So I watched Amazon’s The Consultant – still not thrilled about them making their own content by the way, but so far, this one hasn’t had any shameless advertisements (cough THE BOYS cough).
Let’s see… Pros: it has Christoph Waltz. His unnerving performance is everything I want from a Christoph Waltz. God fucking bless that man, he’s a national fucking treasure. He plays Regus Patoff, the titular consultant of a video game company whose former CEO was murdered by a child (this happens in the first five minutes by the way).
That’s another pro – at no point is the show boring. Between the twisty plot, the ominous music, and the Waltz, it never failed to hold and keep my interest. Which is more than I can say for the mass-produced bland that most studios try to write off as entertainment. (cough Ted Lasso cough The Gilded Age cough House of Dragon cough Severance cough Obi-Wan cough Velma cough slits wrists).
Other pros: it’s got my boy Juan Carlos Cantu, who plays Manuel Varga from Better Call Saul. His cameo had a one-episode lifespan, but we’ll take what we can get.
What else? Oh, it’s got a sick title sequence. I also goodly and truly love that each episode is 30 minutes. I’m fucking tired of these 45 minute to hour long dramas. I don’t have time for that shit. This show was built with my ADHD in mind and it’s perfect.
Okay… it’s not PERFECT perfect. Cons: The ending is fucking stupid. And I don’t see the point of the show.
You heard me. I don’t see the fucking point. It’s the pinnacle of style over substance. It’s slick but soulless, hype but hollow. It’s all intrigue and fury signifying Waltz. Once the credits roll, you realize that it’s like the video game at it’s core – it doesn’t fucking matter. The closest it gets to any legitimate dramatic weight is with Nat Wolff’s Craig and his realistic human reactions to the stylized inhumanity of literally everyone else around him. Nobody else behaves like a person (except my boy JCC).
But still…
Christoph Waltz…
Rating: 7.1 / 10
