‘Locke & Key’ presents a magical mystery within a family drama

Posted on April 17, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

Last weekend, try as I might, I could barely start a movie, let alone finish one. Finally, I decided I needed to try something different. And, that is what led me to the first couple of episodes of the relatively new Netflix series, “Locke & Key.”

The series, whose first season totals 10 one-hour episodes, is based on the graphic novel series by Joe Hill, which is the pen name of Joseph Hillstrom King, son of famed author Stephen King.

The adaptation is from Carlton Cuse (“Lost,” “Jack Ryan”), Meredith Averill (“The Haunting of Hill House,” “The Good Wife”) and Aron Eli Coleite (“Heroes,” “The River”).

The story follows the Locke family, which consists of Nina (Darby Stanchfield, “Scandal”) and her three children, Bode (Jackson Robert Scott, “It”), Kinsey (Emilia Jones, “Brimstone”) and Tyler (Connor Jessup, “Falling Skies”).

The family is dealing with the recent death of husband and father Rendell (Bill Heck, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”). As the series opens, the Locke family is moving to a small town where the father grew up, in a strange manor called Keyhouse.

Trying to acclimate to a new town and a new school, the Locke siblings find themselves in the middle of a strange, magical mystery when Bode begins discovering keys around the house, each with its own mystical power, such as teleportation and entering a strange mirror dimension.

At the time I’m writing this, I’ve only seen the first two episodes, but I’ve really enjoyed them. There is definitely a fantastical element to the story, but through much of these early episodes, we follow the family dealing with the violent death of their father, which helps ground the series.

I’m not sure where the story is going to take us, but there are enough hints and clues set out in these first two episodes that I can’t wait to find out. Although there is definitely some heavy content, I haven’t seen anything so far that you wouldn’t see during the 10 p.m. time slot in primetime. That could change, but so far, this seems like it could be a good show to watch as a family, as long as your kids are teenagers.

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