The Rig: Trapped in the fog

0 0 October 15, 2023 Edit this post

by Chris Riley

Filmed entirely in Scotland The Rig brings together familiar faces from other highly rated British television series.

The action takes place aboard the Kinloch Bravo oil rig, located off the Scottish coast in the dangerous waters of the North Sea.

Just as the crew are about to return for some well earned shore leave, all communication is lost and the rig is suddenly enveloped by a strange impenetrable fog that rolls in from the sea.

Ash starts falling from the sky and one of the workers is injured in a fall, and requires urgent medical attention.

He complains of voices in his head.

The crew are pissed, especially after it is revealed the company plans to shut down the rig and they will all soon lose their jobs.

Tempers fray as things start to go wrong and work grinds to a halt.

The Rig is the work of Scottish TV writer, novelist and poet, David Macpherson, who in 2022 was named among the Rising Stars Scotland..

Macpherson says his childhood love of the Alien franchise was an influence on the show, which streams later this year.

In Alien, however, the threat is immediate and lurks around every corner.

In contrast the danger in The Rig is vague and we're not sure if it is dangerous or not?.

Macpherson has also published a comic fantasy novel and still dips into performance poetry after taking his show Odes To Joy to Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018.

The series is directed by John Strickland who has a long string of credits to his name and is the first Amazon Original to be filmed entirely in Scotland.

Those credits include The Murder of Princess Diana, Maigret, The Bill, Clocking Off, Hustle, Line of Duty, and the American series Big Love.

The Rig consists of six 60-minute episodes, with a second season to to come.

With the attractions of its remote, frontier setting and an all-star ensemble cast, The Rig sounds promising.

But it lacks the sophistication, character development and cut-to-scenes of the 2021 Vigil for instance a thriller set on a submarine (also in the North Sea).

The Rig stars Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) as rig manager Magnus MacMillan who is responsible for the day to day running of the oil rig.

Canadian actress Emily Hampshire best known as the ditzy Stevie in the 2015 comedy Schitt's Creek has been oddly cast as Rose Mason, oil scientist, company representative and a new face on the rig (and perhaps a spy)?

He is supported by Martin Compston (Line of Duty) as radio and communications officer Fulmer Hamilton, along with Mark Bonnar (Catastrophe) as Alwyn Evans, an older and experienced crew member with an interest in history, archaeology and Owen Teale (Wolf) as the outspoken union advocate Lars Hutton.

It will be interesting to see where the writers take the series, if anywhere, in the next season.

You can catch The Rig on Prime Video.