Been binging Silo this week (a light binge, 1 episode per day), and they are continually cutting to the distant past to explain the events in the Silos of the future (our main story). In Silo world, the outside is toxic, and there most of life on Earth has perished. The flashbacks have a unique opportunity to both root us in the world that we have not seen in Silo for 2 seasons. What do the writers choose to focus on? Coffee. Coffee machines. Coffee dates. Coffee is everywhere, as are parks, grass and trees around DC. While they do not dwell on those small moments (the subjects in the past have no idea they are experiencing some of the last coffee shops in the world) we the viewers are attuned to seeing these everyday things with an amplified lens. Think of how the “artifacts” like the PEZ dispenser, magazines are valued. The world of the past looks like excess. Trying not to give away any spoilers here. But the show has taken an interesting turn years into the narrative to reflect on the world that was, and how its small moments (and innovations like the weaponized poisons) are shaping the main problems of the future.
