The Rig is a six-part series available on Amazon Prime. It focuses on Kinloch Bravo, an oil rig in the North Sea due to be decommissioned by the energy company that owns it, Pictor, that finds itself invaded by a mysterious, seemingly supernatural entity.
(As always, this review is full of spoilers so jump ship now if you don't want to know.)
Oil rigs are made for horror. They’re rough,
desolate, isolated places unfamiliar to most of us. They might as well be
foreign lands. Add the fact that they’re cramped places, with people living on
top of each other for long stretches and you’ve got an environment just begging
for disaster. Tensions run high. In tight spaces like that, minor inconveniences
grow into lingering grudges – and that’s before anything goes wrong. Throw a
monster into the mix…
With references to John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes,
you’d be forgiven for expecting a whopping Cthulu-esque, eldritch beastie to be
at the heart of the Bravo’s misfortune. I know I was. That’s nowhere near what
you get with The Rig, though. It’s a slower, quieter horror but,
strangely, I wasn’t disappointed. As these apocalyptic things usually go, the
real monster is us. And, of course, monster gets what it deserves at the end of
The Rig so, although there aren’t any tentacles or teeth, it’s still satisfying.
How’s it working out?
Not good for us.
Although it wasn’t what I was
expecting, The Rig is still good horror. It’s atmospheric as hell, for
starters. A lot of shows take a couple of episodes to bed in but this one gets under your skin straight away.
It goes back to isolation. To cliques and old
grudges. People who’ve already got beef take very little convincing when it
comes time to mistrust their colleagues. So, when the fog clears, only to be
followed by a shower of ash from the doomed Kinloch Charlie that acts as a carrier
for the “attacking” ancient spores whose only mode of communication is… well, joining
with the crew members, things get nasty very quickly.
Because people suck at communication when they can use
words.
The spores’ (more super nature than supernatural) attempts to communicate, while a complete
failure, are valiant. They speak in terms of mass extinction events, using
circles to represent the times they’ve had to wipe the slate clean in the past, with a final broken circle to show our time running out. I’m not a total
idiot (Honest!) but I didn’t realize what the spores were trying to say until Rose explained it so… yeah, as a species, we’d probably be fucked, lol.
The scary thing is that we talk about it all the time.
There are always memes online about how we’re in the middle of an extinction level
event, but we still have to pay our taxes, etc. (haha) but we’re obviously not
getting it. The Rig challenges us to think harder. To really pay
attention for once. Like… what will it take? Will it take the planet physically fighting
back for us to change? If the fate of the Bravo is any indication…
Probably.
Our inability to communicate effectively is just one of the
many layers The Rig uncovers in its short but powerful run. That, I
think, more than its low-key horror or stunning visual effects, is what I
enjoyed most, that there’s so much happening on so many levels, all the
time – apropos, given the setting.
I mentioned the relationships already, and that’s definitely
part of it. With that thought in mind, I have to mention The Rig’s diversity
& inclusivity. There are men and women, gay and straight, young and old.
You’ve got strong representation across the board, which was a relief. And, as
an added bonus, the women don’t face constant sexual harassment just for being in
a “man’s field,” which I’ll admit I was half-expecting.
What can I say? The film & TV industry’s got me jaded as
fuck, y’all.
Anyway… I like that you’ve got this traditionally ultra-macho
place like an oil rig but no one bats at eye at different sexualities. Like,
it’s just normal, yeah? Which it is. But you expect friction from the dinosaurs
(which you get about pretty much everything else) but it’s not even an issue. There
are queer characters without being queer having to be part of the plot. It’s
normalized and thank you very much.
While we’re talking about dinosaurs, though…
The Rig acknowledges how hard the end of oil, steel,
coal, etc. will be on older generations, on the folks who’ve never known
any different. It shares their pain. But it doesn’t pander to them. It says, we
know. We’re sorry that your day is done but this is our future, and we
have to protect it. It acknowledges the pain of one side while at the same time
one hundred percent making a judgement about the right way forward. There’s no
both-sides-are-valid bullshit and I am fucking here for it.
Which might not even be such a bad thing – unless you want to be doing this when you’re 65 and the sky is burning.
You feel for the plight of the Bravo because the character development is so well done. Characters you hate at the beginning, like Emily Hampshire’s Rose, are the ones you’re rooting for at the end. Mostly. Some you still want to chuck off the rig. (Cough, cough, Hutton, cough, cough.) The Rig works because it’s so emotional. So character-driven. And it doesn't hurt that the actors are damn good at their jobs. It’s well cast with a lot of familiar faces from the likes of Line of Duty and Game ofThrones. I want to mention a few standout performances.
Owen Teale’s Hutton walks into frame and it’s easy to spot
the asshole. (To be fair, he always plays the asshole.) You know the
moment Hutton walks in that he’s going to be a problem and guess what… he is. There’s
nothing redeemable about his character. From the beginning, he’s a liability.
He’s selfish and delights in stirring shit. It doesn’t matter that they
humanize him later on because he’s done so much wrong through the other episodes and
I think that’s important. Sometimes, you can try to wipe the slate clean, but there’s no coming back from the damage you’ve done. You have to carry
that with you. And I am glad they didn’t try to do that whole earns-his-redemption-through-death
crap thing at the end. Massive pet peeve.
I have to mention Rochenda Sandall’s Cat because she’s my new hero. She’s so tough and no-nonsense. You know she’s been through hell, but she
doesn’t let it break her. All the way through, you’re waiting for her breaking
point and a few times you think she’s reached it, but she keeps pushing through.
The old white men crumble around her, but she keeps her shit together. Which is
why the end is so, so much more unfair for her.
(Doesn’t hurt that she kicks Hutton’s ass,
either…)
And, of course, there’s poor tragic, villainized Baz (Calvin Demba) who just wanted to understand. To listen and protect. At the end,
there’s really no need for Baz to die. He knows there’s nothing he can do. He
knows that the collective entity made up of spores might not even let him
back in. But he stays to try - and fuck if that’s not the fucking
moral of the story. Yeah, we’re all fucked... but shouldn’t we fucking try
anyway?
Which is kind of the point, isn’t it? The whole point of The
Rig seems to be that it’s too late.
It’s. Too. Late.
Fuck.
Hard truths, y’all. When the Doomsday Clock is just 90
seconds from the end, and you’re watching The Rig, and it’s giving you a
visual representation of your own demise – the one you’re drinking and fucking
and eating and buying like crazy to ignore – it really hits you. It’s
entertaining but also fucking hard. It’s the feels. All the feels.
There are no fans left for shit to hit.
I can’t express how stunning The Rig is to watch.
It’s eerily beautiful in places and just straight up enchantingly mesmerizing in
others. I could watch the spores dance among the flora they created for hours.
At the same time, watching Leck’s (Emun Elliott) tattoos bleed away as his fillings were
forced from his teeth evoke a very visceral response. It’s hard to capture
both a sense of otherworldly magic and pure body horror, but The Rig does.
If The Rig doesn’t get renewed because it’s too
costly to make, you’d understand. That kind of SFX can’t be cheap. But I’d like
to see it get another chance. Give us another chance.
Overall? The Rig is sombre but not despairing. It’s
dark but not dreary. And it never does what you expect it to do.
I still would have liked a big fuck off monster, though… Maybe next time?
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
