The Consultant (TV series)

The Consultant is an American thriller television series created by Tony Basgallop, based on the novel by Bentley Little and starring Christoph Waltz as the titular character, with Nat Wolff, Brittany O'Grady, and Aimee Carrero in supporting roles. The series follows the employees of a mobile gaming company whose leadership is taken over by a sinister consultant, played by Waltz.

The Consultant premiered on Amazon Prime Video on February 24, 2023, to positive reviews, with critics praising Waltz's performance but criticizing the series' writing and pace.

Premise
Regus Patoff, a mysterious consultant, comes to the rescue of CompWare, a mobile gaming company, after the murder of its CEO, and seemingly starts running the company.

Main

 * Christoph Waltz as Regus Patoff
 * Nat Wolff as Craig Horne
 * Brittany O'Grady as Elaine Hayman
 * Aimee Carrero as Patti, Craig's fiancée

Co-Starring

 * Henry Rhoades as Tokyo
 * Brian Yoon as Sang
 * Tatiana Zappardino as Janelle
 * Michael Charles Vaccaro as Iain
 * Rumur Kristina Knowles as Lois
 * Erin Ruth Walker as Amy
 * Julie Sidoni as Newscaster
 * Ryan Leckey as Newscaster
 * Catherine Christensen as Rebecca Hood
 * Ryan Bravo as Eric

Guest

 * Sydney Mae Diaz as Raul
 * Sloane Avery as Rosie
 * Dianne Doan as Ghislane
 * Jake Manley as Patrice
 * Gloria John as Mama Sang

Production
On November 18, 2021, it was revealed that Tony Basgallop would serve as showrunner on the TV series adaptation of Bentley Little’s novel The Consultant, with Basgallop executive producing the series along with Christoph Waltz, Matt Shakman, Steve Stark, Andrew Mittman, Kai Dolbashian through MGM Television, 1.21 Pictures, Toluca Pictures and Amazon Studios. Along with the announcement, Waltz was set to play Mr. Patoff in the series. On December 8, 2021, Brittany O'Grady and Nat Wolff were cast in the series. Filming began in December 2021 with plans to continue shooting through May 2022. Aimee Carrero was confirmed to star in March 2022.

Release
On January 3, 2023, Amazon released a teaser for the series, for which they set a February 24, 2023, release date.

Reception
The Consultant received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a rating of 78% based on 41 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "With Christoph Waltz's menacing charm on retainer, The Consultant compensates for its lack of depth with slick presentation and diverting twists." On Metacritic, it has a score of 65 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal praised Waltz's performance, calling it "a mixed blessing in what is essentially a mystery in slow motion that keeps tilting toward comedy." However, he criticized the series' plotting and pace, stating that it "strings us along with unresolved questions, presuming we’ll stay fascinated, in a way that’s become irritatingly common among eight-part series." Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the series as feeling "perplexingly rushed at times and oppressively elongated at others", noting the lack of stylistic cohesion between the episodes, and feeling that the series overall was "neither terrifying nor trenchant." Fienberg wrote that Waltz gave "a compulsively watchable performance that falls right into the Oscar winner’s comfort zone of seductive weirdness", but felt it too reminiscent of the actor's previous roles.

Annie Burke of The A.V. Club unfavorably compared the series to Apple TV+'s Severance, feeling that it "lacks the concentrated, speculative concept" of that series. However, she praised the production design, calling the series' fictional workplace "a character, a narrative device, and a motif all rolled into one." She too described Waltz's performance as derivative of his former roles, writing that The Consultant "amounts to Waltz reprising his role from Horrible Bosses 2 with a steely, vaguely supernatural twist." Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com criticized the series' writing for "piling on mysteries for the sake of getting stranger and stranger, without building a significant amount of tension." Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly was more positive, calling the series' story "marvelously weird and darkly funny." She praised the performances of the central cast, noting Waltz's "quiet menace", O'Grady's "wary longing", and Wolff's "winning vulnerability".