There are certain roles Christoph Waltz is made for. The Nazi in Inglorious Basterds, the dentist in Django, and the consultant in The Consultant.
His odd affectations, the deliberate way he speaks general quirky menace made his character in the two Tarrantino films. Those same characteristics are what works in this short Amazon prime series. They work well.
Short synopsis with as few spoilers as possible.
Creator of a supposedly successful gaming firm is suddenly removed from his post. Waltz's consultant shows up in his absence and makes changes to the company.
Is he who he presents himself to be? Is there more?
One of the developers, a slacker, tries to figure it out and gets answers that, well, don't make complete sense.
It's a weird journey. Very little is what you expect or anticipate it to be.
Waltz's creative liaison is weirdly attractive (sometimes pretty hot in my opinion) and I liked her performance more than I expected to. The slacker's girlfriend reminded me of Rachael Leigh Cook (who I like a whole lot) but she didn't have enough to do.
This is a very weird show, very well acted and very well shot. The story left a lot of crazy wormholes that could have been explored. At the end, I wasn't exactly sure what I'd seen.
Having once worked at a corporation where consultants were brought in who made significant changes without understanding what we did or how - and insanely fired everyone who worked with a few exceptions and kept the middle management layer that had no value - I found that aspect of the series amusing. Watching the consultant make arbitrary staff cuts for arbitrary reasons rang very true to me. I wish I could have contributed to the film because the story of our Last Supper (catfish) and the red pill/blue pill day of termination (that's a whole different story I need to write) would have added another level of lunacy to the consultant's actions and one that would have fit this film perfectly.
Is it worth watching? Yeah. Mostly because you get to see Waltz flex his peculiar brand of eccentricity. And because the girl (who never gets naked so don't expect that) gives off a hotter vibe than you'd think. Just don't go into it thinking you'll get full resolution.
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