Have You Been Watching…? The Rig
I got terribly excited when I first heard of Amazon Prime’s
supernatural thriller The Rig. A “Base Under Siege” story set on board an oil
rig, where something in the water is a-stirring. The 6 part series has a stellar
cast, including Game Of Thrones’ Iain Glen and Owen Teale, Line of Duty’s
Martin Compston, Scottish actor Mark Bonnar from BBC's Paradox (and sci-fi fans
might know him from many Big Finish productions), The Full Monty’s Mark Addy
and Shitt’s Creek’s Emily Hampshire. The series comes from the pen of Scottish
writer Daniel MacPherson, and is an original series, not based on any of his
published works.
The entire 6 part saga dropped on Amazon Prime on 6th
January 2023. Writing about this will be difficult without divulging spoilers,
so BE WARNED!
The crew of the Kinloch Bravo are awaiting transport back to
land to see their loved ones when “something” occurs. Transport isn’t coming
and a strange cloud formation begins to roll in, enveloping the rig. A series
of strange occurrences begin to take place, loyalties and friendships are
tested, and the crew begin to wonder if what’s happening on board is truly
supernatural or more of this earth. People die and the whole thing has a
feeling of the old Dr Who serial “Fury From The Deep”.
The series is great to look at with great sets, great CGI and
effects work and top notch performances all around. However, I found many
things that take place are so ridiculous that it took me out of the drama. The
series is also possibly too long. I found Episode 4 a slog to watch and came
across as padding to get the series up to it’s 6 episode quota. It’s also a
frustrating watch. These sensible and hard working people make the most bizarre
decisions and you can almost see the “this is to progress the plot” signs
throughout. For instance, what Owen Teale’s slimy character Hutton gets up to
is not only staggeringly unbelievable, but impossible that
repercussions don’t take place. Rather than the plot fluidly taking place,
there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief required. I generally don’t mind that,
sometimes a good sci-fi yarns requires it, but when it clunks along and makes
you want to bang their heads together, it’s not a fun ride.
The last two episodes make a good job of tying the mysteries
together, but sadly, there’s a few scenes that just don’t make sense and
clearly just set the whole thing up for a second series. Although I wonder
where a second series of this plot can go, it does end on a sequence I
didn’t think would come and took me pleasantly by surprise.
That being said, the whole series isn’t awful, it’s just not
great either. I do want to see where the series will take the viewer, and I
thoroughly enjoyed some of the characters, despite my frustrations at their
actions. Maybe being stuck on an oil rig while all this is going on does affect
your decision making skills!
It’s worth tuning in for, but I would probably advise
against binge-watching it and spread it out, otherwise you too may find
yourself getting frustrated!
Series count: 1
Episode count: 6
Availability: all 6 episodes available to stream on Amazon
Prime.
