Many people believe their office is hell. However, after watching the series, their opinions may change. ‘Advisor’ (Prime Video, Friday the 24th), a mix of black comedy, ‘thriller’ and pure terror The great Christoph Waltz as the new and irritating boss of a video game studio that seems doomed to disappear and is now doomed to explode. Although adapted from a novel called Bentley Smallhas trademark twisted humor Tony Basgallop, co-creator of the great ‘Servant’ movie with Shyamalan: “Actually, that humor is something Little and I share,” warns the screenwriter. “It was the thing that grabbed me most from the original book, and I tried to keep it. A lot of things had to be changed in the plot: the novel was only suitable for a ninety-minute horror movie.”
work to survive
But no, that doesn’t mean ‘The Counselor’ is a show with filler scenes: each episode is pure suspense, pure discomfort in each of its short thirty-minute episodes. Basgallop cleverly doses the information and mysteries surrounding CompWare, the video game studio in freefall, and the height-fearing consultant rising from the ashes to reinvigorate the company in any way possible.
Regus Patoff’s strange methods, The new eccentric villain in Waltz’s career (before he became Colonel Hans Landa from ‘Bastards’ or Ernst Stavro Blofeld from ‘Spectre’)Test the psychological integrity of CompWare employees every day. Some of the few remaining were fired for arriving five seconds late; others are about to be thrown out for their scent. Among the most experienced survivors, Elaine (Britain O’Grady) and Craig (natural wolf), who is determined to discover the truth around the impossible boss.
The bad guy is the system
If you ask Waltz why he accepted the project, he will reply politely by quoting. DH Lawrence: “Never trust the artist, trust the story”. Later, to contradict the master of sentimentality: “What I did was trust the artist more than the story. The story hooked me, but it was Basgallop who convinced me.”
To all this was added the idea of exploring an interesting question: “What is usually abusive? Is the boss crazy or is it the system itself? Because if someone breaks into an abused system and corrupts it, maybe the results will be good. If an analog person enters certain systems of this digital age willingly to rethink models from a different perspective, perhaps the outcome will be positive.”
double life
It is clear from a shocking preface that the ‘Consultant’ is the work of an expert, a seasoned and experienced narrator. Basgallop did not learn the virtues of brevity by writing “The Servant” until long ago. ‘People from the neighborhood’, also with half-hour episodes. “I love the energy and speed the thirty-minute sets force you into,” she tells us. “These are the series that have impressed me as a viewer. As a screenwriter, I also prefer to write. I like the idea of purifying everything to the maximum.”
This period strengthened his vision for “The Consultant”: a work sitcom like no other, deeply dark, but also extremely funny. The office as a fascinating and complex battlefield. “I love that you can be a different person with them than you are at home. There are people who are great at their job and then don’t know how to tie their shoelaces. A place where people with nothing in common are forced to talk every day. The possibilities are endless. I also wrote a new series. [‘Servant’] Developed entirely inside a house. I wanted to get out of the house and go to the office!”