safeguard Procedure. But when we pick up Season 3, three months have passed and Juliette is mayor, has no memory of what happened before. Instead of the head of rebellion, she’s now Camille’s puppet and it is jarring and frustrating—especially for fans who are familiar with the books as this is an event that does not happen in those.
While the episode does tie the amnesia to previous storylines and suggests that they won’t take it too far, for many viewers it already feels too cliche and messes with the forward motion of the overall story. That is something that is already being messed with as the season seems to be further deviating from the books by heavily going in on historical flashbacks to show us how we got to the silos in the first place. For critics, this makes for rich world and lore building, but for some fans, it feels unnecessary and like the story is being stretched out. Some have said it feels like building filler episodes into normal episodes to stretch out the story in a series that already doesn’t have the best pacing as one of Silo’s hallmarks is that, unlike many sci-fi series that are fast paced with high stakes, this one is more of a slow burn that is character driven. Dragging things even further down while also going off book (literally) just doesn’t work for many.
But Critics May Know Something Regular Audiences Don’t However (And Patience Could Pay Off)
However, while audiences right now don’t seem to particularly agree with the critical assessment of Season 3 of Silo, it is also worth noting that critics have a bit of an advantage here that the regular audiences simply doesn’t: they’ve gotten to see more than one episode. For most audiences, all they have seen at the time of this writing is the season premiere. That means that their reaction is based entirely off of one episode and, as such, a lot of assumptions that this one episode is going to be how the season plays out in full. Critics, on the other hand, have seen more of the season and have a more bird’s eye view of where the story is going and can more accurately determine if the amnesia plot gamble and the flashback timeline element pay off.
At this point, how Season 3 of Silo will end up resonating for audiences will simply have to play out. It is very possible and almost even likely that we’ll see some fluctuation with audience response to the season as it continues and the story has a chance to gel. It’s incredibly difficult to judge a full season of television by just one episode. It will be very interesting to see where things land by the time we get to the Season 3 finale in September.
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