Locke & Key

Now that coronavirus has everyone staying indoors for entertainment, the streaming services are there for us. I've been watching a lot of shows, and I just finished Locke & Key on Netflix, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Based on a comic book series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, and adapted for television by Carlton Cuse (who was a show-runner for Lost), Meredith Averill, and Aron Eil Colette, Locke & Key is a dandy supernatural tale whose main character is a house--and what a house (I was disappointed to read that it was a set, and not a real house)--that contains many mysterious keys that have magical properties.

The Locke family has moved from Seattle after the murder of their father back to his ancestral home in Massachusetts. The mother (Darby Stanchfield) is trying to hold everything together. Tyler (Connor Jessup) is a senior in high school, and Kinsey (Emilia Jones) is a year behind him. The youngest is Bode (Jackson Robert Scott), who is the first to discover a key and what it does. He also discovers that there is a mysterious woman living at the bottom of a well, whom he first dubs "Well Lady."

The keys have different powers. The most useful is a key that allows the user to go through a door and end up anywhere they wish. Another allows the user to go inside their own head. Jones uses this key to eliminate the fear within her. The series ends before we find out the origin of the keys, but it is clear that we are set up for a second season.

Anyway, the "Well Lady" is the villain of the piece (she is played by Laysla de Oliveira) and wants those keys. Basically, the ten episodes slowly unfold the mystery of who she is and why she wants the keys, especially one that opens a black door hidden in a sea cave.

If that last bit sounds a bit Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew-ish, I think that's by design. Like Stranger Things, Locke & Key is centered around the kids, as the adults are on the periphery. The suspense is very well done, even if there are some romantic subplots that could have been trimmed.

The acting is good, especially young Scott, who at times is the most sensible character on screen. I was also taken with Jones, who is an English actress (I am perpetually surprised by how well some English performers can do American accents) who takes over the action at several points.

While I was a little disappointed that more wasn't resolved at the series end--there is basically a cliff-hanger at the end, I will definitely be there for season two. As long as that house is back, I'm there.