The Rig delivers an enjoyable eco-horror series with a retro vibe and certainly deserves more attention than it has received so far.
What Is It?
In Season 1 of The Rig, a dense fog descends upon the Kinloch Bravo oil rig off the coast of Scotland, causing communications to be cut off and strange phenomena to occur. As the crew struggles to understand what is happening, they are forced to confront not just the forces of nature, but something ancient and possibly sentient beneath the sea.
(SPOILER ALERT) After the catastrophic events of Season 1, the second season follows the surviving crew members as they are taken to a secret offshore facility near the Arctic Circle called The Stac, where they discover the crisis may be far from over. As new information is uncovered, they face powerful forces—both human and otherwise—determined to exploit or suppress the truth. The stakes escalate in this deeper dive into ecological catastrophe, corporate coverups, and the unknown entities influencing both.
Starring: Iain Glen, Emily Hampshire, Martin Compston, Mark Bonnar, Mark Addy, Alice Krige
Created By: David Macpherson
Johnny Jay’s Thoughts:
(Minor spoilers to follow.) When The Rig first premiered on Amazon’s Prime Video in early 2023, I decided to give it a look out of curiosity and quickly found myself hooked. It had a retro vibe, recalling ’70s eco-horror films such as Food of the Gods, The Day of the Animals, and Prophecy. It also had just enough cheesiness to comfortably place the series within that B-movie subgenre.
The show establishes a creepy atmosphere right away, as well as a sense of isolation, as the crew of the Kinloch Bravo begins to encounter strange events in a distant and desolate part of the ocean. And just as you would expect from this sort of production, the weirdness slowly ramps up—as does the body count. The stakes increase, and the people aboard the rig eventually learn that what they are encountering threatens the entire world. I won’t completely spoil that first season for you in case you haven’t seen it (and many have not), but things do escalate quickly as it wraps up.
The second season finds the survivors of Kinloch Bravo transported to a new rig in the Arctic Circle and given the choice to continue working for the company or sign an agreement to remain silent about the events they have witnessed. At this new facility, attempts are being made to establish contact with the entity—but we quickly learn this is not a scientific mission. The company is more interested in stripping the Arctic Ocean of its resources, putting those onboard The Stac at odds with the ancient presence underwater and setting up a second confrontation.
If you enjoyed the first season of The Rig, you should find plenty to like in the show’s second year. It does feel like a reset at first, prepping us for what seems like a by-the-numbers sequel. But the show starts to take some twists and turns, while also digging deeper into the motives of Pictor Energy and adding more development for the characters. Basically, it keeps the story rolling along while setting the stage for what could be a final showdown in a third season.
The Rig can certainly be derivative at times, borrowing liberally from any number of sci-fi and horror entries, but it does so quite gleefully and delivers a rather enjoyable genre entry. This may never count as a classic, but it is certainly a lot of fun—and that is helped along by a well-picked cast. Emily Hampshire (12 Monkeys, Schitt’s Creek) offers a strong female lead, driven by a determination to do the right thing, and Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) provides the male counterbalance: both driven and conflicted. He’s joined by a couple of other GoT veterans—Mark Addy and Owen Teale—and overall, each of the cast members makes an impression, even if their screen time is brief. There’s nothing really groundbreaking about The Rig, but it fits like a comfortable shoe and provides an enjoyable viewing experience. Enough so that it deserves the chance to wrap up its story.
What’s Next?
The second season did wrap up some storylines, but as mentioned, it definitely suggests that a much larger confrontation is coming. If this one does not continue to a third season, it will certainly leave fans disappointed and searching for answers. There has been no word on a renewal at this point, but Ian Glen and Rochenda Sandall have both suggested there is more story to tell. Neither the first nor second season made it into the Nielsen Streaming Rankings, but Amazon did very little to promote the series. It is possible that this one has international financing/syndication propping it up, and that could help carry it to a third–and possibly final–season. Fans should certainly make some noise for this one on the social networks, though, because it has not received a lot of attention so far.
Are you watching The Rig and would you support efforts to get word out about the show? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments section below.
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