Season 1 review (PART 1 is spoiler free)
As a fan of Elite, I have to be honest and say that Control Z didn't really live up to the potential. The idea was good, the premise was intriguing but the execution was not so great.
I think a lot of its weaknesses lied in the script. The story lines weren't as tight, a lot of the conversations and dialogs felt under developed, and well, the way some character arcs were presented was a bit too over the top. Gerry for instance, like honestly, where we supposed to care for him at some point?
What also struck me a little was the way some things escalated way too quickly. For instance the fights, there's just.. a bit too much violence in this show and I know, Elite had murder, we get it, but it was masked with other things and not necessarily driven by violence.
Control Z took things too far. There were consequences they can't take back and I think they treated many characters unfairly. LGBTQIA was represented here but let's be real, very poorly with some characters. Elite may be a bit over the top but it has so many positives going for it, people are also very accepting in that show and a lot of strong characters who stand up for themselves.
Control Z is built on bullying, it's built on negative feelings, anger, frustration, sadness - and to balance it? Not much is given here. And don't even get me started on the adult characters who handled SO MANY things poorly that it's even hard to fathom what they could have been thinking.
I'll say this though, the show has some good moments. The first episode is super strong, I like how Sofi's character has this Sherlock type attention to detail. Veronica Mars vibes and I dig that! I loved episode 7, despite the mess before and after it. It is cleverly titled Control Z aka ctrl z aka "undo".
And, Javier, I liked his character arc. It wasn't perfect but at the same time, I think his was the least messiest. Sofi's was good too but also a little all over the place.
All in all, what can I say. I binged it all in one go, I liked it less than Elite but it was still entertaining.
But now, there are spoilers from here on out:
I was actually really happy how the big reveal turned out. It gave me so much You vibes and that was very much appreciated (as nuts as that show is, it's still entertaining). Raúl being the hacker and doing it to win Sofi over... twisted but also sort of thrilling.
But while it did have a You+Elite thing happening, it didn't have the motivation there. I wasn't really sure why Raúl suddenly was after Sofi.. yes he noticed her, yes he seemed empathic, but like.... why now? Why like in a semester, he suddenly wanted to literally bring down all his friends for her. Yes, the photos, blabla, like.. I'm still very confused, maybe I wasn't paying enough attention so please, if you have answers, explain it to me. Why was he suddenly obsessed with Sofi?
Anyway, back to the show. It wasn't as sharply written and I'm fairly certain it needed a bit more time in the oven to cook properly. To give it some crispness. The biggest reason for this for me was that it was hard for me to care for any of characters besides Sofi and Javier by the end, even Raúl wasn't as charismatic as Joe in You. Almost everyone besides maybe like Isabela were portrayed as bad and eventually it was like... are there any good people in this school!?
PS: Raúl's beaten up lips in that final scene in the season finale were awful. Like dude didn't have a nose bleed but his lips looked like he tried Kylie Jenner's lip challenge. It was so bad it was funny and that's the opposite of what that scene should have made me feel.
PS 2: Sofi's love-triangle with Javier and Raúl could've been a little more confusing for her. It was like ... Javier one minute and right onto Raúl the next, there was no real tension and I just.. I don't know. I just needed more! Even Javier and Raúl fighting over Sofi felt like out of nowhere all the time.
Most fcked up thing tho? Luis’ mom not pressing charges against Gerry!!!!! THE FCK!????
