The Reel Review
The crew of a Scottish oil rig in the North Sea is stranded when a mysterious fog envelopes them, severing communications with the outside world. They gradually discover that their drilling into the ocean floor has unleashed a biological nightmare that could kill all life on Earth. Iain Glen and Emily Hampshire star in this supernatural sci-fi/mystery series.
The Rig borrows from several crew-in-peril stories – Alien, The Thing and the much better 2015 sci-fi series Fortitude – just with a much more modest budget and a lot more chatter to fill the six 45-minute episodes. Glen (Game of Thrones) is the tough talking leader of the rig, with Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek) the corporate shill turned Ripley character.
The show looks well enough, with some surprisingly effective visuals despite its limited budget. But characters are so thinly drawn and one dimensional that it is hard to feel invested in any of them. Additionally, the show’s pacing is dreadfully slow, taking forever for anything substantial to happen until its big cliffhanger of a finale.
REEL FACTS
• The Rig is the first Amazon series filmed entirely in Scotland.
• The Rig has been renewed for a second season.
• Several members of The Rig‘s cast previously starred together in Game of Thrones and the TV series Line of Duty.
Video & Photo
