Ep 1. Birthday Girl

Control Z is a Mexican thriller drama series that revolves around a group of high school students who have some dark secrets to hide. The first season of the show consists of eight episodes and the first episode is titled "Birthday Girl". The series premiered on Netflix on May 22, 2020.

In the first episode, we are introduced to the protagonist, Sofia, who goes to the same high school as the other characters. She is depicted as a quiet and observant girl who prefers to keep to herself. We also get a glimpse into the life of Javier, who is the popular guy in school and the captain of the soccer team. The episode starts with a scene where Sofia is seen eavesdropping on Javier who is being flirtatious with her friend, Isabela.

As the day progresses, we learn that it is Isabela's 18th birthday and she is planning to throw a massive party at her house. The entire school is invited and it looks like it's going to be a fun night. However, things take a dark turn when the party is crashed by an unknown person wearing a hoodie and a skull mask. The masked person starts spraying some sort of gas in the air which renders most of the students unconscious.

Sofia, who has left the party earlier, rushes back to see what is going on. She finds Isabela unconscious on the floor and tries to wake her up. When Isabela finally regains consciousness, she realizes that her phone has been stolen. Along with her phone, a lot of other students' phones have also been stolen. Everybody starts to panic as the thought of their private and personal information being released looms over their heads.

In comes Raúl, the school's computer geek who seems to have a way with codes and hacking. He figures out that it was a group called "Deep Web" who hacked everybody's phones and that they have all the information that was saved on them. The group sends a message to the entire school saying that they will release everybody's personal information unless two people come forward and confess to their crimes. This sends the entire school into a frenzy as everybody is trying to figure out who the two people could be.

Sofia, who seems to have a sixth sense about these kinds of things, starts to investigate the matter on her own. She asks Isabela about her phone and realizes that the only reason her phone was stolen was because she had some incriminating pictures on it that could ruin her reputation if they got out. Sofia then starts to connect the dots and realizes that there are a lot of people in the school with secrets that they wouldn't want to get out.

Meanwhile, the whole school is in chaos as the students start to turn on each other. Some start to suspect that it was Javier who was behind the hack because he seems to know a lot about technology. Others are suspicious of each other and start to behave erratically. Amidst all this chaos, Sofia finds an unlikely ally in Raúl who helps her try to track down "Deep Web".

The first episode of Control Z is a great start to the series. It sets up the premise of the show and introduces the characters effectively. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered and ends in a cliffhanger which makes you want to watch the next episode immediately. The music and cinematography are top-notch and the performances by the actors are convincing. The pacing of the episode is just right and even though it's about 50 minutes long, it never feels too slow or too fast. If you're a fan of thriller dramas with a mystery element, then Control Z is definitely worth a watch.