(TV SERIES) The Rig Season 1 - An OK Mystery Thriller Drama Series though Lacked the Intensity to Make it More Interesting

I was quite intrigued by the premise of this series that was just released on Prime Video few days ago. Plus it only consisted of 6 episodes so I thought it would be very fast to complete. Anyway I started watching on Sunday and finished it in 2 nights. So here's more on the series.

Brief Story Line

Kinloch Bravo was one of the oil rigs located in the North Sea that was operated by a major oil company for twenty years. The crews were led by their Offshore Installation Manager Magnus (Iain Glen - Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Black Beauty etc) together with the company's representative named Rose (Emily Hampshire - 12 Monkeys TV series, Schitt's Creek sitcom etc). There were also the Safety Manager Dunlin (Richard Pepple), HR Manager Alwynn (Mark Bonnar - Unforgotten TV series etc), Cat Braithwhite the medic (Rochenda Sandall), Fulmer who was in charge of communication and equipment (Martin Compston - The Hunter's Prayer, Traces TV series etc), the senior crew Hutton (Owen Teale - Dream Horse etc) and plenty other people.

Few of the crews were getting ready for their break to return home, including Baz (Calvin Demba). Unfortunately it was put on hold due to weather, and while waiting for the condition to get better, a huge mysterious fog suddenly reached the rig, covering the whole place and resulted to loss of communication. Something strange then began to happen on the rig that endanger the crews who were stuck there.

So what would happen to the crews? You could find out in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

To be honest, I wanted to give this a try as I am quite a sucker for mystery thriller in confined space like this one. But another reason was I really thought this was a mini series where everything would be concluded in the end. So I was a bit surprised and frankly a little disappointed when the series had a rather open ended finale and seemed to hint a possible further story in the future (probably with the hope it will be renewed for a second season). 

Anyway the series started off with a bit of introduction of the crews which was OK as it was not very long till something mysterious began. And by the mid of the first episode, I was already intrigued of what was happening there, especially when there was a rather shocking occurrence towards the end of that episode. Subsequently though, the story did not become as fast paced as I would have hoped for. As I continued watching, slowly there were some revelations on the phenomenon on the rig, but somehow I could not feel real excitement throughout the whole season. Not sure if it was because of the slow pace or there was not enough intense moments. Only in the fifth episode that there was a bit of suspense and also an interesting development. 

In the opening and closing credits of the series, I noticed that it was created by David Macpherson and nothing mentioned about what it was based on. I am not familiar with his work and looking at the internet, it did seem that this was the first series he ever created. For me the cast were the ones that made the story quite interesting, especially Iain Glen whom I was already familiar with and convincing in his role. Emily Hampshire was also pretty good as the company representative caught in this situation. 

The setting of the series was very good to my opinion with the rig looking quite authentic. Although few times the CGI effect looked pretty obvious, in general it was adequate for a TV series. I read also that this is the first Amazon original series entirely shot in Scotland. The sound effect was OK providing one or two jump scare scenes that were quite effective. Each episode had duration of around 50 minutes give or take so if you continue watching the whole 6 episodes, it would take you roughly 5 hours to finish.

Overall to me this was a mystery thriller drama that was not bad, but not up to the standard I was hoping for (I would have liked it better if it was a bit like that amazing 1982 movie The Thing). The mystery was quite intriguing but it lacked the suspense and total intensity even towards the season finale. But the biggest let down for me was the non conclusive ending (though it was probably a bit of my fault for not finding out more on the series). And till the day I posted this, there is still no confirmation if there will be a second season. So if you are interested in this kind of supernatural mystery thriller drama series set in an oil rig, then you can give it a try. With more people watching, there is a chance it will be renewed.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars