Observe. Streamline. Improve.
"I won't be here forever. I'm only the consultant."
—Regus Patoff
The Consultant is a 2023 dark comedy-thriller series releasing on Prime Video, based on the novel of the same name by Bentley Little. The series stars Christoph Waltz, Nat Wolff, and Brittany O'Grady.
After a merger falls through and their CEO dies, the employees at CompWare, the most successful mobile games studio in Los Angeles, are forced to deal with the arrival of a consultant named Regus Patoff, whose methods for improving CompWare turn out to be ruthless, spirit-breaking, and even lethal.
The series released on February 24, 2023.
Previews: Official Teaser
, Official Trailer
The Consultant contains examples of:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Patoff’s hair is described as being an unnatural shade of red in the book. This is not the case in the series.
- Adaptation Inspiration: The show takes the premise from the book about a demonic consultant named Regus Patoff taking over a company but the rest of the plot is quiet different. It's notably Lighter and Softer as the book has more gruesome murders and supernatural elements.
- Ambition Is Evil: Zig-zagged all over the place.
- Played straight: Elaine does some horrible things to advance her career, as does Sang to save his company. Neither are portrayed sympathetically by the end of season 1. Craig is so nice he's willing to take up Catholicism for his fiancée, everyone seems to love him, but he doesn't have any desire to move up the ranks. Given the way the whole company behaves when an office in the management suite becomes available; Craig is very much the outlier at CompWare.
- Subverted: Patoff clearly is evil, but he has no real ambition for advancement. Craig isn't evil, and has no ambition, but gets kicked to hell and back just for being a nice guy. Elaine gets everything she wants with no repercussions.
- Antagonist Title: The series is named after Regus Patoff himself, who is the primary villain of the story.
- Ascended Extra: Elaine in the book is a minor character who has a small role before being Put on a Bus. In the show, she is one of the main characters.
- Bad Boss: A running theme throughout the show.
- Patoff is an extraordinarily cruel example. He informs all of his remote workers that if they're not physically before him within 1 hour, they will be fired. When a wheelchair-bound woman shows up 5 seconds late, Patoff locks her out and fires her all the same. The series is replete with similar examples—from firing employees based on they smell to insidiously ruining their personal relationships and ultimately their lives for giggles.
- Sang too. His company is tanking, he was never shown doing any sort of work, his employees in equal measure thought he was an arrogant jerk, were bilking him for medical expenses or simply not doing any work before Patoff arrives; and he never listened to any of Craig's pitches. To reiterate: Craig's the guy who built the company-saving game he really needed.
- As of the finale of season 1, Elaine too. In the first episode she's given herself a "title bump" to "Creative Liason" to get a better job at any other company (she's Sang's PA); she offloads all of her work onto Diane; makes a deal to temporarily get herself an office (which she later reneges on, and keeps it), her one suggestion in the boardroom is laughed off for it's stupidity (the elephant); ultimately though, Craig needs to tell her why the spyware on the demo is trouble and she still doesn't understand it's much more than a minor hassle. As the new CEO of a tech company, that's REALLY bad news.
- Bait-and-Switch: In the opening scenes, a school field trip walks into Sang's office, and then three shots ring out. One of the children has shot Sang.
- Benevolent Boss: Patoff tries to present himself as this, even walking one of his employees through breathing exercises and heaping praise on others. No one seems to buy any of it as genuine, rightly so.
- Bittersweet Ending: The game that Craig created manages to save the company, Elaine is made head of the company, and Patoff leaves for good. Nevertheless, Patti and Craig ultimately split, Craig might still end up in law enforcement's crosshairs due to the spyware embedded in the game, and Patoff is still at large.
- Deal with the Devil: What Sang appears to have entered into with Regus Patoff.
- Death by Adaptation: In the book, the CEO is present throughout the most of the story but he is a figurehead unable to stop Patoff from taking over. As seen in the show, CompWare's CEO is killed early on with Patoff moving in soon after.
- Depraved Bisexual: Regus Patoff coerces Sang into a blowjob and then seduces Craig's fiancée.
- Embarrassing Statue: Patoff decides to honor Sang by delivering a statue of him. Unfortunately, it's a fully naked one with visible genitalia.
- Evil Mentor: As the series progresses, Patoff transitions from a Bad Boss into this, towards Elaine in particular.
- Faux Affably Evil: Patoff has an upbeat, cheerful personality, even as he is firing employees en masse and being a generally threatening presence.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the opening scene, Elaine is taking a school group around CompWare and asks them if they know what Sang's first game was. A young male voice cheerfully pipes up with "Fuck Dragons", and Elaine meets the gaze of the kid who gave this answer. This serves to show there's something a little off about the lad, right before he executes Sang in cold blood and spends the rest of the first series in a mental institution
- Kick the Dog: Patoff has a lot of moments of this, but perhaps his worst is forcing his new "clients" to give him sexual favors.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Reg. US. Pat. Off.
- Pet the Dog: It's revealed in the final episode that Patoff never harmed Sang's mother. Instead, he purchased a home for her, gave her English lessons, and provided her with a cell phone. Undercut somewhat by the fact that said cell phone belonged to Craig's kidnapped fiancée.
- Reality Warper: His "after work drink" with Craig shows elements of this; the bridge he is driving across (giving him the excuse not to stop and let Craig out) appears to go on for as long as he wants it to, and when Craig goes back to the exclusive club the next day, the room is not only empty of everything that was there the previous night, even its dimensions are completely different. The extent or limitations of this aspect of the mystery is never revisited.
- Riddle for the Ages: It's never fully explained just what Regus Patoff actually is. He appears to know everything about his clients and their employees, and his contract requires that his clients die a gruesome death. Also, his skeleton is apparently made out of solid gold, and he appears to have/be a part of something that has some level of reality warping powers.
- Satanic Archetype: Patoff is revealed to be, if not literally the Devil himself, then at least a very close approximation. He reacts very oddly around religious imagery, he makes a pet project out of corrupting and mentally breaking the religious Patti, and the entire series revolves around him making "deals" with people to sacrifice their morals and even lives.
- Sexual Extortion: Patoff coerces Sang into fellating him as payment for his deal. It's implied to be his M.O. for every client.
- Sex for Services: Patoff urges Elaine to sleep with her ex-boyfriend Patrice as further "payment" for his help. She's disgusted at first but ultimately does so offscreen.
- The Sociopath: Patoff is absolutely one, with Craig point-blank saying "we work for a sociopath."
- The Spook: Even when Patoff's computer-gifted employees try to dig up some kind of background or online presence on him, they find absolutely nothing to suggest his existence. It takes a hard paper copy for them to even trace his past and realize that another CEO who used his "services" was found mysteriously dead.
- The Stoner: Amy, one of the supporting characters, turns out to be a frequent drug user. She smokes pot once with Craig in her car, and Amy admits she'd been on ketamine after Sang's murder for a time. Amy's a slightly hippieish woman who ditches her shoes in the office to put her feet up and has an overall casual air, with her having Quirky Curls, though it's very downplayed in general.
- Title Drop: The official trailer ends with Patoff "reassuring" Elaine in a mocking tone that his position at CompWare is only temporary, because he is, after all, only the consultant.
- Villains Never Lie: True to his word, by the end of the series, Patoff has managed to reverse CompWare's misfortunes, and has ensured that Sang-Woo's legacy is secured. Unfortunately, his deals really suck.
- Visual Pun: Regus Patoff is almost literally worth his weight in gold.
- Woman Scorned: Patti (through Patoff's meddling) believes she is this; but Craig was always faithful to her. As a result of her misinformation, Patti abandons Craig in disdain for not knowing why she's upset (he doesn't know, as he didn't do anything wrong), ends up in Patoff's thrall in the records office and leaves Craig anyway. The only thing that would set a relationship onto stormy seas was when Patoff kissed Patti, which she never told Craig about, making her a massive hypocrite to boot.
- The Wonka: Patoff is a malevolent, soul-crushing version of this.
- Your Days Are Numbered: In flashback, Patoff proposes to take over Sang's company after the latter's death and then upon Sang's acceptance, he cheerfully announces that he'll come back in two weeks.
