When a hacker begins to broadcast the secrets of her entire school, Sofia works to uncover their identity.
Control Z is a Mexican teen drama, available on Netflix (English voice over dubbing). The show is directed by Alejandro Lozano and stars Ana Valeria Becerril.
I was interested by the brief description of the show. These are the teen programmes I find the most interesting, uncovering some kind of mystery (Pretty Little Liars, Scream, etc.) I can say I was pleasantly surprised by this programme. Some of the episodes flew by because I was so invested. Despite my overall view of the programme being positive. There is still a lot to discuss, including some negative criticism.
Characters
I think Sofia is possibly one of my favourite characters I have come across within a teen drama. She is so unique. Of course she is this ‘edgy’, unpopular, 'one of the boys' type of girls we often see within this genre. She is still so different. My problem with this stereotype is they’re often displayed as undesirable, weak, insecure, masculine and usually quite irritating. I felt that Sofia wasn’t any of this. She was confident and knew how to stand up for herself and others, without being boisterous and annoying. It was her intelligence that made her have power over others, rather than being the bottom of the food chain. Even though people taunted her, called her names and were rude, she seemed above it all - as though she was too mature and intelligent compared to the others (somehow without being arrogant).
In general I feel the acting in this teen drama was of a higher quality than most. I found Patricio Gallardo (Gerry) was really great at believable anger. With poor acting, we usually find actors in these programmes to simply raise their eyebrows or clench their jaw, though Gallardo had this expression I have only ever seen in real life situations, the emotion was in his eyes and it was really impressive for a teen programme.
Visuals
The overall look of the programme was also great. I often found myself admiring the camerawork and the colouring. I feel they made good use of hand-held camera work, using it really well to put you into the scene. In general, it’s clear they took a lot of care and pride in every shot. Also with colour grading, it was so aesthetically pleasing and such great use of colour.
LGBTQ+
The incorporation of the community within this programme was great. They had Isabela, a transgender character (played by transgender actress Zion Moreno), a bisexual man, a gay man and a lesbian. They included so much, yet it wasn’t forced. It was so naturally displayed in their characters and their sexuality or orientation wasn’t their only purpose or personality trait. They were respectful, inclusive and educational.
They did well to show both positive and negative responses, such as Luis’ mother being seemingly supportive of her son being gay. On the other hand we have Gerry’s parents almost punishing him by taking away his electronics to ‘prevent’ him from watching homosexual pornography. I felt it well represented the different responses from youngsters, parents and teachers. It also showed how homophobia within a family can be troubling and cause a person to repress their true self, which is truly heartbreaking and painful for them.
The lack of education regarding LGBTQ+ in schools was made very clear. When discussing the subject with the head teacher he had such lack of knowledge he didn’t even know the letters for LGBTQ+. It represents the ignorance of the situation, how even someone in charge of education isn’t aware of something so basic. It really emphasizes the need for awareness in schools in order for situations to be dealt with effectively - so that children have a responsible and knowledgeable adult to talk to when dealing with their sexuality or identity.
Mental Illness (TW: depression, anxiety, self harm)
The topic of mental illness was also present within the show as we saw the main character Sofia struggle with depression, self harm, and perhaps anxiety. I feel they portrayed it well, they didn’t make her illness her entire personality or character but showed her perspective of how she feels.
When she would get extremely overwhelmed to where she would self harm it showed how her mind was racing. Every bad and overwhelming situation in her life that was causing her stress and anxiety would arise. These thoughts would take over her mind and she would self harm, almost out of her own control. I felt it was of great importance to show this happening. It is a side of mental illness that has many stigmas and people may not understand why a person would hurt themselves. Showing her state of mind, being riddled with stressful and hurtful thoughts, it put us in her position, showing her perspective and how a person gets to this devastating position and mindset to harm themselves.
Another effective scene was when she enters the party at Raul’s house. The house is rammed with people and she is uncomfortable, we see for a couple of seconds from her perspective that she is almost zoning out. This is something many people experience when they have anxiety. It was so subtle, it could have gone unnoticed, though I saw it clearly represent her anxious frame of mind.
Positive Critiques
I often feel that with these ‘stalking’ situations, such as in Pretty Little Liars you think HOW do they find out this much information. I’m glad they had a logical explanation in this show, as he hacked into their accounts after they’d used the school WIFI. It is a more logical explanation than him having eyes and ears everywhere.
The reveal of the hacker was actually impressive too. It made sense but wasn't expected or obvious (to myself anyway). It showed his reasons for performing the hack, how he got the information and it all seems to add up without any plot holes. I feel there can be a great disappointment with these reveals as they’ve been built up and the entire narrative of the programme, but I wasn’t disappointed, confused or left with answers. It tied everything together nicely.
There are some plots that weren’t completely closed, so I expect them to be continued in a second season. I wonder what the main narrative will be next time. The creators allow us as the audience to grow close and have a connection with the characters, so despite the plot, I look forward to seeing more of the characters that I have become so interested in.
Negative Critiques
The only thing I had a problem with in the series was the believability of some situations. Fully making out in class, sex in classrooms, teachers having sex in classrooms, sex in the cleaners closet, sex everywhere on the school premises. It happens so much, I just feel it’s a little unrealistic. Then, at the end of the series when the school’s secrets are being revealed and everyone starts attacking each other...it was a little bit of an eye roll. I doubt that this brawl is going to start, in real life I'd imagine it to be more of an awkward situation, arguing… maybe one or two fights but for everyone to just start fighting. Unrealistic and quite disappointing.
The show did really well with portraying mental illness but then they included a scene later on in the series where Sofia is really obviously self harming in the classroom, before being sent to a mental health clinic. This could obviously take place, but I felt it didn’t feel right for her character. I know she must have been in a different mental situation to need to be in the clinic but it felt completely out of her character to be doing that in public. She is usually shown suffering whilst on her own. It’s not a huge issue but it just felt unusual.
There were also moments when the hacker knew things they’d only know if they were in earshot of their conversation. You would clearly look around to see who was texting or just try to identify the person but often they would just read the text and not try to see who was listening to them, which was frustrating.
Final Thoughts
Despite it’s few negative aspects, the programme in general was great. I found myself being irritated by people and situations which is always a good sign of a good show. If you’re not annoyed by any character or situation, then what is the point of the show? I look forward to the next season.
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