The Consultant (2023) Review: Stream It or Skip It?

When The Consultant was first announced with Christoph Waltz in the lead, people had certain expectations set for this series, and rightfully so. The trailer of The Consultant looked promising with weirdness at its highest form, and to a certain extent, The Consultant has certainly delivered but did manage to live up to everyone’s expectations; that’s a question we find ourselves trying to find the answers to as we make our way through the series. 

With a total of eight episodes, The Consultant has some great moments, including Christoph Waltz, and this review will highlight those moments and briefly talk about where the show lacked.

The Consultant is now available to watch on Amazon Prime Video, and you can binge all eight episodes, one after the other. You might just have to because almost every episode ends with a cliffhanger that will make you want to move on to the next episode.

It’s funny because one of the underlying themes of The Consultant is addiction, especially to different forms of media. They talk about games in The Consultant; here, we’re talking about The Consultant.

It’s a beautiful irony, indeed. There will be some spoilers in this review, so we recommend you proceed cautiously and let us know in the comments what you think about The Consultant so far!

Christoph Waltz Steals the Show and Saves The Consultant

The Consultant had some brilliant elements to it. If you enjoy dark humour, you will most definitely enjoy The Consultant or at least certain parts of the series. The first few episodes of The Consultant were incredibly well written and kept us on the edge of our seats; however, as the series progressed, too many elements might have spoiled The Consultant altogether.

The first episode and the entry of Regus Patoff and his ways intrigued us, and there was plenty to look forward to. Still, because the pilot episode set high expectations, the series eventually faltered towards the end, leaving many disappointed viewers.

For example, in the first episode, we see some kids on a field trip at CompWare, and the untimely death of the CEO, Sang Woo. The episode starts on a very dark note because it’s usually the children who are victims of gun violence, but in this case, it was the other way around. Sometimes a solid start to a series can be a boon or a bane, and in The Consultant’s case, it was a bane.

As we said, the first half of the series was solid, there were so many weird things happening every few minutes, and we figured that the second half of the series would eventually answer these questions, but none of that happened. Maybe The Consultant tried too hard to be so cryptic and mysterious that it simply failed to solve that mystery, leaving far too many unanswered questions.

Either they are setting up for another season, or this is just how The Consultant was meant to be. A few unanswered questions looming over our minds for the longest time include Craig’s file and what exactly Patti knew about him that no one else did. She eventually moved out of his apartment, but there was a lot unsaid, and we needed to know exactly what happened between them.

Next, how did Patoff convince Patti to sit down and work for him in the same dress non-stop for days, to type away, and barely stop? Most importantly, the entire golden skeleton is the biggest mystery. If the creators and writers expected the viewers to fill in the blanks, we are not sure everyone managed to do so because we certainly did not.

Too many unanswered questions can go two ways for The Consultant. The viewers could stop watching the series and leave a negative review or two. Or, it could increase the anticipation for future seasons.

If The Consultant Season 2 were to happen, viewers already have a lot of ideas, theories, and discussions in place, which would also increase the viewership of the series. The jury is still out, and we will have to wait to see whether The Consultant was a success. If the series is a success, there is one person they should thank, and that is Christoph Waltz.

While The Consultant had several compelling characters, a special mention goes out to Elaine and Craig, who kept us hooked with their undeniable chemistry and great humour.

Other than that, we thought several side characters would eventually play a more significant role, given their scenes and personalities, but that has yet to happen. For example, Dana could have been a more important character in The Consultant other than someone who brings churros and bakes shortbread.

Should that happen, we may see more of her in future seasons. But while Elaine and Craig were well-written characters, the focus remained on one man, Regus Patoff, played by Christoph Waltz.

Regus Patoff was The Consultant, so the focus remained on him from the first episode to the last. Since we mentioned mysteries, he was probably the biggest mystery on The Consultant.

All the employees had different opinions on Regus Patoff. For example, Craig went through various emotions when it came to Patoff. From disliking him to liking him to being scared of him to being done with him and finally wanting to kill him.

Just like that, the viewers also were put through some interesting emotions when it came to Patoff’s character, and we genuinely believe that no one other than Christoph Waltz would have been able to pull this character off.

He was the best part of The Consultant that made us want to watch the entire series to completion, even when the plot felt like it was failing and the other characters were losing their spark.

To us, The Consultant was an average show that tried very hard to be unique and reach new heights in a particular dark comedy genre. Even though we call it moderate, we recommend streaming The Consultant because this series will have you hooked at several points. Should there be a second season, it will go from average to above average.

So, if you want something to watch this weekend, we recommend streaming The Consultant on Prime Video. We would also recommend writing down any questions you have and hoping they will be addressed in future seasons because that’s what we’ve done.

Also, a slight warning before you watch The Consultant, it does have certain moments that might make you want to turn away from the screen, but at the same time, it isn’t as gruesome as it was teased in the trailer.

So depending on what you like or don’t like, The Consultant could be your least favourite watch of this month or be on the top of your list; there’s no telling.

Conclusion

Whether or not you have seen The Consultant yet, we would love to know in the comments section what you think about this series so far and if you have any theories about future seasons after you have watched it!