El consultor

I recently binged this show over the course of a couple days. I rate it a 6, slightly above average. It is based on a book I believe--I haven't read it for the record. I want to begin by saying the plot just didn't really make sense to me both in terms of how it progresses and how it ends. I am not against leaving stories open-ended or ambiguous. Sometimes leaving it to the viewers to interpret or imagine in their heads is a powerful tool, but in this case it does not work well. There is not enough information provided to the viewer to make sense of the ending in a satisfying way in my opinion.

As I have seen some other reviews mention, Christopher Waltz does a great job and I found his character humorous and well-acted, but he alone cannot make a confusing story make sense. There is one interpretation that the show does seem to hint at, but I don't know how to describe it other than unsatisfying and very surface-level.

Some other slight issues I had were that like the premise that eventually gets explained of why the consultant is there didn't make much sense to me unless the show takes place in a universe full of overly naive people. People committing huge criminal acts and the authorities apparently don't really care. The show is about a video game company, but the game they make look like it's a game from 2010. I could easily look past issues like these if in service of receiving a good story, but the payoff just wasn't there for me. My review may seem harsh but overall, it is worth a watch because it is visually entertaining and it starts off strong.

If you want to watch an 8 part series that:

1. Does whatever it wants with disregard to any cohesive plot 2. Makes no sense what-so-ever at any point 3. Explains nothing that's going on 4. Has no likeable characters 5. Throws weird scenes and events in at any time that are never fleshed out, concluded, or have mush or anything to do with anything.

5. Has a meaningless ending that explains none of the weirdness they injected along the way

Then this show is for you !

I guess this show might be explained by saying it's a parable of the greed of modern people (in the software industry). Thus the characters represent certain stereotypes they want to skewer. But I doubt that was the goal.

I was watching Tik Tok one day where a woman - who claimed to be a "TV addict" and "watched just about everything" highly recommended this show on the basis that it was like "nothing she'd ever seen before," and "had her jaw on the floor multiple moments throughout the series."

I now sort of suspect she was a plant by Amazon, coincidentally drumming up hype the DAY this show was released in its entirety. I think this, because this show is kind of lame. Like, I genuinely don't think it'd have ANY hype at all without Christoph Waltz's involvement and probably wouldn't solicit such an endorsement from anyone.

I'll give the show this: the first episode is a banger. It's really good at hooking you in and making you interested in what's going on. While the momentum from the shocking first episode (which I will admit, had my jaw on the floor multiple times) keeps the train running for a bit, eventually a story has to pick itself up and deliver SOMETHING interesting.

There's so much just...underwhelming about The Consultant. I hated how the story was told, it was needlessly long, with too little material to justify its eight episode length. There are so many plot elements that are just dropped for no reason or introduced so late that they don't really have much of a point. Characters are introduced and nothing really happens with them and I genuinely have forgotten what happened the last episode and I saw it a couple days ago.

I think the problem here is that this was pitched as "Christoph Waltz plays Hans Landa except now he's a consultant for a tech company and probably Satan." That conceit doesn't go anywhere and the writers seem so scared of disappointing viewers that they bafflingly decide not to answer any of the juicy questions. The show keeps piling on mysteries and I suspect there are no satisfying answers.

I did like Natt Wolf and Britanny O' Grady's characters and performances, but even they seemed to lack the electric chemistry they should've. They're past lovers who don't seem like they've ever even held hands, if you get what I mean. And yes, Waltz is fine. He's doing his thing, but I frankly got tired of it half way through. There's only so much ambiguity a show can pile onto a character until it becomes tired.

You'd also think a show like this would have a colourful and interesting cast of side characters - it being an office and all - but unfortunately, it even falls flat there. We get glimpses of other people, but in reality its the Regus (Waltz), Elaine (O'Grady), and Craig (Wolff) show. Very disappointing, especially when the show hints at a broader exploration of how leadership transforms an organization and how access to power corrupts. (Anytime I can get a sociological story, I want it, and when I don't get it, it really hurts)

I did like the design of the office a lot and there are some cool locations and visual ideas presented in this show as well. I feel like it was a fun show to watch, for that reason.

I've heard this is supposed to be a multi-season project, I hope they can do it and it can be satisfying. As of now, "season 1" of The Consultant is an utter bore and a big missed opportunity.

There is nothing believable about this short series. If you accept that going in, you will have a much more positive opinion of it from about midway through to the (thoroughly unsatisfying) end.

Christoph Waltz - his presence, his demeanor, his acting - can only salvage so much and the writers/producers left too much on his plate to turn this utterly forgettable miniseries into something special. Don't get me wrong, the supporting cast does fine; better than average really. But the sum of the parts is just not very compelling.

Now let me throw in that I've heard about the novel and the author of the novel (and his other books - highly touted by Stephen King, a very haughty recommendation indeed), but I haven't read it/them. However, I'm suspecting that the writers and producers of the Amazon series must have missed on something very key to the message in the original story as it was told. Something's just off. In many cases concerning TV shows and movies there's already a need to suspend disbelief, especially if the audience is going to need to accept what they see as a metaphor or other device intended to convey a larger message. And I sense that "The Consultant" may have been such a story in the original print, but it's nothing even remotely like that in how Amazon has put it on the screen.

Obligatory disclaimer - Yes, it's entertaining enough to watch to the end. Yes, it's visually well done. And yes, it's professionally produced. But there is something major missing and by the 8th and final episode, I found myself not caring what happened to anyone involved because, frankly, nothing remotely realistic or believable in real human terms had happened.

"The Consultant" doesn't know what it is trying to be and it's painfully obvious. I trust that more who actually watch the whole thing will agree with me than will disagree.

4.5 rounded to 5 stars on the aggregate.

Pretty good start. I like how they give us the feeling that we have a pretty good idea about what the base of the show is, yet it is completely uncertain. The show managed to only hint at the normal everyday life of the characters before introducing a complete turnaround of things at the very beginning, without making it feel rushed. I find myself in the chaotic atmosphere of not knowing what's about to happen. Because the beginning was so abrupt, someone could flip or be killed in an instant at any given moment - or nothing unusual could happen and we're left in suspense. I have some ideas of what might be in the cards, but none of them seem certain - or at times even likely. I really enjoy this uncertainty. It has a mystic touch to it. On another note, I was concerned about the "comedy" genre of this show but fortunately the humor is rather subtle - sometimes it works sometimes it falls flat, but it doesn't make or break the show. I Enjoy your night!