Go
Saints!

Friday
March 29th, 2024

locke and key spotlight pageLocke siblings Kinsey, Tyler and Bode share a discovery during this scene from Netflix’s “Locke and Key” series. Courtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

I’m a fan of a good mystery series or novel and recently, as I was searching for some entertainment on Netflix, I came across the series “Locke and Key,” which is an adaptation from a graphic novel series by Gabriel Rodríguez about the Locke family as they move to the small town of Matheson, Mass. after the murder of their father. Throughout the season, the family discovers keys throughout their new home that give them new abilities and unlock several doors in their new lives, so to speak, all while battling an demon who wants the keys for its own evil purposes. I watched the season over the course of a few days and overall, I felt rather “meh” after finishing it. 

One of the things that has to be addressed about the show is the scenery and location because it’s gorgeous. The show was filmed throughout a handful of spots in Toronto, Ontario, and Nova Scotia and those locations end up being a great choice because everything is just so pretty and picturesque, so the show definitely has a lot going for it in that department. I particularly liked the scenes that take place near the ocean because again, it’s just such a cinematic and picturesque place. I also liked the house that was used for the Locke family’s new home, the set designs for that were also very well done. 

One major problem I had with the show was its tone, because it was rather inconsistent. For the parts that deal with the mystery and macabre of what’s going on in the Locke family’s lives (in particular when the functions of the respective keys are discovered), they’re done very well and those parts are actually one of the few factors that kept me watching. The parts where the family is dealing with the death of their father are also done well and do a good job portraying grief rather accurately. Among all of that, however, there are also several sub-plots (including daughter Kinsey becoming involved in a friend’s film project and the handful of different teen angst/love story plotlines) that are just annoying and serve little other purpose than filler to pass the time – if there’s some teen fiction cliché you can think of, they put it into this show. I feel like if those sub-plots and other “fat” (so to speak) had been trimmed from the show, it could have been outstanding. 

And unfortunately, all that extra “fat” also affected the show’s pacing, which also greatly annoyed me because there were several points in my viewing where I actually said out loud “Get to the point already, I’m bored here!” If the show had just focused on the mystery and macabre aspects, it would have had a much better pace and again, would have pushed the show to an outstanding level. One thing I definitely would have wanted to see more of were more horror elements and more scares as the family deals with the aftermath of finding the different keys. 

Among all of those issues, however, there were a couple other things I liked while watching the show, particularly the performances from Jackson Robert Brown as Bode, the youngest Locke family member, and Laysla De Oliveira as Dodge, the demon the Locke family faces throughout the series. Of the three actors for the Locke children, Brown’s was the most natural and he was definitely a standout on the show because for the most part, he’s being an actual kid instead of acting like one, and his more natural performance definitely made me root for him throughout the show and I foresee big things for him in the acting world in the future. Laysla De Oliveira also did a great job as Dodge and she was not only seductive and spicy when she needed to be, but also legitimately scary in several of her scenes, making her another one of the few standouts in the show. And these two were not only standouts by themselves, they also had great chemistry with each other throughout the season as the show’s main foes. 

One of the other few things I liked about the show was the music used throughout the season – the instrumental score is done very well and helps move the scenes along nicely, and the regular songs they used during the show also fit in well, so my hat goes off to those who were in charge of the music because they did a great job. 

Overall, while there were good elements to the show, there were also several things that derailed my total enjoyment of the series, and I would give it an overall “C” grade. If a second season ultimately ends up being developed, those involved with the need to vastly improve the pacing and writing and there needs to be more of a focus on the mystery and macabre aspects of the story since it’s billed as being a suspense/thriller show, and all the subplots that plagued the first season need to be done away with. With some trimming and improvements in those areas, a second season could be fantastic and improve so much on the first season.