The Consultant: Christoph Waltz’s creepy creation sells Prime Video’s dark comedy

REVIEW: Ernst Blofeld, Dr. King Schultz, Colonel Hans Landa, Cardinal Richelieu.

Christoph Waltz has portrayed some of the most memorably Machiavellian cinematic creations of the past 15 years.

Now he’s brought his special blend of measured malevolence to the small screen in the form of The Consultant’s Regus Patoff.

Just arrived on Prime Video, this eight-part series is a slick and slippery workplace thriller based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Bentley Little.

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Adapted by Servant’s Tony Basgallop, with at least the first episode directed by WandaVision and The Great helmer Matt Shakman, The Consultant feels like a dark mirror of Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest or a glitzier, but shallower take on Severance, as the employees of successful Los Angeles-based mobile gaming company CompWare struggle to adjust to sweeping changes brought about by the mysterious and eccentric Patoff.

Still reeling from the distressing death of company founder Sang-woo during a visit from Glendale Middle School students, creative liaison Elaine (The White Lotus and Little Voice’s Brittany O’Grady) is stunned when Patoff shows up later in the day claiming to have been contracted by Sang-woo to consult on all matters of business.

After requiring assistance up the stairs, he sets up in the still blood-spattered office and asks for an all-staff meeting to be called for 9am the following morning. As the time approaches, he then issues a missive that those who currently work remotely have just an hour to get there – “or your contract will be terminated”.

“Can he do that?” game developer Greg (The Stand’s Nat Wolff) asks Elaine. “He seems to think so,” comes the bewildered reply.

That he means business is clear when a wheelchair-bound employee fails to make the deadline by seconds and he dismisses another because of their “Musk” (which naturally makes you wonder how many late script changes were made in response to a certain billionaire’s similarly traumatic takeover of a social media company last year).

After Elaine pleads for Patoff to reconsider, he puts it on her to remedy the latter “stench”, or they will both be fired.

Then, just when Elaine thinks things can’t get any worse, she’s woken at 3am by Patoff asking her to come in work early. When she suggests 8am, he describes that as “disappointing, I was hoping for something a little more immediate”.

Hauling herself out of bed, Elaine makes the 40-minute drive to work, only to be greeted by churros and a request to find a way to stop a commercial airliner from Korea making it to Los Angeles. Sang-woo’s only living relative – his mother – is on her way, Patoff convinced that she will “destroy her son’s dream”.

What follows is a series of increasing disturbing discoveries, as Elaine and Greg seek to find out just where Patoff came from, how he rose to his position – and what authority he actually carries.

It’s here where the casting of Waltz is a masterstroke, his mischievous grin and distinctive cadence working well in creating the requisite mystery around the seemingly diabolical interloper.

But while Shakman and Basgallop try to ensure you’re never quite sure if he’s really as bad or dangerous as his staff believe, the scripting perhaps lacks the nuance and depth one might have hoped for.

Still, if you’re a fan of Waltz’s special set of skills, then you’re going to lap this up.

The Consultant is now streaming on Prime Video.