The Rig (2023)

Watchseries; 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.

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 Rig watchseries. Oh well. In spite of a great premise - creeping horror on an oil rig - this actually turns out to be pretty poor stuff.

For all the histrionics there's just no real drama, only many contrived scenes where the characters are at each other's throats or behave like pantomime villains for no good reason. Perhaps the writers of this tosh assume shouting equals drama, regardless of whether such confrontation is whipped up out of nowhere with no believable point of origin. And I say "characters" - there are no actual characters here, just ciphers for the dreadful plotting. Only Iain Glen manages to make something of his role, with even seasoned pros like Mark Bonnar struggling to play such thin and badly manufactured scripting.

In talented hands The Rig could have been excellent, sadly what's been produced here is an absolute waste of good actors and of the audience's time.

With a strong cast and an intriguing storyline I was actually looking forward to this show. However, even in the first episode there was the all too familiar characters that we have all seen a million times before, including the angry at the company, aggressive, always looking to stir up trouble one.

The far fetched story is the least far fetched thing about this show, as on numerous occasions we see the crew act in such stupid ways as to ruin the whole premise of the show. 'Make sure you stick together', the boss tells them, only for them to split up so something bad can happen to them. Or the discover of something important where they decide to tell a couple of colleagues but not any of the bosses who are trying to get things sorted. Or the Head Engineer/Technician, (so arguably one of the most important people on the rig), been the one who undertakes the most dangerous/life threatening of tasks that anyone else could have done.

The writer of this show was been tipped as a rising star, but if this is his best work, then I hope we don't see anything else from him.

I expect better from Amazon, and this feels more like the badly written stuff I'd expect to see on Netflix.

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.

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.

7/10.

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!