The following contains spoilers for the end of Season 1 of "Locke & Key." There was a set of massive signs at L.A. the week that "Locke & Key" made its world debut on Netflix. Stay out of the Staples Centre. All of them the height of a decent-sized apartment building, they only had a simple set of pictures resembling the cover of the comics series from which the new show is adapted: keyhole-shaped symbols at the top of the spinal columns of individuals, ready to open.

Those giant ads hint at a show with mammoth possibility while offering as few details as possible. It’s a great hook for a series, one that’s destined to grab people’s attention as they’re sifting through options on the main Netflix app screen. Regardless of how well that worked, the 10 episodes of Season 1 that follow once you hit “Play” are also symptomatic of a specific kind of Netflix algorithm-based approach in some of the most glaring ways.

“Locke & Key” has long been a thorn in TV execs’ sides, with thwarted adaptations straddling multiple networks and streaming services. That this latest one made it to the screen feels less of a realization of the vision contained within the pages of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez’s comics series and more of a chance to manufacture a show with as many recommendation connection points as possible.



It certainly delivers on its title, following the children of the Locke family as they discover not only a magical set of keys that each bring unthinkable power, but the dark legacy that these mysterious tools bring with them. That premise becomes a canvas onto which any number of Netflix hits get tossed.

It’s a TV casserole featuring the haunted family dynamic of “The Haunting of Hill House,” an interdimensional threat to appeal to “Stranger Things” fans, a timeline-hopping element that feels like diet “Dark.” Add in the relationship- and clique-based drama of a standard high school-set drama and that’s the “Locke & Key” baseline.

There’s something about the way that “Locke & Key” drives forward that removes most of the tension that you’d expect to propel the show forward. Every development is spelled out on a neat trail of clues. Whispers lead the kids to each key. Characters announce their feelings with minimal complications. It makes sense that people faced with impossible circumstances would try to talk things out with each other, but “Locke & Key” organizes each successive realization like a Wikipedia summary for people who missed everything while they were looking at their phone.

Even at 10 episodes, there’s still a sense that “Locke & Key” glosses over the way that the Locke kids grapple with the life-changing abilities that these keys possess. One can turn any door into a universal portal. One opens a music box that can control other human beings. One is the one hinted on that poster that — to reiterate — is placed into the back of someone’s neck to reveal anyone’s personal memory palace. This is fundamental body horror fodder with its edges sanded down further and further to court younger and younger audiences.

Please when did you think the season 2 will be out. Can't wait to watch the next season of this Locke and key