There's something inherently magical about keys; just ask any parent who's used their jingle-jangle to mesmerize a crying baby, or any 16-year-old with a newly minted driver's license. They represent mystery, freedom and, sometimes, punishment. Writer Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez knew that when they created their acclaimed IDW comic series Locke & Key, and it shines through in the long-awaited adaptation, which finally arrives Friday on Netflix.
The story very well could have been a perfectly acceptable children's fantasy adventure akin to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with the Locke children discovering keys in their neglected ancestral home that can open doors to wondrous worlds. However, it's far more nuanced than that, serving as an exploration of trauma, regret, memory and family secrets, in which these magical instruments create more problems than they solve.
Trapped in development hell for more than a decade, Locke & Key was originally targeted for Fox's 2010-2011 television season, and made it as far as an unaired pilot, starring Jesse McCartney, Miranda Otto and Nick Stahl. When the network passed on the project, an adaptation was announced in 2013 as a Universal Pictures film trilogy, which obviously never materialized. After watching the highly entertaining 10-episode first season of Netflix's series, we can say with confidence that fans should be glad of that, because Locke & Key works perfectly as a briskly paced television drama.
Developed by Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel), Meredith Averill (The Haunting of Hill House) and Aron Eli Coleite (Daybreak, Heroes), Locke & Key follows siblings Bode (Jackson Robert Scott), Kinsey (Emilia Jones) and Tyler (Connor Jessup), months after the murder of their father Rendell, as they move cross-country with their mother Nina (Darby Stanchfield) to their ancestral home in Matheson, Massachusetts. Of course, they immediately discover that sprawling, neglected Keyhouse, is filled with mysteries, not the least of which is the demon inadvertently freed by 10-year-old Bode from the locked well house, and determined to go to any lengths to possess the mansion's myriad magical keys.
The search for those relics, which have intriguing names like the Anywhere Key, the Head Key and the Ghost Key, propels much of the plot early on, as they call to the Locke children from their hiding places within Keyhouse. Luckily, however, Locke & Key doesn't devolve into a season-long scavenger hunt; instead, we're drawn in as the Locke children use the Head Key to revisit memories of their father, and his death, and to help them settle into their new lives in Matheson. And with each new key comes new questions: about Rendell's past; about why their uncle Duncan (Aaron Ashmore) can't recall details of a childhood spent at Keyhouse; and, most importantly, what, precisely, the demon Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira) is, and why she so desperately needs the keys.
They're mysteries that quickly pull in allies, both willing and unwilling, in Rendell's childhood friend Ellie Whedon (Sherri Saum), who knows more aboutthan she lets on, and her autistic son Rufus (Coby Bird), Keyhouse's groundskeeper; Kinsey's misfit friends Scot (Petrice Jones) and Gabe (Griffin Gluck), and rival, of sorts, Eden (Hallea Jones); and Tyler's love interest Jackie (Genevieve Kang).
Despite the sizeable supporting cast, most of Locke & Key falls on the shoulders of its three young stars, who bear the weight with little signs of strain. Connor Jessup, best known for his roles in Falling Skies, American Crime and Closet Monster, and Emilia Jones, as teenagers Tyler and Kinsey, are burdened with much of the emotional baggage as they struggle with guilt and fear from their pasts, insecurities about their new lives, and the responsibility of knowing the supernatural threats facing their family in a scenario in which most adults can't remember any magical events. Eleven-year-old Jackson Robert Scott, who won over audiences as Georgie in It, brings with him a sense of wonder as Bode, who's the first to encounter Dodge and Keyhouse's keys. He's no doe-eyed innocent, however, as he's well aware there are certain "rules" to magic -- and when no one will believe him about the "well lady," he sets out to stop her, with advice (and a bear trap) from Rufus.
Lacking the requisite dose of 1980s nostalgia, Locke & Key is unlikely to be Netflix's next Stranger Things. (But what could be?) However, it's nevertheless an engrossing supernatural drama, with occasional doses of horror, that should find broad appeal with teenage and adult audiences. Its steady stream of revelations and cliffhangers virtually demands binge-watching, and leaves viewers wondering how long they'll have to wait for the second season.
Arriving Friday on Netflix, Locke & Key stars Darby Stanchfield (Scandal) as Nina Locke, Jackson Robert Scott (IT) as Bode Locke, Connor Jessup (American Crime) as Tyler Locke, Emilia Jones (Horrible Histories) as Kinsey Locke, Bill Heck (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) as Rendell Locke, Laysla De Oliveira as Dodge, Thomas Mitchell Barnet as Sam Lesser, Griffin Gluck (American Vandal) as Gabe, and Coby Bird as Rufus Whedon.