The Rig

After 40 years working on North Sea oil production platforms I was quite happy with the "1st Generation" oil rig sets, and the reasonably acurate patter. Remember lighting the flare with a shotgun. Just brushed over the lack of safety glasses and lack of oil risers. Visually good, however the story was not great. Stephen King's "The Mist" probably did it better.

Nice touch that most of the actors are named after North Sea oil fields.

Iain Glen - Magnus Molly Vevers - Heather Richard Pepple - Dunlin Martin Compston - Fulmer Owen Teale - Hutton Stuart McQuarrie - Murchison Mark Bonnar - Alwyn.

My wife and I binged watched this over 3 nights, and it certainly started well, with an interesting premise, but then, it just became a bit weird. That's not to say it didn't keep us interested though, you kind of want to know what's going to happen next all of the way through, but not in a way that made it compelling, more curious to see what they were aiming for with the writing. I will also say that some of the effects were pretty shoddy, which, in this day and age, is unecessary. In the end, I thought it was a load of clichéd nonsense, which, while well acted and written, was a great disappointment.

The two main things that let this drama down are the poor script and the dreadful visual effects. You don't empathise with any of the characters therefore you don't actually care what happens to them with little to no suspense. As for the visual effects, very poor. It is so obvious this was filmed on a set. The lighting is all wrong and actually takes you out of the story it's so bad. There are a number of great actors in this drama but some seem miscast and the others are trying their best with the poor writing. The story isn't new, it's just a few ideas from a selection of 80's movies cobbled together.

Strange things happen on an oil rig in the middle of the sea when a strange fog descends, and a member of the crew suffers an accident.

The much anticipated Rig is one of those shows that you could easily watch in one gulp, it's very watchable, action packed and fast paced, the comments relate to series one, word on series two comes at the end.

If you're a Doctor Who fan, and know Fury from The Deep, it's quite a similar storyline, it has that kind of vibe, I spent the first couple of episodes wondering exactly what was going on, was it a thriller, a mystery, it doesn't really fit one genre, it covers quite a few.

Some wonderful visuals and special effects, this series is jam packed with atmosphere, you get a real sense of claustrophobia here.

Billed very much as The Martin Compston series, and he is good, but in the first few episodes he's not hugely present, it's Owen Teale that stands out early on, but Compston does come into his own later on.

I won't argue that it's brilliant, there are quite a few flaws, but I did think it was very good. Watch the first series, but stop there.

Edit for series 2 as of 04.01.25, they should have kept it at just one series, the second run doesn't know where to go, and runs out of mileage very quickly, the characters undergo major changes, the script felt very lazy and disjointed.

7/10. (Series one, Series two gets a 4/10.)

Sure the plot has holes, the characters lack character but all in all the effort was there to deliver a reasonable series with some plot to look for. Maybe an 8/10

But then Rose comes along ... why but why does it have to become a child's play with absolutely ridiculous amount of head movements, amazing amounts of deep breathing and attempts to move facial parts that, let's be honest, can no-longer move. Sorry the deep "sexy" voice did not save it either. Simpler natural "human" discussions would have gone a long way to save the show.

Visual effects btw did a good job (nothing is perfect) and the soundtrack could be less repetitive...

PS: congrats to the chef, doctor, shooter and welder role in one character (wonder if it was a budget issue) ... rofl

PS2: when you literally click the cancel button on a search window you are cancelling the search... duh .. no point showing "no search results". A simple clip of the scene and the "click"... hahah.