The Rig

The Day The
Rig Stood Still

The Rig
2023 UK
Six episodes January 6th release

Warning: The spoilers wake...

It’s funny.... I’ve never been that happy with Iain Glen as an actor for some reason... before now, that is. I guess I saw him playing a bunch of villain roles in Hollywood movies and always confused not liking the character with the actor playing with him. I’m ashamed for making that very obvious mistake, especially at my age in life but, there you go, that’s how it is... or rather, that’s how it was. Now though, I’ve seen him play a kind of anti-heroic, could go either way character in the new TV show The Rig and, I have to hand it to him, he’s excellent in this and I respect him a hell of a lot more as an actor. I’ll need to keep an eye out for some of the other stuff he’s done. He’s great here.

That being said, The Rig is not primarily Glen’s show, for sure. It’s one of those stories which has several ‘heroes’ (for want of a better word and before I start to wear out ‘protagonist’ as my regular substitute) and it’s a brilliant ensemble piece which lets you figure out just who the heroes and villains are and, well, like all good drama, it’s not that black and white with a lot of the characters.

Now, apart from Glen, I didn’t know any of the other names in this show but I sure recognised a lot of them. I’ve probably seen most of them here or there in other things so we have the likes of Emily Hampshire (oh right, just looked her up, I recognised her from Chapelwaite, the review of which will eventually pitch up here on this blog when I can schedule it in), Molly Vevers, Abraham Popoola, Rochenda Sandall, Martin Compston, Mark Bonnar, Mark Addy and Owen Teale. And they all, including many others in the cast (hey, I’m not going to do a huge list here), seemed like old friends to me. They are all obviously classic character actors and are absolutely perfect as an ensemble cast for this kind of thing. And Owen Teale, especially, should win the award for most ignorant and sustainably angriest man in existence here... he plays the wild card roguish element very well but, it’s the old ‘heart in the right place’ character option for him and I kind of appreciated the bluff and powder keg element he brings to the show.

The story is a slow burn of sorts although, when you think about what’s covered, you realise that there’s actually a fair amount going on in terms of character progression. The show appealed to me because it looked like it was going to play as something like another variant of The Thing, just set on an oil rig but, yeah, it’s actually a little more than that and, like a lot of the elements in the show, the perceived threat to the crew is not necessarily what it seems. The fact that Mark Bonnar’s reading a copy of John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes in the first couple of episodes is a bit of a giveaway and there’s definitely an ‘ancient ones’ Cthulhu vibe going on in the show as well. Without giving too much away, I would call this a kind of aquatic version of The Day The Earth Stood Still but, with the ‘alien’ life form pulling no punches and not hesitating in wiping out life on the planet if it’s not being listened to. So, yeah, there’s obviously a strong, environmental, ‘save the planet’ kind of thread running through the tale too.

One of the things which, at first, disappointed me and then fascinated me is that, as I intimated earlier, the characters are not clear cut. For example, Iain Glens character towards the end of the show seems to be vacillating between different courses of action in terms of attempting to find a way for his crew to survive a certain threat. One minute he’s going to go with the lead of the obligatory ‘human villain’ character, introduced at the start of episode four and then, suddenly looking at another option which presents itself. And then I realised that this is a nice touch by the writers because, asides from the tension created by not knowing with whom his character will side with, it certainly reflects the stresses and lack of clarity of real life, to some extent.

At the end of the day, I have to say that while The Rig isn’t the most spectacular show on television (although it does have some amazingly well designed shots, such as the longish opening shot of the first episode), it is quite good science fiction and the gradual unfolding of the story coupled with, as I said, a whole host of great actors, kept me entertained. What mainly disappointed me was the fact that it turned out to not be a mini series but, instead, leaves it all on a bit of a cliff hanger as to what will happen next. Thankfully, the show has just been renewed for a second season.

The thing is... and this is where the spoiler warning comes in folks, stop reading if you don’t want to know... I’m just not sure what more the writers could possibly have to say about the subject to sustain another series. At the end of the show, we witness a handful of survivors being taken away in two helicopters at the prelude of an ‘extinction level event’, as a huge tidal wave, the grand daddy of tsunamis, is about to wipe out Great Britain and, quite possibly, the rest of the world too. The Rig is quite badly destroyed by the start of this wave and then the survivors in the helicopters get hit with the revelation that the helicopter isn’t taking them home (probably wise, actually, since their homes are about to exist only under many fathoms under water) but somewhere else. But where? Such mystery. Well, I hate to be one of ‘those’ people but, since the majority of the land is about to be wiped out and the title of the show is... well... The Rig... I’m putting my money on the helicopters landing at another rig before long because, yeah, where else would they be going unless they want to change the title of the show and lose viewers who wouldn’t realise? We shall see, I guess. I’m hoping series two isn’t all that far away because, post pandemic (yeah, right, like that’s over), the gaps between seasons in TV shows seem to be getting so large that I often forget what happened last time around, in many cases. But, yeah, I think The Rig is worth a watch and I’m glad I saw this one.