Control : Final Thoughts

If you want background noise, Control is the perfect drama for you. Watching Control is like taking part in an endurance test; how long can you last without clicking the X/red dot on your media player and deleting every episode you’ve downloaded? With no prize at the end, I was left with a vapid, numb, feeling once the closing credits began rolling for the last time. I questioned why I bothered to finish this drama and still, as I write this final review, I continue to wonder why.

What makes Control bad isn’t necessarily its setting or premise. What makes this drama bad is it’s overall story, character development, and acting. It’s a huge star studded cast but that’s it. No one serves a purpose in the drama; its so bad that you could probably do away with everyone but Nagumo and Segawa and still have the same show at the end of it all. You could probably leave in the chief for added effect, but everyone else is absolutely useless and without purpose.

This scene was pretty much the only character development in the whole drama

And that’s what this drama is, a show without purpose. We don’t know why these people are here, why they do what they do, what they are there for, or how they got there. All we know is that they’re a bunch of detectives working on murder cases and hired a psychologist to help them crack the difficult ones. So, Teranishi went to the Police Academy with Segawa, with the way they act around each other, you wouldn’t have figured that out unless one of them told you. Once we finally figure out why Segawa is the neurotic detective that everyone knows, its a bit too late to save a drama that’s pretty much standing on one limp leg storywise; and as we all know, its difficult to stand on one.

And its with this lack of backstory that these actors just come on screen and look as vapid as the script they’re reading from. How can you act like a character and you don’t know anything about that character? Once Teranishi got an episode for himself was when Yokoyama finally started putting some effort into his character. Other than that, I sometimes wondered why his character got top billing and was there half the time. He was described to be a former-classmate who had a crush on Segawa but I couldn’t figure that one out until 7 episodes in. Yeah, there was that one time he went to bat for her but other than that it was like watching two coworkers who just met work. There was absolutely 0 chemistry with this entire cast and who can blame them? There was nothing in the script connecting these characters to one another beyond the briefing room.

Argh... this drama, I can't....

Naohito Fujiki was the only tolerable actor on this cast and that’s pretty damn sad. He didn’t have much to work with but what little he did have he managed to turn it into something.

Dramas like this need to connect to its audience. I don’t want to watch an uneventful episode of “Cops”, I want to see the story of a group of detectives handling the effects of their case, dealing with victims, and working like a tight knit group. JOKER, Guilty, Maou and many other police dramas are successful in giving you a taste of the private lives of their characters and fleshing them out so the audience and actor can connect. Having actors is great but having actors who are able to turn themselves into characters is wonderful. I don’t want to see Matsushita Mao playing a detective, I want to see Segawa the Detective.

I kept reminding myself to just focus on your pretty face to make it through. It wasn't enough.

The story is also very redundant. The only good episodes are the two parters. Other than that, its predictable and slow. Too episodic to even care. If you miss an episode, or three, you won’t miss what’s going on in the drama overall. Actually, if you were to watch the first episode, you can skip to the last episode and not miss a single beat. That’s how bad the writing is in this drama. If this was a sitcom, I can understand, but tis not. Its a drama, so give me some story, damnit.

Control definitely meets its namesake, its a control of wits… a control of patience to watch this drama. Some people liked it and I don’t know why. It was devoid of anything worthwhile. I’m still trying to figure out that 12% final in ratings. But you definitely have to have something to watch this drama.

I’m just so disappointed. There was potential and it went absolutely no where. Hidarime Tantei Eye may have been shit but at least it kept you watching the shitfest until the end. This drama even lacked that excitment. You feel so defeated its like, ” Why bother “.

Exactly, why bother with this one. I want my eleven hours back. Deleting this one the moment I’m done with this review.

No. Fuck you.