The Apple TV series Silo is a thrilling sci-fi dystopian drama that has gripped viewers since its first season in 2023. Now in its third 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 episode 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.
15 'Station Eleven' (2021–2022)
HBO has been behind several of the greatest miniseries of the 21st century, and the post-apocalyptic dystopian drama Station Eleven is definitely among them. It's one of the best sci-fi shows with just 10 episodes, based on Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel's must-read novel of the same name. It was a critical hit upon release, and four years after its conclusion, it's still one of the best sci-fi miniseries in recent memory.
Much like Silo, Station Eleven is a prestigious adaptation of a great dystopian novel exploring humanity's complex response to global societal collapse. That alone should be enough to bring Silo fans straight to Station Eleven, where they'll discover a refreshingly different approach to that sort of premise: Slow-burning, character-driven, and beautifully poetic, this miniseries is all about finding meaning through art even in the midst of such devastation. —Diego Pineda Pacheco
14 'Outer Range' (2022–2024)
So far, the 2020s have been an excellent decade for Western and Western-coded TV shows, which is where Outer Range comes in. This sci-fi neo-Western starring Josh Brolin and Imogen Poots is one of Prime Video's best science fiction shows to date, and even in spite of its untimely cancellation after only two seasons, it's still very much worth watching today.
Anchored by Brolin and Poots' exceptional performances, as well as a tone that blends Western and sci-fi mystery elements masterfully, Outer Range stands out as one of the best "mystery box"-style shows of the last decade. People who love the mystery, paranoia, and existential dread surrounding Silo are pretty much guaranteed to enjoy Outer Range as well. —Diego Pineda Pacheco
13 'Severance' (2022–Present)
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), choose 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.
12 'Under the Dome' (2013–2015)
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.
11 'Foundation' (2021–Present)
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.
10 'Westworld' (2016–2022)
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.
9 'Fallout' (2024–Present)
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.
8 'The Last of Us' (2023–Present)
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.
7 'The Handmaid's Tale' (2017–2025)
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 as a priority.
6 'Snowpiercer' (2020–2024)
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.