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jingleheimerschitt t1_ja8kiq1 wrote

Reply to comment by hc600 in “ Prime Video's The Consultant Is a Little Weird, a Little Unsettling, and Mostly Mediocre.” by Hidethegoodbiscuits

I'm going to include some spoilers here, but I encourage you to finish the series for the full effect. The thing that might help you to know is that the owner of the company is >!very young and isn't very good at running a company!<, and I'd guess he doesn't have lawyers or an HR department or really anything that most truly successful businesses have. Again, it's not a hyper-realistic story and suspending disbelief is useful. It may just not be for you, but the lack of realism is truly part of the story and part of what makes Patoff so intriguing.

>!The owner of the company, Sang, is 20 years old. Patoff's pitch is that Sang's company is within months of folding and that Patoff can save the company -- and make Sang immortal as the founder of the company -- but only if he signs the company over to Patoff upon his death. Everything Patoff does after Sang's death is in service to that agreement, and he ends up being successful in saving the company and achieving immortality for Sang, but in a monkey's paw kind of way. Sang's employees are as clueless as Sang about normal business dealings, and their desires, fears, and innermost thoughts are being manipulated by Patoff as he maneuvers to get the company back on its feet and achieve Sang's immortality. Patoff uses what he knows about the main characters -- which he appears to find in some really creative ways! -- to manipulate them into doing things that end up showing them who they really are and what they really want in the end (mostly in a bad way, like finding they can utterly debase themselves for the company's benefit). Basically, Patoff is the devil and Sang made a deal with him.!<

ETA: I just saw your edits with examples and, I mean, you need to watch more than 25% of a show if you want to understand the story. All of that is addressed. I'm not saying you'll love the way it's addressed, but I think a lot of people are trying to make this show and the story it's telling into something they just aren't. It's not a procedural. It's not a whodunnit. It's not Succession or Mythic Quest. It's a story about this strange dude named Regus Patoff who somehow manages to take over this big, high-profile company after the strange death of its founder despite all the reasons it shouldn't have happened that way.

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LobsterVirtual100 t1_ja8nvvo wrote

Yeah you sum it up well, the premise of the show and style it chases leans into the absurdity and the surreal nature of the story— which seems like a lot of the audience is having trouble picking up.

Imo I think because the show is a comedy but playing itself so straight and dramatic (which arguably plays up the comedic effect of things).

People disappointed the cake doesn’t taste like the frosting.

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jingleheimerschitt t1_ja8ols0 wrote

>Imo I think because the show is a comedy but playing itself so straight and dramatic (which arguably plays up the comedic effect of things).

This is 1) why I love Burn After Reading and 2) why some people don't think BAR is very good/funny. I'm going to think about this high-drama veneer on a dark comedy on my rewatch of The Consultant this week!

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cello12345 t1_jaamftt wrote

the upskirt floor was there before he got there tho and I don't remember them explaining how that got there

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jingleheimerschitt t1_jaao4i9 wrote

How the floor got there? I don’t understand your question, sorry.

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cello12345 t1_jaas3w9 wrote

the floor with the see-through bottom. Basically any building built today has opaque floors, even if the rest of it is transparent glass so women employees can wear skirts and dresses without exposing themselves. seemed like it was just there to be cool/omnimous/chekov's gun when it's not something any architect would sign off on for a place a business.

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jingleheimerschitt t1_jacwbif wrote

Personally, I just figured it was one of those things very rich, very young gaming company owners would do for the lolz -- architects can be paid off like anyone else, and it's possible decisions like that are what led Compware to be in the financial situation it was in.

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Accurate-Sprinkles-9 t1_ja8zrvy wrote

dude, if someone dies of halitosis in the first two episodes of a show and no one in the show acts like that is weird I'm not gonna watch the rest for that to see if it is all explained.

crap show

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jingleheimerschitt t1_ja9132u wrote

Or you could watch the rest to see why they don’t think that’s weird instead of writing two essays about what a show you haven’t watched “should” have done.

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Accurate-Sprinkles-9 t1_ja93eev wrote

You've gotten me confused with one of the other people you are arguing with about how they aren't smart enough to understand the show mate

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jingleheimerschitt t1_ja93yg8 wrote

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect people to watch a show to understand it. If you don’t want to watch it, cool, but you don’t get to complain about not understanding why things happen the way they do.

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