The Rig: Dans le brouillard des abysses

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.)

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.

I must be in the minority on this one and I'm sure lots of people who disagree with me will downvote this review in disgust or perhaps because they can't accept that other people might enjoy something that they didn't enjoy and they want their opinion's constantly reflected back to them.

But... I thoroughly enjoyed this and watched the first 3 together and would rate those 8 for enjoyment. Ep 4 was ok and the last 2 didn't enjoy as much and I found the climate messaging to be hamfisted and a bit preachy but as I say I did actually enjoy it overall and not really sure why people seem to be down down on this show.

I'd give it a go if you haven't tried it. Love the actors too especially the GoT brethren.

The problem with the series is symptomatic of most of the big streaming giants. Good idea, great cast, adequate budget - then no idea of how a script develops. Six episodes for this was far too much, leaving the plotline long and dawn out. The character development is minimal and rudimentary and ends up with generalised cliche and arguments that they need to sustain conflict.

Owen Teale, Iain Glenn, Mark Addy and the effortlessly brilliant Mark Bonar are great. It's just the whole thing is drawn out, under developed and with four episodes the whole thing would have been tighter and the cgi budget more targeted. Not great.

I found this to be very easy watching,but there are several things that stopped it from being really good.

Won't mention any names,but some of the acting, including from fairly major characters, was truly lamentable and stopped this from being believable! Seemed to me that they were more schooled in stage acting than film/TV productions, with wildly over the top facial expressions at times!

Also, at times it didn't feel like it was filmed on an oil rig at all,I don't know if it was or it wasn't,but at times it had a stagey/set feel about it which took away from the feeling of isolation,that to me, it should have had.

Having said all this,it was an easy watch,just switch your brain off before you start viewing, and don't question it too much. I'm sure some of the bigger names in this might leave it off their CV though!