'The Consultant': An addictive and devilish Amazon Prime Video thriller from 'Servant' creator and Christoph Waltz with better intentions than execution

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 Amazon Prime Video this Friday, something similar happens when proposing on paper a mixture of thriller and (some) comedy. I already notice that the first is much more than the second .

Led by Tony Basgallop (' Servant ') as the script and Matt Shakman (' Scarlet Witch and Vision ') as the director, the eight episodes of the series take us to the offices of CompWare, a company specializing in mobile games that, after a tragedy receives the arrival of a consultant who unexpectedly begins to take over the reins of the company.

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A powerful ambiguity
 
Taking into account the setting and that they were talking about a 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 quickly removed, when we witness a rather impressive start.

We could say that in tone it has something more to do with ' The Devil's Hour ', the chilling series by 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 new to getting into a "dodgy" and supernatural terrain, manages to attract a lot 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.

 
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In this sense, 'The Consultant' plays quite well with these 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' captures, like so many thrillers of this kind, it sometimes has better intentions than execution, which is somewhat 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.

Beyond the fact that it is always great to see Waltz, who gives gravity to his character and 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' has elements that make it quite attractive and addictive (yes, 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. raise it all that a series of this style would deserve.