Recent comments in /f/television

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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hc600 t1_ja8grg5 wrote

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

Ok so he made all the lawyers just disappear? Like, if he’s actually magic then good writing would have shown some lawyer being affected to explain how it happened. Like, it’s like making a show set in a small town under attack by a mysterious force and no one even mentions calling the police/sheriff /mayor or a building is on fire and no one mention calling the fire fighters. Or a character needs medical assistance and no one mentions calling a doctor. Or a family fights over who inherits a mansion but no one even mentions looking at a will or if there is a will.

Like, why have the characters go to the trouble of looking at the camera footage and wondering out loud how he can be in charge without consulting the obvious and easy place to get an answer?

Like, it isn’t usually a complicated question who is in charge of the CEO and board member is disabled. It’s written down! Either read the document or ask the lawyers to read the document and tell you what it says if that’s too hard! But in any event whoever is supposed to be in charge wouldn’t be a contractor. Unless he was also appointed to the board and/or as CEO. That’s bad and lazy writing sorry. They could have easily put him in charge in a way that made sense!

Like, you could just have the two employees find out that he convinced the founder to appoint him to the board and as interim CEO and signed a written consent doing that in the blowjob scene. Easy. Now he’s actually in charge unless removed by the stockholders/equity holders (the mom, presumably). Ok now the mom disappeared. I guess he is in charge unless she reappears or he’s arrested for crimes.

Or you could have him working there as a consultant before the founder dies (like in the book, based on the summary) and bending people to his will so that he is able to take de facto control when the shooting happens.

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jingleheimerschitt t1_ja8fun5 wrote

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

The fact that this wouldn't happen in real life because of all the checks and balances most corporations have in place is kind of the point of the story. This guy seems to just make things happen, in some almost magical or supernatural way, often by somehow compelling people to let him do it or convincing them to let him do it -- they know it shouldn't be happening this way, but they find themselves swept up in it anyway. Why they can't/don't stop him is part of what makes the story interesting. If you continued watching, you would see more information about how he was able to take over, but the story isn't a procedural about corporate takeovers or even a mystery that can necessarily be solved with a detective.

Edit: typo

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