Apple TV+ just gave me the best sci-fi Christmas gift ever

I've been saying it for a few years now (and I know I'm not the only one), but Apple is building something of a sci-fi empire in the world of streaming. It's easily the best streaming service for fans of the genre, with a bunch of big-budget, high-concept shows to choose from.

While others might prefer the highfalutin nature of Foundation or the more tied-down but still extremely cerebral Severance, which is about to come back, I think Silo is my personal favourite. The second season of this mystery set in huge underground bunkers built to survive a nuclear apocalypse is ongoing right now, but Apple just confirmed some massive news about the show's future.

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It's announced that the show has been renewed for not just one more season, but two in one swoop, meaning that we'll definitely be getting a third and fourth season of the show. That's pretty huge – few shows get that sort of assurance this far in advance, with Slow Horses another example of a show that Apple's backed with multiple seasons at once.

In its press release on the topic, Apple calls Silo a "world-building drama", which I'm tempted to see as an amusing way of getting around just admitting that it's sci-fi. Still, if that sort of broader branding has helped the show find a bigger audience, then Apple should by all means carry on with it.

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Silo's second season has taken some big steps so far, in particular taking the focus away from just its main character Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson), who's off on her own exploring another silo altogether after leaving her home at the end of the show's first season. We now have front-row seats for the beginnings of a rebellion against the silo's leaders, along with a clear view of how those leaders are working to try to keep things bottled up.

That's a good summary of why the show works so well – because its themes aren't necessarily front-and-centre or particularly grand. Rather, it's about quite modest and dense mysteries, and a whole heap of interpersonal dynamics that are well-written and well-acted. I'll certainly be seated for a third and fourth season if it can keep this quality up.