10 Shows To Watch if You Love ‘Silo’

Apple TV+ series Silo is a thrilling sci-fi dystopian drama that has gripped viewers from its first season in 2023. Now in its second season, the show continues to captivate viewers. The premise centers around an underground silo where survivors reside following an apocalyptic event. When an engineer from the lower levels begins to suspect that people aren’t being told the truth about the desolate wasteland outside, she embarks on a dangerous investigation.

For those who are anxiously waiting for the next episodes or season of Silo, there are plenty of great shows to watch in the meantime. These shows have a similar story, theme, or tone, and will likely appeal to fans of Silo as well.

10 ‘Severance’ (2022–)

Created by Dan Erickson

While there’s no apocalyptic event in Severance, the dark and disturbing themes of control over people in every episode of the show fall in line with Silo. In Silo, the authoritarian government in the underground residence controls everything about the people who live there.

In Severance, a biotech company has developed a surgical procedure that can sever a person’s brain so they have a work identity known as their “innie” and a personal life identity called their “outie.” The idea is to force a work-life balance, but some people, like the protagonist Mark (Adam Scott) chooses to have the surgery to get through his workdays without feeling the weight of grief over the loss of his wife. Similarly, both Mark and Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) in Silo are searching for answers based on clues that everything they have come to believe might not be true. Both shows are dark, psychological, and thrilling.

9 ‘Under the Dome’ (2013–2015)

Created by Brian K. Vaughan

Based on the eponymous novel by Stephen King, Under the Dome has a similar premise to Silo, except people live under a massive, transparent dome that has mysteriously formed over their town, cutting them off from contact with the rest of the world. Like residents in the silo, everyone must find a way to survive, but tensions begin to form.

There’s a similar mystery as well with this show as no one knows nor understands how or why the dome formed. In Silo, residents don’t know when or why the siloes were created either, forced to believe what they are told about the dangers of leaving it.

Watch on Paramount+

8 ‘Foundation’ (2021–)

Created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman

Loosely based on the works of Isaac Asimov, Foundation is a sci-fi series with an ensemble cast about a future time whereby a galaxy is run by clones, notably a family known as the Cleons that has ruled for 400 years. When the empire is at risk of falling, however, it’s up to a group to create a foundation that can preserve humanity and its knowledge and innovations.

Foundation has fabulous performances like Silo, though its first season received criticism for the complex plot and confusing time jumps and narration. But the second season was much better received. There’s the same sci-fi feel with this show as Silo along with the idea of a class structure and a group of people desperately trying to protect the sanctity of their leadership.

7 ‘Westworld’ (2016–2022)

Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy

Another dystopian sci-fi Western, Westworld is based on the Michael Crichton 1973 movie. It’s a unique tale about an amusement park designed for adults whereby they can live out every fantasy they desire. Reserved for the wealthy and elite, guests book their time and enjoy the experiences, which range from gunfights to drunken exploits with the women in the local watering hole. It’s terrifyingly realistic. But no one actually gets hurt because all the “people” who work in Westworld are actually android “hosts” programmed to look, feel, and act like humans.

Westworld employs a similar theme of powerful people controlling others. In the case of this show, however, the others just so happen to be robots that start to remember, become sentient, and fight back. That’s likened to how the residents in the silo started moving towards rebellion due to growing distrust of the people in authority.

6 ‘Fallout’ (2024–)

Created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet

Based on the video game of the same name, it’s easy to see the similarities between Fallout and Silo. In both, the earth has become a wasteland that’s virtually uninhabitable. And in both, survivors reside underground. In Fallout, they’re vaults that are far fancier than the silo, with all the creature comforts one might imagine up above, just in a secluded area that’s well below the earth.

The stories are also similar in both first seasons, with Fallout centering around the journey of Lucy (Ella Purnell), a young woman who makes the decision to leave the vault and go outside. She’s searching for her kidnapped father, Like Rebecca in Silo, she encounters a world unlike anything she imagined along with interesting characters who both help and hinder her.

5 ‘The Last of Us’ (2023–)

Created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann

Another post-apocalyptic TV show, The Last of Us is slightly different in that people can survive above ground. However, it’s almost in unsurvivable conditions because there are mutated humans, affected by a deadly virus, that are ravaging survivors. Joel (Pedro Pascal) is a hardened survivor who is reluctantly tasked with transporting a precocious teenager named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to a safe place.

The dynamic between Joel and Ellie is, at times, similar to that of Juliette and Solo (Steve Zahn) in season two of Silo. Overall, both shows are dark and ultimately about survival in dire circumstances, with the Earth nothing like what it was before.

4 ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (2017–)

Created by Bruce Miller

The Handmaid’s Tale is a chilling dystopian series based on the Margaret Atwood novel about a theocratic society that has overtaken parts of the United States, leaving women completely powerless. One of the defining aspects of Gilead, as depicted in the best episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, is that young women are forced to serve as handmaids for wealthy families, effectively used as childbearing slaves.

In Silo, the rules of The Pact aim to control birth versus promote it—women are implanted with chips that prevent them from getting pregnant. Only when approved by the leadership can they have the chip surgically removed and start planning a family. Most awfully, however, women don’t know this. The ones who aren’t approved are lied to, and told the chip was removed when it never was. While the silo doesn’t treat women as poorly as Gilead beyond this, mostly treating people based on a class system regardless of gender, both communities feature oppressive regimes with their own interests a priority.

3 ‘Snowpiercer’ (2020–2024)

Created by Josh Friedman and Graeme Manson

Like Silo, Snowpiercer follows a group of survivors in a unique setting that is required for their survival. In the case of this show, it’s a perpetually moving train that continuously circles the globe. If the train stops and thus fails to provide energy, those aboard would freeze. While everyone aboard is safe, the train also has its own class system, including a group of lowly survivors who managed to get on the train before it departed. These folks, relegated to the basement and doing menial tasks to earn their keep, are reminiscent of the folks down in mechanical in Silo who are often looked down upon.

Like in Silo, many of the residents of the train are also lied to, unaware of just how much wealth and excess exists on the train. Nonetheless, resources are also becoming more limited, and tensions rise, threatening a rebellion like was brewing in Season 2 of Silo.

Watch on AMC+

2 ‘Counterpart’ (2017–2019)

Created by Justin Marks

Counterpart isn’t necessarily similar to Silo in its plot, but the sci-fi thriller theme will appeal to fans of that show. It’s a fascinating story about Howard Silk (J.K. Simmons), a timid office worker at a United Nations agency who realizes he also exists in an alternate world. His alter-ego, Howard Silk Prime, is a clandestine agent with a far stronger personality.

It all comes down to an apocalyptic event when a scientist created a parallel Earth to study. Years later, the Prime world was ravaged by a flu pandemic, and now the world has been set back technologically to 1987 when the experiment first began. A war has broken out between worlds and it’s up to Howard Silk Prime to try and save it.

Created by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Michael Jonathan Smith

Interestingly, while in Silo, Juliette and others are curious about going outside, in Twisted Metal, John Doe (Anthony Mackie) is tempted by the prospect of being invited into a community. The world has been overtaken by an apocalyptic event and it isn’t safe to go outside mostly because of dangerous groups of survivors and scarce resources. Raven (Neve Campbell), the leader of a safe community, promises John entry if he completes one dangerous task for her.

Along the way, John meets Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), a troubled lone survivor similar to Solo in Silo. The pair begin a journey to thwart attacks and complete John’s mission. There are other shows like Twisted Metal and its tone is very different from Silo. It’s much more humorous and playful with dark and violent moments as well. But fans of one may appreciate the other.

Watch on Peacock

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