Summary
Christoph Waltz is mesmerizing in this mixed-bag mystery series from the creator of Servant. The Consultant is tense and twisted for the most part but resorts to big, silly plot reveals on the odd occasion, ruining its taut and intriguing premise.
Academy Award-winning actor Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) takes the plunge into streaming TV, receiving an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Miles Sellars in Most Dangerous Game. Afterward, he works with Servant creator Tony Basgallop on The Consultant.
This dark comedy thriller from Prime Video allows Waltz to get stuck into another fascinating role as he plays the enigmatic Regus Patoff, the consultant of the show’s title.
The Consultant Season 1 Review and Plot Summary
Regus Patoff is hired to save mobile gaming studio CompWare after their founder and CEO Sang Woo is tragically killed. This mysterious individual arrives in the dead of night with divisive techniques and the oddest oddities. He quickly trims the fat, getting rid of the dead weight in the company.
While at the same time introducing his unique working environment. Of course, Regus’ strange behavior doesn’t go unnoticed, and two eager employees decide to look into this mysterious individual.
The two nosy workers are creative liaison Elaine Hayman (Brittany O’Grady), a determined assistant who gave herself that imposing title, and coder Craig Horne (Nat Wolff), who has his ideas for saving the company. The more they dig into this man’s history and backstory, the murkier the waters get.
Elaine and Craig soon find themselves in over their heads as Regus opens up CompWare to much criminal activity and in-house rivalries. He creates chaos wherever he goes, leaving death and destruction. But the employees can’t figure him out or his labyrinthine mind games.
Like Basgallop’s other psychological thriller, Apple TV+’s Servant, this series drip-feeds information, shaping plots around the many mysteries on display. Every one of Regus’ calculated moves seems bizarre and yet precise, bringing up endless questions and tantalizing ambiguities.
As Craig and Elaine spend more time with the man, they fall deeper into his sinister world. It’s a gripping hook, although the series cannot sustain this tension for its entire eight-episode run.
Is The Consultant good to watch?
The Consultant starts well. It’s an intriguing setup, sprinkled with Basgallop’s usual dark humor and teasing structure. Christoph Waltz is his standard, fantastic self, bringing his alluring magnetism to the starring role, although he is typecast.
There’s also the inventive camera work on display, with time lapses and fun visuals making the most of the gaming industry setting. It may have the same DNA as Servant, yet it is not as highly stylized as the Apple Original.
As the series progresses, the cracks start to show. These captivating mysteries soon lose their appeal, and the showrunners revert to absurd plot points. Going for these big, silly reveals while ignoring the well-planned, believable twists from earlier in the season.
The Consultant does not go in the direction you would expect (at all), and by the finale, we are miles away from the tone and feel of those opening installments. Meanwhile, the two central employees become just as unlikable as the antagonist, which makes it hard for viewers to empathize or engage in the story.
A promising mystery series that gets a little lost along the way, but that reclaims some intrigue by the end.
The Consultant Season 1 Episode 8 Recap
What happens with the elephant?
The Consultant Season 1 Episode 8 opens with a dream-like sequence as Craig Horne (Nat Wolff) jogs down an empty street, noticing smashed-up cars and broken glass on the floor. He then comes face to face with the wild elephant, and a stand-off ensues.
In “Hammer,” Craig must challenge a similar adversary as he takes on Regus, his new temporary boss. He wakes to the news that an elephant is on the loose in downtown Los Angeles, but Jumbo, the circus elephant, has died after this rampage.
Elaine sees the breaking news and is saddened to hear that the elephant has died. Her ex-boyfriend Patrice (Jake Manley) arrives to collect his money. Patrice was the one who orchestrated this heinous crime, and he wants the second half of his payment now.
Elaine doesn’t have the money, though, and her new boss Regus is nowhere to be seen. Regus is eyeing up his next victim, the owner of another tech company.
The Consultant Season 1 (Credit – Amazon Prime Video)
Does the publicity stunt work?
The publicity stunt works wonders, and CompWare’s latest release, Mr. Sang’s Jungle Odyssey, is set to land one million users on its first day. The company throws a party to celebrate this huge success.
Patrice waits for Regus in his office while Craig gets drunk downstairs at the party. He tells Elaine the ugly truth; he installed stalker ware into the game’s demo to track Regus and forgot to remove it. Their servers now hold data on over a million users’ devices. He thinks he’s going to jail for at least twenty years.
Regus arrives just as they hit the one-million mark. Elaine asks Regus for Patrice’s money, but he quips that they spent it all on the party. Elaine tells Regus that Patrice may get violent, and he wants his payment.
Regus gives his creative liaison one minute to devise a plan as they head toward his office. She suggests lying to Patrice to bide them some more time, to offer Patrice more than he is owed. They can then go to the police and pin the whole scheme on Patrice in the meantime. Ultimately, Regus uses his intimidating vibe to scare Patrice out of the building.
Where is Patti?
Craig and Elaine flirt with one another as the party draws to a close. They consider hooking up at her apartment, but Craig’s missing fiancee Patti (Aimee Carrero) messages him before they leave. They track her phone, leading them straight to Sang Woo’s mother. She admits that Regus gave her this phone.
Realizing that Regus is involved in Patti’s disappearance, they head back to CompWare to confront him. The audience is shown Patti’s whereabouts; she is locked in the records room, typing up files in a trance.
At CompWare, Craig demands to know where his wife-to-be is. Regus confesses, and Elaine runs over to the records room straight away. Angered by Regus’ psychotic behavior, Craig grabs a hammer off the floor, one which was used as a circus-themed game at the party, and follows Regus to his office.
Up on the glass flooring, Craig starts to swing the hammer, breaking the glass under their feet. Craig asks how many lives Regus has ruined and how many careers he has ended. He’s desperate to know who this enigma is, but Regus states that he has a job to do and has completed it.
He’s made CompWare successful again. Elaine frees Patti from her prison and her trance. The two women head back to the hub of the offices to find Craig threatening Regus with the hammer.
The Consultant Season 1 Ending Explained
Craig breaks the glass directly underneath Regus’ feet, and the Consultant falls to the ground below. The process severs his toe, but he survives. Patti turns on the fire alarm, and they all bounce. Regus escapes, leaving behind a trail of blood. Craig takes Regus’ severed toe as a souvenir.
The next day, the police questioned Elaine. She pins everything on Regus. Patti leaves Craig, and the coder cooks Regus’ toe as you do. Underneath, he finds golden bones.
Elaine’s name is seen on the boss’ door, which implies that Regus left her in charge of the business, impressed by her ruthlessness during their time together. Or possibly Elaine just took the initiative and made herself the boss, as she did with the creative liaison title and the same way she took Iain’s office by force in an earlier episode.
As an instrumental of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ starts to play, Regus enters the building, observing the fruits of his labor, before taking a bow and leaving unnoticed.
Who is Regus’ next victim?
In the closing scene, a news story reveals that Pterodactyl founder Rebecca Hood has committed suicide. She was the woman that Regus met with last, his next victim in his never-ending consultancy conspiracy.
We then zoom in on a boy called Tokyo, the same kid who assassinated Sang Woo in the opening episode, as he plays the unbeatable final round of Mr. Sang’s Jungle Odyssey in an undisclosed juvenile detention center. He miraculously completes the game; his reward is a golden egg with a golden skeleton inside.
What did you think of The Consultant Season 1? Comment below.
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