When it comes to talking about television and cinema, we often find ourselves with the need to either establish or interpret labels for the new releases that are arriving. With ‘The consultant‘ (The Consultant), a series that premieres on Amazon Prime Video this Friday, something similar happens when proposing on paper a mix of thriller and (some) comedy. I already notice that the first is much more than the second.
hand of Tony Basgallop (‘Servant’) to the script and Matt Shakman (‘Scarlet Witch and Vision’) in the direction, the eight episodes of the series take us to the offices of CompWare, a company specialized in mobile games that, after a tragedy, receives the arrival of a consultant who unexpectedly begins to take the reins of the company
A powerful ambiguity
Taking into account the setting and that they were talking about comic thriller one almost expected (in fact the presentation with Brittany O’Grady gave that impression) that we were going to be facing a kind of dark reverse of a gamer office comedy like ‘Mythic Quest’… but that impression is immediately removed, when we attended quite an impressive start.
We could say that in tone it has something more to do with ‘The Devil’s Hour’, the chilling series of Peter Capaldi that we saw a few months ago. Our Regus Patoff de Waltz will arrive at the company immersed in an air as mysterious as it is sinister and with tricks as Machiavellian as sharp and even seductive.
Basgallop, who is not a rookie in getting into a field of the “dark” and supernatural manages to attract enough with his proposal. Aided by its format of half-hour episodes (eight in total), one finds oneself absorbed by the intrigue surrounding this consultant and his increasingly feasible demonic identity in which the company’s top employees (played by O’Grady and Nat Wolff) are caught in their webs.
In this sense ‘The consultant’ plays pretty well with those ideas of the seduction of evil, with the ambiguities with which the CompWare characters are presented, with the question of whether the new boss is something beyond human. If we go into the proposal —I have to warn you that it may take time— we will also fall exhausted and trapped in an addictive and light thriller.
something soft
The pity is that although ‘The Consultant’ catches, like so many thrillers of this cut, it sometimes has better intentions than execution, which is a little soft. We can have an example in the dialogues, which are slightly uninspired and are more expository than deep. A certain fall on common grounds does not help either.
While it’s always great to see Waltz, who it gives gravity to his character and it is the best attraction of the proposal, the series fails to go further. It usually stays on the surface. Partly because of its short duration (four hours), partly because of its condition, basically, of being a generic thriller, and also partly because of a tone that is not quite in tune.
In conclusion, although ‘The consultant’ It has elements that make it quite attractive and addictive. (of course, give it a couple of episodes to spare), it does not finish convincing with a story that, although it is intriguing, the execution does not finish raising it as much as a series of this style would deserve.