Too edgy and clever to be wasted on kids: Netflix’s Locke & Key reviewed

One of my perpetual gnawing terrors is that I’ll recommend a series that looks initially promising but turns out to be total rubbish, meaning I’ll for ever have thousands of viewers’ wasted lives and disappointment on my conscience. But my even greater fear is that I’ll peremptorily condemn something after one or two episodes which subsequently reveals itself to be a near-masterpiece.

This almost happened with Locke & Key (Netflix). ‘You realise I’m watching this on sufferance. The second you’ve seen enough to review, we’re moving on to something else,’ declared the Fawn. And I could sort of see her point. Not only does it take a while to get going but it feels like a mash-up of every supernatural-for-teens drama you’ve ever seen, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Harry Potter. The scenarios too are overfamiliar to the point of cliché: big, spooky mansion with creaky iron gates and a mysterious past; awkward teenagers trying to settle in to a new high school where they are mocked for their weirdness by the cool kids; remote, distrait parents who are totally ill equipped to understand all this eerie, dark magical stuff intruding into their lives.