A Darkly Magical Tale of Family: A Review of ‘Locke & Key’

When I was first getting into comics back in the mid 2010’s, I exclusively dealt with completed graphic novel series. I wanted to have the entire story all at once, available so I could devour it without any interruption. One of the very first series I read was none other than Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez’s Locke & Key, a dark fantasy series centered on the Locke children as they discover and navigate a complicated inheritance. To this day, it remains one of my favorite comics. After consuming the first season, I am happy to say that the TV adaptation of Locke & Key is not the exact same story I remember reading years ago, but it is of a similarly brilliant caliber and has been adapted beautifully for today’s audiences. LOCKE & KEY Welcome to Keyhouse The general narrative beats of the original comic are still intact: after their father is murdered, the Locke family relocates back to their father’s ancestral home of Keyhouse. In the midst of the usual familial struggles of being uprooted from their lives, the Locke kids have to deal with two struggles. They have a certain level of infamy since the entire town knows their history and there are some magical shenanigans in the form of mysterious keys laid about the house. From the start of the series, it’s easy to commend the cinematography. Shots are cleverly framed with vibrant colors that resemble actual comic panels. To their credit, there are several moments that are direct homages to Rodríguez’s original art….