Netflix: Locke & Key

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After their dad's murder, three siblings move with their mom to his ancestral estate, where they discover magical keys that unlock powers — and secrets.

Note: This series is rated MATURE.

 

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You might be like and wonder that 'mature' rating. It is puzzling because the classical Narnia is surely children friendly, and so it should be, even though recently I've wondered about that too. The reason why the Netflix got this Mature rating comes very clear towards the end of this first season. There are some very crude scenes that you wouldn't want children to see. Teens maybe, but I leave that to your consideration.

Like his dad Joe Hill has got his name attached to this project, and frankly to my amazement, he has approved changes to the original script seen in the IDW comics. You might have not seen them if you have been browsing the super market shelf, but you certainly can find them in well stocked comic shops. If not, they will gladly order you stuff. If everything fails, you'll have Netflix and Amazon Prime to save you. Latter can provide you comics in e-format, but we all know that it's not the same as holding the real thing... or watching this series.

Very early on in the series, they address the similarity to the Narnia, and as the story progresses, it is not the same as CS Lewis Magnum Opus. It is very different, and for once I wasn't bored with the Young Adult angle. Instead, I enjoyed quite a bit, because it's not just YA's, Children, but also adults dealing with very dark themes. In places it is almost Lovecraftian. Not in a sense of great old gods, but the series itself goes to the nether realms, to darkness where the monsters live. Although not as much as it happens in the Stranger Things.

What I mean is that in Lovecraftian themes there is that other realm, nether realm that he called Dreamland, and since then it has got many other names. It is where these twisted, demonic persons live before they invade our world. If the story would be his dads, it would be the place where IT lives, at beyond the border of the Shining. If you understand that you get the darkness and I don't have to spoil the story.

The story is very well crafted and the production theme has collected pieces up to issue #6 of Crown of Shadows. I assume that there is going to be one or two more series, before they finish the thing and I'm glad if they're going to do it, because the series is very well done. There are places where you wish and wonder if they are going do things and find out information, before it's too late. There are lot places, where you wonder where that came from, and why there isn't more exposition.

Frankly it doesn't need anything, because if you stay patient and stick to the end, things will become very clear. I would also like to applaud the production team on making the flashbacks being part of the narrative and in right places. Everything works as it should and there is nothing I would like to complain about.

If you have seen it, you really should, because it's that good.

 

[Pyan]

I must confess, I skipped over this because I thought it was yet another detective pairing with a humorous name (cf Rosemary and Thyme, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Romney and Marsh, etc...

 

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I must confess, I skipped over this because I thought it was yet another detective pairing with a humorous name (cf Rosemary and Thyme, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Romney and Marsh, etc...

I was in same shoes. I honestly weren't interested until it won me over by that mature rating. I had to find out what was going on.

 

[Narkalui]

I read a few of the comics way back when and thoroughly enjoyed them. I am going to watch this as soon as my current binge fuel is exhausted

 

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I read a few of the comics way back when and thoroughly enjoyed them.

He only published 6 per year. So it's no wonder why some people would have dropped it and waited for the collection.

 

[olive]

I didn't know about the comics. I liked the show. I am watching one by one when I find time though. I don't have any binge juice these days.

 

[Narkalui]

I read up to and including Head Games. I do wonder if we'll ever get to see the Fox Pilot starring Miranda Otto (Eowyn) and Nick Stahl (John Connor in T3) which was produced by Spielberg

 

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I do wonder if we'll ever get to see the Fox Pilot starring Miranda Otto (Eowyn) and Nick Stahl (John Connor in T3) which was produced by Spielberg

If you're lucky. I know they are all stored in that Utah saltmine, and if you're lucky, you get a chance to see the rare stuff. Under NDA.

 

[svalbard]

Just finished E1 and was about to give up on it half way through. Too much angst(showing my age) and then the last 10 minutes sucked me in. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

 

[Dave]

This is a very dark series. It isn't for children, but the children are the main protagonists, and (at least for the first five episodes) half of the scenes are in a High School. I find this quite odd, except that (as I already said in the other thread) I think they are trying to capture the same Stranger Things family audience. I don't see a comparison with Narnia at all. It uses elements that have been used before elsewhere for sure. Isn't Kinsey's "Fear" just a rewritten Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Like all good stories, it isn't about the re-use of ideas, but it's how they are are interwoven into something completely new. I didn't find this at all derivative, and I'd recommend it; just not for the children.

 

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I think they are trying to capture the same Stranger Things family audience. I don't see a comparison with Narnia at all.

Well, to me it was kind of obvious. The Stranger Things didn't even come in my mind. The thing is they arrived in the strange house and found there even stranger things. In the Stranger Things series the strange thing captures a protagonist and proves that there are other dimensions. There is no real exploration in the sense, while in this series it's kind of obvious, because any key can lead to new revelations and a lot of them might not be good.

I didn't find this at all derivative, and I'd recommend it; just not for the children.

I think I'd show it to young ones which are older then 10.

 

[Dave]

My comparison to Stranger Things rather than Narnia is not to do with the dimension shifting or other worlds, what I meant was about that element of the story that has these groups of teenagers (or younger) having adventures without the adults - Super 8, (where film-making is also involved), Spy Kids, and ET or The Goonies of course - in fact, almost any film that was made in the 1980's - The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller - and in literary fiction, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Famous Five - I think the film producers like it because they think the children will watch it, but the adults will watch it too out of a reminiscence for their childhood past, or just reminiscence for the 1980's.

And what I'm asking is - Is that really true? I used to read Hardy Boys and The Lone Pine stories as a child, and watched Scooby Doo. Do I want to watch that now? Not at all!

If I still had younger kids I don't think they would want to watch this together with me either. And 1980's "Cool" is not the same as 1960's "Cool" however much film-makers would like it to be.

This "winning formula" method of greenlighting new TV and film can be seen elsewhere too. When something works we get a shower of the same type of thing only not quite as good, and totally missing the main reason for the success of the original, which was its originality.

 

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And what I'm asking is - Is that really true? I used to read Hardy Boys and The Lone Pine stories as a child, and watched Scooby Doo. Do I want to watch that now? Not at all!

If I still had younger kids I don't think they would want to watch this together with me either. And 1980's "Cool" is not the same as 1960's "Cool" however much film-makers would like it to be.

I've been pondering this a bit. The way I see is that there are still people who find Scooby Doo and etc. as cool, but at the same time as SF writers we tend to forget the Fantasy side. The magic. There are a lot of adult who love magic and illusions, and some of the people really cannot see past the illusions. And they don't want to.

If I squeeze my scientist hat hard over my temples and watch this it fails on first steps, but if I allow that bit of fantasy to get under the brim then it's allowed. I do admit that to modern children the Aslan stories in Narnia might be a bit ... oldish, while the story in this one ... is creeping towards horror, and maybe because of Joe's Dad influence.

The Lady in the Well is a nice twist straight at the beginning. If you are good hearted, you wish her to be rescue, because of course she's there because nothing bad could have happened, ever. So, for teaching a young one the difference between good and bad, and good and evil is displayed during the course of the series. It's the audience job to figure out which is which and why it happened that way.

I know that a lot of people don't watch these because they want to debate on the philosophical level. It's just many of us associate cool things being cool despite their age. And frankly, if you look at older things, you kind marvel them now with different level of coolness than you did back in the day.

As we grow older we mature our thinking and change our perspectives. So, what you might have watched back then you wouldn't watch now, because you know what tickles you in a good way.

Honestly, when this came out I was going through a period where I pushed away the walls and allowed me to watch these from a different perspective.

This "winning formula" method of greenlighting new TV and film can be seen elsewhere too. When something works we get a shower of the same type of thing only not quite as good, and totally missing the main reason for the success of the original, which was its originality.

I know. We are kind of silly in that way, but Netflix could have said no to this. Instead, as you can see today, they are opening up and allowing increasing numbers of diversity to creep into their programming. This year has been hard because a lot of new things couldn't happen, because of the covid situation. But they looked at the numbers, cancelled a great deal of excellent series because the mainstream wasn't interested, even though they were highly original. At the end of the day, they have limits and originality isn't always a good thing.

 

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Second season is out on Netflix!

 

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I have watched first three according to the binge watching standards. The series is the same, it feels mostly the same, but something is off. Maybe it is the YA angle that is more prominent in this season as there are a lots of them and they're doing teenage things.

The series still has its mature rating and its mostly for the extreme violence that happens with the baddie. There is no bonking or showing extra amount of skin, but it's not like 8 mm with teens moving to YA, while encountering paranormal stuff. In places it feels that they made a decision to split the PoV between the youngest and the oldest MC's as the oldest are getting into the adulthood and they start to forgetting magic.

There is no real explanation for why that is so because the keys will work on adults and they go through the magical experiences. But in the adult side I felt that I need to wrap some foil, because that plotline is conspirational in places and I, for one, started to become a bit paranoid.

It felt that Mr King had influenced Joe's writing. Personally I don't think Joe needs it, as he's doing it well on his own. No need the horror master there to back him up. Boy can do on his own, but there might be a chance that the producers are influenced by the King's family products and that's why it feels like Stephen's product.

Am I only one feeling that way?

 

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I have only one minor quibble. Gluck as Gabe makes a terrific conniving—and appropriately menacing—incarnation of the demon Dodge, but he has zero chemistry with Emilia Jones. So Gabe and Kinsey's romantic relationship strains credibility—yes, even on a show about magical keys. Apart from that lack of chemistry, Kinsey is smart and no easy mark, and Scot is right there as a viable alternative. There's an attempt to hand-wave this aspect away by chalking it up to Kinsey's removal of her fear in S1, dulling her otherwise sharp intuition so that she doesn't notice all those waving red flags. But heck, even Nina senses there's something a bit off about Gabe.

This is still an impressively strong season of Locke and Key. The performances are terrific across the board—it's nice to see Ashmore in particular play a meatier role this season as Duncan—and once again, the series is not afraid to sacrifice a few characters to ensure that there are real emotional stakes. The show has already been renewed for a third season, and I can't wait to see where the story heads next.

Review: Locke and Key comes back better than ever with action-packed S2

Netflix has already renewed the series for a third season.

arstechnica.com

I've now watched eight and I have to say it gets better, and I personally started to hate the main villain. Dodge is just too powerful, too ruthless and so the main characters die.

 

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The final season of Locke & Key drops on Netflix on August 10, 2022.