Christoph Waltz plays a workplace rogue in The Consultant

Christoph Waltz may have two Oscars, but he seems increasingly like a one-note actor, cast continually as the eccentric rogue or villain. Amazon Prime Video’s new series The Consultant finds him once again playing a character whose malevolence is belied (or intensified) by fastidiousness, magnetism and arch humour.

Without stretching himself, Waltz is as engaging and unnerving as ever in this queasy workplace thriller-cum-satire based on Bentley Little’s 2015 novel. He stars as Regus Patoff, an enigmatic foreign businessman who unexpectedly arrives and takes control of a high-profile American gaming start-up just weeks after its founder is murdered.

Patoff is curiously oblivious as to what CompWare does, despite having a seemingly legitimate claim to the company, and is wilfully vague about his arrangement with the deceased owner. But as sceptical employees Elaine (Brittany O’Grady) and Craig (Nat Wolff) try to uncover information about him, their search only yields further troubling questions.

Who the new boss really is and what he’s capable of is set up as an intriguing, eerie mystery. What he represents, however, is unambiguous. Like Severance, this series takes a jaundiced view of corporate culture, reframing the office as a place of horror and absurdity. Patoff, who seems to know all and couches threats and demands in faux-polite terms, is disquieting not just because of his uncanniness, but because he’s a grotesque exaggeration of a recognisable management figure.

Elsewhere the show skewers the disposability of start-ups, and interrogates what employees lower down the ladder are willing to overlook or put up with to get ahead. But unlike Severance, The Consultant doesn’t possess the philosophical, psychological and emotional substance to deepen its satire. While Patoff often unnerves, his suspicious staff are insufficiently convincing for us to truly fear for them. As a result, the rest of the cast seem a little out of step with Waltz.

★★★☆☆

On Amazon Prime Video from February 24

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