About the Series
Locke & Key is a TV series adapted from an American comic book series of the same name written by Joe Hill. The first episode was released in 2020, and it has three seasons with 28 episodes in total. It is a mix of mild horror with fantasy and is available to stream on Netflix. The drama features three siblings who are embroiled in the mysterious and fantastical world of their ancestral magic. I liked the show, but as an avid fan of fantasy, I was disappointed with the lacklustre worldbuilding.
Trailer
Uploaded by Netflix
Locke & Key Synopsis
This Synopsis was taken from Google.
Following their father’s murder, three siblings move into a house filled with reality-bending keys; from the comics by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.
The Review
My Overall Thoughts
I liked Locke & Key overall, because of its strong characterization, and logicality. By this, I mean that the show was mostly consistent in its development of character roles and the actions of the characters made sense. The first 2 seasons were stronger than the last one.
The Best Parts of the Series
Despite my dislike of the horror genre in general, I enjoyed this show quite a bit, and I ploughed through it within two days. As I said, the characterization is quite believable and gripping, serving to pull you in and make you care about the characters.
Characterization
I fell in love with this family. The Lockes are all interesting, multidimensional complex characters, from the mom to the uncle, to the kids, they all seem like real people: you don’t agree with them all the time, but you appreciate them.
Premise
The idea of the keys and their magic is very interesting, diverse and unique. The keys have the potential to be a very gripping magic system, with inbuilt strengths and weaknesses. They are adequately dangerous, so they make the situations the protagonists go through, even more, fraught with danger. However, I feel that they are very underutilized, and they could have been more epic.
Villain
I love the villain in the first two seasons, however, the last season’s villain is just tacky and kinda weird within the scope of the show. The same role could be played by a villain that fits into the modern setting in a more natural way.
Things That Were Meh
The world-building, particularly the development of the Lockes’ connection with the keys was handled poorly. The love stories, villains in the last season, the abrupt ending and random representation are other minor issues.
World Building
They needed to keep it more consistent and logical. The direction they took it didn’t make sense when combined with the progression of the plot and already revealed information. Spoilers: They made it a big deal that the keys could only be made with Locke blood, but nobody explained what exactly was so special about the Lockes, apart from them having a big-ole house.
The love stories
There are two main love stories, one for each of the older Locke kids, and while the brother’s is good at the start, they really tank it in the end by dumping him together with a random chick he met off-screen. The other one is just all over the place, she jumps from boy A to boy B so fast it makes your head spin. She seems not only callous but weird! Who just goes from finding out that the guy you’ve been dating for months is not what you think he is to the next best alternative without a second glance back? Uggh. No. She needed processing time and the writers didn’t give her any.
My Final Thoughts
This series is a fun, easy-to-watch fantasy with a good villain. Very binge-able.
My rating for this series is 7/10.
Disclaimer:
This review is the Author’s opinion, the author does not claim anything stated here as fact. If you disagree with anything written in this article, please do not hesitate to sound off in the comments down below. However, please keep in mind that the author is not liable for any information stated in this post. It is purely opinion.
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Zubaida Hussain
Well written