Apple TV’s ‘Silo’ Just Proved Every Streamer Has Been Doing This Wrong

Keeping up with your favorite TV shows can feel like a chore these days, and everyone has a different idea of the main culprit. Juggling streaming subscriptions can be annoying, and the dwindling episode counts of seasons is frustrating, but these are nothing compared to the arduous wait between seasons of prestige shows. Apple TV is addressing that issue head on with Silo. On Saturday, the streamer announced that Silo Season 4 will premiere in the summer of 2027, less than a year after Season 3 finishes. It’s hard to accept that the show will be ending with just one more season, but the short wait for the finale eases the pain a bit.

Silo premiered on Apple TV in the spring of 2023, and it has debuted a bit more consistently than many other prestige dramas these days. Still, the show didn’t manage to stay on a yearly schedule — Season 2 came in the fall of 2024, and Season 3 didn’t return until just this month. Thankfully, Apple waited until the end to invest in back-to-back filming by green-lighting Season 4 early. It began filming last summer, and is now on track to premiere next year, bringing this dystopian sci-fi mystery to a close while its still fresh in fans’ minds.

‘Silo’ Deserves a Quick Turn-Around

Image via Apple TV+

The issue of long gaps between seasons is a common complaint of the streaming era, and it’s a bigger detriment than you might think at first glance. Streamers aren’t constrained by the availability of airtime on broadcast TV or cable, which means they can time their biggest releases in the same way studios schedule blockbuster movies. They can also take their time to invest a lot in a show, then analyze its performance before deciding whether to renew it, or how much to spend on it.

Still, on fans’ end, a two-year gap can completely kill the momentum of a great story. It’s frustrating to “catch up” on a show you watched faithfully the first time. It adds to the feeling that entertainment is like homework for your social life, widening the rift between a “comfort-watch” and “prestige TV.” Streamers have even tried to play into this phenomenon by releasing lengthy recap featurettes before a new season premieres, or inviting fans to come back and re-watch the previous season a few weeks in advance.

This is all especially arduous for shows like Silo — mysteries with intricate plots and lots of little details to keep track of. Out of all the shows that deserve a quick turn-around, it’s this one. The show has expertly built up its central mysteries for years now, and the grand reveal should feel sensational. It’s hard to believe Apple broke the mold by green-lighting the show early, but it was one of the best investments the streamer has ever made.

‘Silo’ Could Set a Precedent For Other Streamers

Image via Apple TV

Hopefully, Apple follows through on this move by paying close attention to the engagement around Silo Season 4. If the series finale is a critical and commercial hit, it should be taken as an sign for streamers to renew shows earlier and allow creators to keep their momentum going when it counts the most. Apple itself could benefit from this strategy, but all the major streamers these days have at least one big production that suffered due to the long gap between renewals.

Streaming executives should not see this as optional. The companies are cracking down on password-sharing and spacing out their releases in the hopes of keeping fans subscribed at all times, fearing that their industry is approaching an economic “bubble burst” with no more room for growth. Hopefully, they understand that fans would be less likely to lose interest in shows if they were released more consistently. It’s not just a preference, it’s essential to the impact of the art itself, and it’s the best way the studios can keep fans hooked. However, it requires them to gamble bigger on shows before they can see every little nuance of the ratings and metrics.

Silo should be the perfect test case. The dystopian sci-fi series has laid down the perfect foundation for a big finale, and even those who have read the original books by Hugh Howey are on the edges of their seats waiting to see how it will wrap up on screen. The show has six more episodes to go in Season 3, concluding on Friday, September 4th. Season 4 will come with ten more episodes.

For now, there’s plenty to contend with in Silo 18, and plenty of mysteries to mull over in the months between seasons. You can catch Silo Season 3 airing on Fridays on Apple TV. Previous seasons are streaming there now, and Howey’s books are available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.

Release Date

May 5, 2023

Network

Apple TV

Showrunner

Graham Yost

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