Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 2.5/5 Episode 2 -|Review Score – 2.5/5 Episode 3 -|Review Score – 2.5/5 Episode 4 -|Review Score – 2/5 Episode 5 -|Review Score – 1.5/5 Episode 6 -|Review Score – 2/5 The Rig is billed as a “big-budget” project but you’ll be hard-pressed to find any of that money here. With CGI that looks like it’s ripped right from an early 90’s project and a derivative narrative that can’t even remember its own plot, The Rig is a disaster-class in how not to write a TV show. Given we’re only 6 days into the year, this could be a contender for one of the worst shows this year. And that’s shocking given the sheer wealth of talent behind this project – at least in front of the camera anyway. Lets get to the positives first, because The Rig has an all-star cast who give their absolute all here. Iain Glen, Richard Pepple, Owen Teale, Mark Bonnar and Mark Addy are all fantastic in their roles. The others aren’t bad either but these guys really bring their A-game and they do their best to elevate the material they’re given. And that’s annoying in many ways because the writing and the narrative are poor across the board, despite a promising premise. The story centers on a group of workers off on a remote Scottish oil rig called Kinloch Bravo. They’re all ready to leave for the mainland, along with their comrades over on Kinloch Charlie. However, weird tremors from below the rig, coupled with a thick blanket of fog and strange ash, cause all sorts of problem that soon link themselves to something far worse and more dangerous on the horizon. As the group work to figure out what this may be, one of the men called Baz, finds himself experiencing horrific visions linked to something on the sea bed. The first chapter actually does a half-decent job of building up a mystery before this one falls into derivative waters, borrowing tried and tested concepts that have already been done better elsewhere for decades… and somehow doing them worse. Nightflyers, The Thing and Origin have all tackled everything this show plays with, and that’s before mentioning shows like The Expanse, which this show has cleared been influenced by, especially late on in the game. I’m not about to spoil what happens but if you thought the writing early on is shaky, wait until episodes 5 and 6. While the narrative could have been saved with some neat set pieces, The Rig has none to speak of. In fact, the few dramatic moments it has are completely undercut by the show’s inability to remember its own internal logic. For example, we learn early on that the oil rig has cameras all over the place, except for certain areas that the crew has to explore for themselves. And yet, in episode 5 we see the cameras pointing at the exact areas the crew explored earlier on. Another time, we learn the food needs to be rationed and they don’t have much left. Magnus, the man in charge, tasks the chef with cutting down on food portions… but yet this plot point is never touched on again. It’s briefly mentioned in passing but there’s still mountains of food on plates. These sort of niggling issues continue right the way through to more basic and logical moments, including characters acting smart in one scene and then needlessly foolish and dumb in another to drive the narrative forward. At one point a handful of characters are forced to wear oxygen tanks as they head into a deadly area…but they don’t wear gloves and their sleeves are baggy. And lo and behold, one of the characters gets blood on his hands. So what of the dialogue? Well… it’s not much better. “I wasn’t notified Research & Expansion were in this field. What is it you’re doing here?” Rose retorts late on, “Research.” Is the reply. This isn’t played for laughs though, it’s a genuine line of dialogue in the show. To be fair, there will be some who love The Rig . It’s the sort of cheesy, breezy series you can stick on in the background without really thinking too hard about… or just watching while you’re scrolling through social media watching funny videos. For everyone else, skip this one. The writing is sloppy, the characters poorly developed and the entire production design looks cheap and under-funded…despite this being an alleged big budget production. It’s a shame for sure but this is definitely one to avoid.
