The Consultant is a fascinating and enigmatic series that wickedly satirizes the corporate world through a mash-up of disparate genres. It's a dark comedy that veers wildly into suspense, horror, and sci-fi territory, without ever fully showing its hand, chronicling the turmoil which follows when a random foreign consultant arrives to run a mobile game company after its young CEO is murdered. Nobody knows anything about the man, and the viewer is only given brief hints.
The mysteries encasing this narrative are slowly chipped away in Tony Basgallop's Prime Video adaptation of Bentley Little's book, but it's the excellent cast that keeps audiences watching despite not always knowing what's happening and what's real. Christoph Waltz gives a great performance as the titular consultant, Regus Patoff, who is somehow both morbidly intimidating and eccentrically childlike. Surrounding him, though, is an excellent cast of young actors — Brittany O'Grady, Nat Wolff, and Aimee Carrero all fuel The Consultant's journey across eight weirdly funny and creepy episodes, and the three stars spoke with MovieWeb about the show and its production.
Nat Wolff and Brittany O'Grady on Taking The Consultant
In The Consultant, Elaine Hayman (O'Grady) and Craig Horne (Wolff) attempt to dig into Patoff's past when they realize just how unusual, tyrannical, and possibly dangerous he is. The two employees of CompWare, the company behind little Candy Crush-style games, collaborate at first before their investigation takes them in separate directions, revealing strange, awful, and seemingly impossible truths about their new boss. Craig's fiancée, Patti (Carrero), gets involved when Patoff takes a particular interest in her, but is she just a pawn in Patoff's game?
The result is a wily show that parodies corporate culture, especially in the tech world, and explores the darkest possible ramifications of unchecked capitalism and selfish ambition. These were the concepts that interested most of the actors, who were only able to read the pilot before signing on. "I was really intrigued by those themes that were clear in the beginning," said Wolff, "and then the tone and this sort of eerie, creepy vibe that permeated throughout it. And then the twist at the end of the first episode, I screamed in my apartment, and I thought, I have to be part of the show. So I became like a rabid dog chasing this car."
The role is certainly different for Wolff, despite the Paper Towns actor having been experimenting with every genre he can over the past few years in a variety of interesting films (from the war movie The Kill Team and the Western Murder at Yellowstone City to whatever Mainstream was). O'Grady plays the assistant to the former CEO, who becomes stuck in the magnetic pull of Patoff. It's yet another wildly different role for O'Grady, following The White Lotus and Little Voice.
"I thought that the writing was so incredible and had so many layers of comedy, and darkness, and curiosity, and all these different layers," said O'Grady. "It was very different from anything that I've read. I think the cool thing I liked about my character was just her dynamics in the office. I think she is kind of close to the idea of capitalism. I think she kind of falls victim to it, and it's cool to reflect that in a character."
Aimee Carrero and The Consultant's Critique of Capitalism
Carrero continues her excellent evolution from young Disney and ABC Family star to being a complex and enticing performer. Following up her acclaimed work in the show Maid and the films Mack & Rita and The Menu, Carrero is very interesting as Craig's soon-to-be bride, Patti. From the outset, she seems to be the person with the most economic ambition and traditional relationship to capital, and the way Patoff manipulates her is one of the strangest, more disturbing elements of The Consultant.
"I think for Patti," said Carrero, "just piggybacking off of Brittany and Nat, the script was so unusual, and it's not what you read every day, and I just knew that I wanted to be a part of something that was like that and felt kind of unhinged. That's interesting to me as an actor. [It's about] our consumption under capitalism and how we contribute to it, how we benefit from it, how we suffer from it. Ultimately, it's sort of a take on what happens when you lose the thread, and when someone in a position of power is luring you into it not just by their magnetism, but also by the fact that there is no societal safety net. So if you lose your job, you may not be able to pay for health care, or pay for rent, or food on your table. Sometimes we risk it all, our friendships or relationships, our own health in order to participate in this machine. And I think that this show is a nice sort of conversation starter among many other things."
On Working with Christoph Waltz
Waltz is not just a reason to watch The Consultant; he's a reason why these young stars signed up. In addition to the aforementioned socioeconomic themes, Wolff said, "To work with Christoph Waltz, it's like getting to play on the same team as LeBron James."
"I think one of the cool things about Christoph is that he's been doing this for so long," added Carrero. "And I don't know if it's like a European actor kind of thing, but he comes in prepared and if you're just willing to play ball with him, you'll figure it out as you go. And that was my feeling, is that he was going to serve you like the fastest ball but perfectly served, and if you just keep your eye on it, you can hit it out of the park, and it's because he served it to you."
"I feel like he immediately took on this sort of paternal role with the three of us," said Wolff. "Obviously, that's beautiful to make a friend like that, and especially somebody that you admire so much, but also it helps with the work. Because even though we have certain dynamics in the script, the fact that we felt comfortable to dive deep with them was really important."
Ironically, by becoming comfortable with each other, the cast of The Consultant was able to make some of the most uncomfortable scenes of television this year. They've brought to life a dark, funny, and mysterious thriller that's available to stream in its entirety on Prime Video.