“Locke and Key” is a comic series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, published from 2008-2013. It is undeniably one of my all time favorites, up there with “Sandman” and the best work of Brian K. Vaughan. To say that I’ve long anticipated this adaptation is the understatement of the century. I’ve read the series a dozen times, played the licensed card game; I even once got my hands on the failed 2010 pilot. This Netflix series has been a long time coming, and I can’t wait to explore it with you. Join me as I watch every episode of the first season, starting with the opening, “Welcome to Matheson.”
1. Goodbye to Lovecraft
From the opening moments, it’s clear that this is not going to be a perfectly faithful adaptation. The comic opens with the truly harrowing murder of Rendell Locke, setting a pitch black horror tone. The first episode leans away from the comic’s genre and much more into a sense of whimsy and adventure. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but each change is going to be an adjustment for me. The first difference? The name of the town. Was Lovecraft too on the nose, or is that supposed to be a mission statement for the tone of the show? Where H.P. Lovecraft focused on unknowable cosmic horror, Richard Matheson is most famous for his contemplative science fiction, including the original novel I Am Legend and a few of the most famous episodes of The Twilight Zone.
The town of Matheson is full of personality. It feels like a real place, and oozes with Massachusetts charm. The town is set into some low hills hugging the beach, which is covered in piles of dirty snow. There’s not a chain store to be seen. The show was filmed in and around Toronto, but a lot of care was put into every aspect of the production design. This place is not some generic everyday town, it’s a specific place, which is great. You can’t help but wonder what haunted secrets this place is hiding.
2. Meet the Lockes
I’ll say this right out of the gate: this cast is good at acting. None of them look quite like Gabriel Rodriguez’s unforgettable art, but their performances are uniformly heartfelt. Still, it’s a bit unfortunate to lose the personality that Rodriguez’s memorable designs brought to the characters. Connor Jessup is a handsome young man, nothing like the thuggish Tyler of the comic. While the town looks like a specific place, the Locke family could be the cast of any show on the CW. Still, I want to take a moment to dig into some of the performances.
The first to leave an impression is the young Jackson Robert Scott as Bode; he is perfectly annoying. You probably remember him from the recent It movies, where he played Pennywise’s first on-screen victim. 30 minutes into the show, I’ve sort of come around on him being kind of cute. I guess I’m a sucker for little kids innocently flipping their family the bird. Plus, the shot of him going around on his heelies are like the 21st century version of Danny Torrence’s tricycle. You love to see it.
There’s probably no one I’m more excited to see than Aaron Ashmore as Duncan: inspired casting! Duncan is probably my favorite character in the comic, and Ashmore ruled in Killjoys. His older brother, the deceased Rendell doesn’t work for me at all. Bill Heck is way too hot and cool. He’s supposed to be square in both shape and personality. Rendell is a cheesy but dedicated guidance counselor. This guy looks like an underwear model/rock star.
Sam Lesser on the other hand, is on point. He is immediately creepy. From the moment Rendell opens the door and you see this little twerp, you know he’s gonna be bad news. Sam is the main villain of the first volume of the comic, and he becomes something more complicated as the series goes on. Thomas Mitchell Barnet gives a haunted performance, and I can’t wait to see him be given more to do!
Darby Stanchfield’s Nina might steal the show. She’s playing things with subtlety instead of the big melodrama the character could dip into. You might know her from Mad Men, where she played Helen Bishop. I became a fan of hers from her run on the underrated Jericho. Over the course of this one episode Nina starts by putting on a brave face for her family, all while letting the audience know that things are not OK. In the final sequence, she’s acting against some special effects to sell supernatural horror, and then needs to turn it around on a dime when she instantly forgets all about it. Stanchfield was my MVP of an episode full of good performances, and I got high hopes that she will continue to bring it all season.
Continued below3. Dodge This
The being in the well, who we will eventually come to know as Dodge (among many other names) is one of my all time favorite comic book villains. She (he? They? It?) is utterly malicious, conniving and terrifying. This iteration of the character is more disquieting than pants-wettingly scary.
Laysla De Oliveira does a very good job. She’s got the look, the sort of inhuman body language, the sultry voice. But she’s got tough shoes to fill. Ksenia Solo played Dodge in the original Locke & Key pilot from 2010, and she was perfect, seductive and menacing. Oliveria does everything right, but the show seems kind of confused as to how to portray her. Dodge is an epic villain but in the show, she feels kind of weightless. Before you have a chance to decide how you feel about her, she’s got to spout some key exposition, and she lacks the necessary drama. The tone isn’t quite there. I think the best example of this is the slow way she is revealed to us. First she’s just a voice, as she should be. Then, she’s a silhouette. But her face is revealed in that exposition scene, mid-sentence. If you’re going to hide her, why not bring some dark fanfare to her reveal? A truly inexplicable creative choice.
4. Lunchroom Blues
High school drama is another important part of “Locke & Key,” and this first episode starts laying the groundwork. It’s interesting to compare the experiences of Tyler and Kinsey, who make very different friends on their first day. Well, Kinsey does, her friends seem like fun weirdos. No one Tyler meets leaves any sort of impression, not the assholes on the hockey team who invite him to a party, or the girl he gets to second base with at said party. But I think that’s maybe the point? Tyler feels so lonely and isolated. It makes his relationship with his sister feel a lot more important. They really only have each other, and their moments together are some of the realest in the episode.
The most memorable kid at school is Scot, played by Petrice Jones. He seems to be a combination of two characters in the comic. Jones leaves quite the impression, but I kind of liked the original Scot’s Grant Morrison thing. The Scot of the show is British and quirky, but his look is the same generic-CW-handsomeness of the rest of the cast.
Also, one of his friends is named Zadie Wells. I’m suspicious of wells.
5. Capturing the Keys
If you go back and read the first issue of “Locke & Key,” there’s a ton of dramatic weight given to Bode’s discovery of the keys. It’s really a masterclass in comic book scripting. The number of panels on each page, the size of those panels, the page turn reveal, the placement of the single-page splash, the title drop, it’s really perfect. So it’s totally befuddling to me how that all goes down in the show. The first time Bode uses a key, it’s the Anywhere Key, and while it’s whimsical and cool, it doesn’t feel important. You feel like the show knows you want to get to the good stuff, so they are trying to get through this exposition as fast as possible. Instead of dying and coming back to life, Bode uses his first magical key to… get some ice cream. Creatively, the scene feels like a shrug.
The Mirror Key is brand new though, and that was probably the best part of the episode. It was the first genuine scare, reminding me of Jordan Peele’s Us, in a good way. The incident takes the whole family on a little adventure, gave me some good chills, and did a much better job at establishing the uncontrollable danger of the keys. If this is what the show has in store, original adventures starring the three Locke children, then I am all in. I hope the show finds its footing though, and captures a bit of the epic scope of the comic.
Join me again next week Key seekers, and we will continue to explore every shadowy corner of this show!
