Locke & Key, the comedian guide sequence written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez for IDW, has been eyed for one live-action adaptation or one other (…or one other) for practically a decade. In the long run, Netflix is the one to convey it to life. Was it well worth the wait?
First developed for tv by Fox again in 2010, Locke & Key sustained a number of starts-and-stops since then, together with at Hulu and as soon as envisioned as a function movie trilogy. However on Friday, Feb. 7, it arrives within the type of a 10-episode sequence developed by Carlton Cuse (Misplaced, Bates Motel), Meredith Averill (The Haunting of Hill Home) and Aron Eli Coleite (Heroes). Averill’s credit score is maybe most obvious in the long run end result, because the Netflix sequence marries the moody, gothic setting of Netflix’s Hill Home with the youth-skewed journey tone of Stranger Issues.
Locke & Key stars Darby Stanchfield (Scandal) as Nina Locke, a recovering alcoholic who within the wake of husband Rendell’s tragic homicide strikes herself and her three children — Tyler (American Crime standout Connor Jessup), Kinsey (Utopia‘s Emilia Jones) and Bode (It‘s Jackson Robert Scott, the lone carryover from the scrapped Hulu adaptation) — throughout the nation from Seattle to the Locke household’s ancestral dwelling, Key Home, in Matherson, Massachusetts. As teenagers Tyler and Kinsey battle with the brand new faculty/social scene, Bode makes a sequence of discoveries across the Key Home property, together with however not restricted to a mysterious presence inside a wellhouse and a sequence of keys that possess uniquely magical properties. (For instance, the Wherever Key can transport you thru any door you may visualize, whereas the Head Key — as soon as inserted right into a lock that ickily materializes on the nape of the neck — permits an individual to actually step inside an elaborately constructed metaphor for his or her thoughts.)
As Bode, and shortly after Tyler and Kinsey, turn out to be aware of their very particular new dwelling, their reactions are extra within the vein of “Huh, cool” than the far extra apt “Severely, what the holy [bleep] is occurring right here?!,” which you merely want to just accept because the story marches ahead. Nina and the children’ Uncle Duncan (Killjoys‘ Aaron Ashmore), in the meantime, are oblivious to the goings-on, in line with guidelines set by the comedian books (after age 18, you’re blind to magic). That wrinkle sadly stymies Stanchfield’s storyline, particularly, leaving Nina to as a substitute delve into the thriller of husband Rendell’s peculiar previous and the way a seemingly kindly neighbor (The Fosters‘ Sherri Saum) suits into it.
Outdoors of the supernatural points, the teenager fare is at instances expectedly rote, giving Jessup nothing near the fabric he labored with on American Crime; as a substitute, his perfect scenes are reverse Jones’ Kinsey, as brother and sister navigate a tough, evolving dynamic. Jones is at first saddled by the Unhappy Loner position, till Kinsey undergoes a most welcome transformation of types; that’s when the younger actress actually shines. Scott, doing an excellent little bit of the heavy lifting as Bode, is… maybe overcertified? The youngest Locke rolls with the unbelievable punches a bit too simply.
Locke & Key‘s Dodge
One standout among the many proceedings is Laysla De Oliveira (I’ll go together with… The Gifted?) as Dodge aka one face of what the Lockes discover themselves up towards. The Brazilian actress manages to, as wanted, come off as an all-knowing, aggressive, historic evil… or as a flirty kegger crasher. (She additionally enunciates Bode’s identify in a bone-chilling method, brrrr.)
The set design, as with the aforementioned The Haunting of Hill Home, is beautiful and moody and ornate, making Key Home very a lot a personality unto itself. And the particular results demanded by most of the discovered keys are slick and top-notch, particularly once we go inside Kinsey’s thoughts or when the children unearth a sure somebody’s recollections. These two points elevated the grade right here from being a extra common “C+.”
Locke & Key isn’t in any respect shy about revealing Key Home’s unimaginable secrets and techniques; it simply struggles to then do a lot with them, as a substitute repeatedly hitting pause on any acquired momentum to dive again into highschool courting/film membership drama. As such, issues don’t actually get crackling till Episode 5 or so, constructing to a season finale that thrillingly thrusts the children into hero mode however, most of all, units the stage for any doable Season 2. I might be most curious to see what lovers of the comedian guide sequence (of which I’m unacquainted) consider this lonnnnnng-awaited adaptation, and its potential for the longer term.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Boasting a wonderful forged, Locke & Key is fast to unlock its whiz-bang magical secrets and techniques (and in flip wields nifty particular results), but struggles to conjure a lot momentum.