The Consultant - Season 1

The boss is dead, long live the boss! But what if that boss in The Consultant is a rather strange bird and tough businessman? Will you remain a loyal employee or will you join the tough business world? The CompWare company is led by genius Sang (Brian Yoon), but when he is murdered during a tour of the company, it turns out that the company is less rosy than expected. Fortunately, Sang's death has been anticipated, because not even a day later Regus Patoff (Christoph Waltz, Most Dangerous Game) is already ready to go. An advisor hired to take charge of the company on an interim basis and ensure bankruptcy is avoided.



As CompWare employees, including Elaine Hayman (Britanny O'Grady, The White Lotus) and Craig Horne (Nat Wolff, The Naked Brothers Band) quickly notice, Patoff has virtually no knowledge of games (or companies that develop games) but has he knows more about running a business in itself. But he does everything to protect Sang's ideas, to make the company financially sound and to find the most suitable person to take over the management of the company.

With the blunt ax, he hacks into business operations in order to achieve cutbacks. People on sick leave are dealt with, employees are fired or manipulated in such a way that they resign themselves. The friendly atmosphere that used to prevail within the company quickly turns into one in which productivity comes first and you want to get ahead at the expense of your colleague if necessary. If you can't go along with that, you know where the door is.

Waltz has been entrusted with the role of Regus Patoff, we have also seen him in roles in the films Inglourious Basterds and Spectre/No Time to Die, among others, portraying characters who can come across as sympathetic at times, but are tough most of the time. and don't care about collateral damage. The ice-cold and rock-hard appearance that Waltz manages to give to this is beautiful (or frightening) to see.

The absolute highlight is Regus Patoff and the way Waltz manages to portray him. In addition, this thriller provides a wonderfully dark picture of how corporate culture works.

It's up to the employees to find a way around that. Elaine and Craig soon decide that they want to go along with it - as part of their career planning. Because in the end those few extra months in a high position within CompWare or developing your own game look very nice on a resumé.

However, they are pushed further and further by Regus and receive the strangest requests, which also has an impact on the personal lives of the employees. Reason enough for Elaine and Craig to investigate Regus. Because where does he actually come from and how come he was at the door so soon? Looks like Regus isn't quite who he says he is either. The question, however, is whether they can find out before they lose themselves.



When I read the description of The Consultant I almost skipped the series until I fell into an episode at someone else's house. Intrigued, I decided to continue watching the series. And I certainly didn't regret it. The story itself is solid and do not expect that you will get an answer to everything or that everything is equally logical. But you soon find yourself watching those episodes with regular (sometimes cringing) amazement about what is happening and the feeling that you quickly want to go to the next episode.

The absolute highlight is Regus Patoff and the way Waltz manages to portray him. In addition, this thriller provides a wonderfully dark picture of how corporate culture works. In addition, the series seems to want to paint a picture of 'what if', but to keep the review somewhat spoiler-free, you will have to watch to see what this 'what if' is!