Locke & Key
LOCKE & KEY - NETFLIX
Locke and Key is the latest in a continuous stream of binge-worthy NETFLIX genre shows that exist as an obvious bid to recapture the success of the streaming service’s most popular flagship properties (i.e. Stranger Things). Based on the comic book series created by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez and developed for television by Carlton Cuse, Meredith Averill and Aron EliColeite, the new series aims for a mature and deeply psychoanalytical deconstruction of its genre and source material. However, it often falls into the common NETFLIX trap of wheel-spinning and wasting time in place of actual plot progression, unearned and inconsistent character development, and a narrative construction guided by shock value and cliff-hanger endings.
The series centers around the titular Locke family – Nina (Darby Stanchfield), Tyler (Connor Jessup), Kinsey (Emilia Jones) and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) – as they move to their mysterious and potentially magical family home in the small and historically rich town of Matheson, Massachusetts. Upon arriving, Bode Locke – the youngest of the bunch – discovers that their house is riddled with magic keys that can grant them extraordinary supernatural abilities. Bode enlists his siblings to help him find and protect their family legacy from the evil woman in the well (Laysla De Oliveira), who conspires to use the keys for her own nefarious means. As they continue to search for the keys, the kids must confront their greatest fears and flaws as the ghosts of their troubled past haunt them and mysterious and inexplicable forces of darkness seek to take their keys and terrorize their lives.
The show’s greatest strengths lie with its talented main and supporting cast, who breathe life into the world and imbue these characters with something approaching vividness and specificity that makes the world they inhabit feel lived-in and complete. Jackson Robert Scott and Laysla De Oliveira are particular standouts here, doing much of the heavy-lifting in the fantasy and horror department and forming the backbone of the show’s good versus evil conflict. The rest of the main cast exist mostly to elevate the dramatic material, which tackles challenging psychological subjects like grief, trauma and addiction, but which often fails to connect these subjects to the magical parts of the story. This results in a narrative that feels disjointed, thematically in-cohesive and tonally inconsistent; it both robs the challenging thematic material of weight and substance and strips the magical story elements of suspense and urgency.
At its best, the series is imaginative, visually engaging and truly horrifying; the characters are endearing and the magical key conceit proves to be endlessly creative and escalates in unpredictable, clever ways across the entire season. Episodes such as “Dissection” showcase the series’ potential ability to craft a meaningful and cohesive story that is capable of balancing magical elements with heavy, real-life subject material. However, in its pursuit of tonal consistency, it struggles more often than not to consistently strike this balance in each individual episode, as well as across the entire season.
As is the case with much of NETFLIX’s narrative programming, the episodes lack shape and structure, serving only to propel the viewer to the next cliffhanger ending. For long stretches of time, the show loses itself in scenes that exist as filler, doing nothing to push the plot or characters forward or develop the show’s themes. It feels as though the writers are struggling to fill a ten-episode season and do not have enough plot to support the show’s lengthy runtime. As a result, the narrative stalls and resumes movement at seemingly random intervals, which contributes to the overall lack of cohesion and qualitative consistency. Despite glimpses of brilliance in its faithfulness to the horror-fantasy genre, as well as its world-building and characters, the series is virtually inept at creating anything meaningful out of its disparate story elements. Locke and Key is a fractured, bloated and narratively thin experience that crafts a vibrant and imaginative magical world with fun characters and interesting horror-fantasy concepts, but it falls victim to some of the worst aspects of NETFLIX programming, thus becomes a series incapable of rising above mediocrity.
LOCKE & KEY is streaming exclusively on NETFLIX February 7th 2020
