On January 2, “The Rig,” a supernatural thriller on Prime Video, will return for a second season, giving viewers a bigger story than the first. The creator, David Macpherson, compares this growth to how things changed between “Alien” and its follow-up, “Aliens.”
The new season starts after the Kinloch Bravo oil rig is sunk by a huge storm, which was a shocking ending to the first season. People who are still alive are flown to a secret location in the ocean called the Stac. Here, they have to deal with the physical and mental trauma of what they went through while also dealing with corporate intrigue and the ocean’s lurking dangers.
“I wanted to broaden the show’s horizons, building the world and taking the team to new locations,” he said. He talked about the size of the oil business and wanted to show his ambition. “The production team hired line of Duty” director John Strickland to help them reach their goal. Derek Wax, the producer, praised Strickland’s technical skills and ability to focus on how the characters grew.
For the second season, the cast has grown to include newcomers Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Alice Krige, Emily Hampshire (“Schitt’s Creek”), Martin Compston, and Iain Glen, all returning. This growth in cast and setting shows how popular the show is worldwide. After the first season, Macpherson got nice texts from fans in South Korea, Germany, and Australia.
Macpherson has a background in climate policy and a family past in the oil business, which gives her a unique view of the show’s environmental themes. But he emphasizes that the main thing is entertainment. Our show is primarily about entertainment. “It should be interesting first and foremost,” he said. It’s not about telling viewers what to think but rather encouraging questions and discussions.”
Using his own experiences, he also fights against negative ideas people have about oil workers. “It’s not true that oil workers are full of contradictions, as some people think.” Many people are stuck in fields that they have no choice but to work in.
“The Rig” is a big risk for Amazon UK, which hired a writer who wasn’t very well known to make the series. In today’s competitive streaming market, producer Wax said that such a risky move might not happen as often, which makes the show’s success even more impressive. The first season did well, staying in the top five on Amazon charts in several countries and keeping a high rate of viewers who watched all the episodes.
