History YMMV / LockeAndKey2020

* CompleteMonster: [[AdaptationalVillainy Captain Frederick Gideon]], in life, was a [[SociopathicSoldier vicious war criminal]], massacring American colonists, killing the Locke family progenitor, and attempting to [[ManOnFire burn innocents alive]]. [[DemonicPossession Possessed]] by one of the mightiest demons, Gideon's echo returns in modern day and kills Dodge's old associate Echo. Constantly attempting to murder the Lockes and all with them, Gideon resorts to brutal torture to get his way in an attempt to unlock the gates to his home dimension. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even the wicked Dodge is aghast]], knowing that Gideon will unleash the demons to annihilate every human, leaving nothing in his lust for destruction and conquest.

** Sam Lesser is introduced as Randall's murderer, but later context reveals that came from an abusive home and was manipulated by Dodge for her own ends. For good measure, she also ends up betraying him as well and [[spoiler: leaving him for dead]].

* MemeticLoser: The Locke Family's more... questionable actions have resulted in them being uniformly branded as an entire family of morons who can't make a simple cup of coffee without getting someone endangered, hurt, killed, or all of the above. Some memes on reddit have gone so far as to claim that the world would be a utopia if anyone other than the Lockes had gotten their hands on the Keys.

** The Wheeler Sisters of season 3 have prompted much confusion over how they ended up trapped in the snowglobe, who they were to the previous generations of the Locke family, or how they ended up getting possessed in the first place. Indeed, some audiences were expecting them to have a bigger role, if only so the mysteries would be answered eventually. But no: they stay just long enough to get the Echo Key for Gideon, and then end up trapped in the Mirror - never to be seen again.

* TheScrappy: Viewers are not especially fond of Nina Locke, in no small part due to her disconcerting habit of [[StepfordSmiler inappropriately smiling at everything]]; critics remark that she appears to lack common sense and often comes across as an irresponsible parent even when she's sober. The fact that she's constantly being left in the dark about everything, even when the heroes have a means of allowing her to remember the supernatural, makes her plotlines deeply frustrating... and when she finally ''does'' become the recipient of the Memory Key, the first thing she does is nearly get Bode killed by playing around with the Snowglobe Key.
* UncertainAudience: One point of contention among certain critics of the series is that the uneven tone makes it a bit vague as to who this was actually meant for. Bode's segments feature a lot of childlike whimsy that audiences who wanted a more adult story might be disappointed with; scenes focused on Tyler and Kinsey are more typically "teen drama" with the series' fantastic elements not included until much later, likely turning off viewers who wanted more magic and mystery; Dodge and the demons from beyond the Black Gate bring in a lot of violence and horror elements that would probably scare off family viewers who were lured in by Bode's segments. Similarly, there's a lot of divergences from the original comics that have been met with confusion and annoyance, especially in season 3, so it doesn't entirely appeal to the fans either.

** In season 2, Erin Voss is similarly meant to seem a wise and tormented bearer of [[MagicIsEvil hard-won knowledge that the Lockes just don't want to listen to]] at the time... but her talk of how evil the Keys are rings hollow, as in the show, most of the misfortune isn't due to the evils of their power but due to their wielders being fundamentally ''stupid'' - including Erin herself, who has spent the last few decades trapped inside her own mind [[spoiler: because she decided to leave her body unattended in someone else's house, leaving her to be accidentally locked in by a random maid, of all people.]] Consequently, her sermonizing comes across as sanctimonious and hypocritical, especially since she's happy to use the Keys in an attempt to stop Dodge... [[spoiler: which only ends with her being murdered by Dodge and leaving ''more'' priceless Keys in the hands of the enemy.]] But astonishingly enough, season 3 leads to her sinking even ''' ''lower:'' ''' [[spoiler: in her efforts to hide the Creation Key, she decided to switch it to a new hiding place inside Gordie Shaw's head ''without telling any of the other Keepers'', meaning that Tyler and Ellie end up wasting precious time looking for it, ultimately getting Gordie, Sam, and several police officers killed.]]

* EvilIsSexy:
** Dodge's female form is a tall leggy dark beauty whose wardrobe consists entirely of PaintedOnPants, short skirts, and low necklines. Lucas is a long-haired pretty boy with big brown doe eyes. [[spoiler: Gabe, while perhaps not sexy, is pretty cute in a nerdy kind of way.]]
** [[spoiler: After being possessed, Eden constantly walks around in revealing clothes.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Rufus seems to have some developmental problems, sports childlike vocal patterns and a hyperfocus on certain topics, though his tendencies are not nearly as pronounced as they were in the comic. It's worth noting that the actor is autistic.
** Sam Lesser has obvious psychopathic behaviors, but a flashback in high school shows him as very socially awkward, hinted as [[AbusiveParents a result of a bad home life]]. [[spoiler: Using the head key on him gives him a MyGodWhatHaveIDone response, implying deep down he wasn't in control of himself]].
** Erin Voss is in a psychiatric hospital in a mostly catatonic state. It's never explained exactly what is wrong with her, but implied to be from head trauma. [[spoiler: Turns out that she accidentally got trapped inside her own mind while using the Head Key, leaving her body catatonic.]]

** [[spoiler: After being possessed, Eden constantly walks around [[BareYourMidriff in revealing clothes]].]]

* SeasonalRot: Season 3 is generally held to be the exact point in the show where the flawed elements that had been building throughout the show finally began overwhelming it, featuring record examples of {{Idiot Plot}}s, recycled plot threads, failure to make effective use of the Keys, and extremely poor writing.

** Ellie Whedon is meant to be seen as a victim of Dodge coerced into becoming their henchman... but unfortunately, she's directly responsible for bringing Dodge back via the Wellhouse, putting the blame for Rendell's murder squarely on her head. And unlike the comics, in which Ellie was under the influence of a fragment of Dodge's personality stuck in her brain and didn't know what she was doing, Ellie's show incarnation was fully aware of the potential dangers but honestly wants to get in touch with her dead boyfriend - which hasn't endeared her to critics, especially given that Ellie is in her forties and Dodge can't be much older than seventeen. Plus, she continues to remain in Dodge's employ because of the threat to Rufus, even with ''Rufus himself'' encouraging her to seek help from the Lockes. [[spoiler: The fact that she ends up bringing Dodge the Shadow Key out of pure stupidity does not help.]]
** In season 2, Erin Voss is similarly meant to seem a wise and tormented bearer of [[MagicIsEvil hard-won knowledge that the Lockes just don't want to listen to]] at the time... but her talk of how evil the Keys are rings hollow, as in the show, most of the misfortune isn't due to the evils of their power but due to their wielders being fundamentally ''stupid'' - including Ellie, who has spent the last few decades trapped inside her own mind [[spoiler: because she decided to leave her body unattended in someone else's house, leaving her to be accidentally locked in by a random maid, of all people.]] Consequently, her sermonizing comes across as sanctimonious and hypocritical, especially since she's happy to use the Keys in an attempt to stop Dodge... [[spoiler: which only ends with her being murdered by Dodge and leaving ''more'' priceless Keys in the hands of the enemy.]] But astonishingly enough, season 3 leads to her sinking even ''' ''lower:'' ''' [[spoiler: in her efforts to hide the Creation Key, she decided to switch it to a new hiding place inside Gordie Shaw's head ''without telling any of the other Keepers'', meaning that Tyler and Ellie end up wasting precious time looking for it that ultimately gets Gordie, Sam, and several police officers killed.]]

* IdiotPlot: A very common criticism of the series is that the show would have been over in a single episode if the characters weren't a) stupid, b) overly trusting, or c) incapable of using the Keys for anything remotely practical. Season 3 is especially prone to accusations of this, as [[spoiler: Dodge's possession of Bode only goes ahead because the kid was stupid enough to go bugger around with the Timeshift Key for no good reason whatsoever.]]

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Audiences and critics have taken an extremely dim view of season 3, citing poor characterization, rushed attempts to wrap up the various plot threads, recycled elements from previous seasons, a badly fleshed-out villain, and acts of egregious stupidity that eclipse even those of previous seasons. On Rotten Tomatoes, where previous seasons scraped by with scores in the sixties or even eighties, season 3 has a critic rating of 38% and an audience rating of only ''34%''.

* SeasonalRot: Season 3 is generally held to be the exact point in the show where the flawed elements that had been building throughout the show finally began overwhelming it, featuring record examples of {{Idiot Plot}}s, recycled plot threads, failure to make effective use of the Keys, and extremely poor writing.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:The [[DemonicPossession demon infesting the soul of Lucas "Dodge" Caravaggio]] is a rapacious and cruel being who begins murdering those around it in order to see the Black Door opened and its kin infest as many people as possible. Later having Rendell Locke murdered to ensure the Locke family ends at Lovecraft, Dodge masterminds his escape, seducing the young woman Eden to his side and abusing the real Dodge's former lover, Ellie, even tricking the Lockes into casting her into hell. Experimenting on innocents with a new key to open a path to possession by the demons beyond the Door, Dodge intends to overrun the entire world after killing the Locke clan.]]

** Josh being a descendant of Captain Gideon immediately made him a big deal among watchers, with many suspecting him of manipulating the Lockes to learn more about the Black Door, expecting him to have some major interaction with Gideon in which he learns the true history of his family, or even wondering if he might be able to replicate his famous ancestor's inexplicable ability to open portals. As of season 3, all these expectations were proved wrong: Josh barely interacts with Gideon beyond a few token scenes, forgets all about the supernatural without ever being given access to the Memory Key, and was seemingly just there to become a new love interest to Nina - making Josh both a missed opportunity and ''incredibly boring.''

* FanNickname: Around Reddit, Captain Gideon has been dubbed "Elon Musket" on the grounds that he resembles an 18th-century Elon Musk. This gained additional hilarity in the finale of season three, when Gideon steals Josh's car and ends up crashing it so violently that it explodes, leading to numerous jokes about Tesla's self-driving cars.
* HesJustHiding: Following the season 2 finale, some forums and subreddits insisted that [[spoiler: possessed Eden]] couldn't possibly be dead after being dropped down the well by Captain Gideon, even theorizing that the character might be trapped down there and would team up with the Lockes as revenge against Gideon. Season 3 conclusively proved this wrong by not only giving the audience an uninterrupted look at [[spoiler: Eden]]'s frozen corpse at the bottom of the well, but also featuring an extended "burial" sequence in which the character's body is tipped off the edge of a cliff and into the ocean, as if to say, "they're not coming back, got it?"

** In season 2, Erin Voss is similarly meant to seem a wise and tormented bearer of [[MagicIsEvil hard-won knowledge that the Lockes just don't want to listen to]] at the time... but her talk of how evil the Keys are rings hollow, as in the show, most of the misfortune isn't due to the evils of their power but due to their wielders being fundamentally ''stupid'' - including Ellie, who has spent the last few decades trapped inside her own mind [[spoiler: because she decided to leave her body unattended in someone else's house, leaving her to be accidentally locked in by a random maid, of all people.]] Consequently, her sermonizing comes across as sanctimonious and hypocritical, especially since she's happy to use the Keys in an attempt to stop Dodge... [[spoiler: which only ends with her being murdered by Dodge and leaving ''more'' priceless Keys in the hands of the enemy.]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Ellie Whedon is meant to be seen as a victim of Dodge coerced into becoming their henchman... but unfortunately, she's directly responsible for bringing Dodge back via the Wellhouse, putting the blame for Rendell's murder squarely on her head. And unlike the comics, in which Ellie was under the influence of a fragment of Dodge's personality stuck in her brain and didn't know what she was doing, Ellie's show incarnation was fully aware of the potential dangers but honestly wants to get in touch with her dead boyfriend - which hasn't endeared her to critics, especially given that Ellie is in her forties and Dodge can't be much older than seventeen. Plus, she continues to remain in Dodge's employ because of the threat to Rufus, even with ''Rufus himself'' encouraging her to seek help from the Lockes. [[spoiler: The fact that she ends up bringing Dodge the Shadow Key out of pure stupidity does not help.]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Ellie Whedon is meant to be seen as a victim of Dodge coerced into becoming their henchman... but unfortunately, she's directly responsible for bringing Dodge back via the Wellhouse, putting the blame for Rendell's murder squarely on her head. And unlike the comics, in which Ellie was under the influence of a fragment of Dodge's personality stuck in her brain and didn't know what she was doing, Ellie's show incarnation was fully aware of the potential dangers but honestly wants to get in touch with her dead boyfriend - which hasn't endeared her to critics. Plus, she continues to remain in Dodge's employ because of the threat to Rufus, even with ''Rufus himself'' encouraging her to seek help from the Lockes. [[spoiler: The fact that she ends up bringing Dodge the Shadow Key out of pure stupidity does not help.]]

* UncertainAudience: One point of contention among certain critics of the series is that the uneven tone makes it a bit vague as to who this was actually meant for. Bode's segments feature a lot of childlike whimsy that audiences who wanted a more adult story might be disappointed with; scenes focused on Tyler and Kinsey are more typically "teen drama" with the series' fantastic elements not included until much later, likely turning off viewers who wanted more magic and mystery; Dodge and the demons from beyond the Black Gate bring in a lot of violence and horror elements that would probably scare off family viewers who were lured in by Bode's segments. Similarly, there's a lot of divergences from the original comics that have been met with confusion and annoyance, especially in season 3, so it doesn't entirely appeal to the fans either.

** Also, the ultimate fate of Dodge [[spoiler: and their replacement by Captain Gideon]] has been met with a mixture of bewilderment, frustration, and outright disgust [[spoiler: both on the grounds that it's a massive departure from the original comics, and on the grounds that Gideon just doesn't have Dodge's menace, cunning, or connection to the Lockes.]]

* EvilIsSexy: Dodge's female form is a tall leggy dark beauty whose wardrobe consists entirely of PaintedOnPants, short skirts, and low necklines. Lucas is a long-haired pretty boy with big brown doe eyes. [[spoiler: Gabe, while perhaps not sexy, is pretty cute in a nerdy kind of way.]]
** [[spoiler:As a demon, Eden constantly walks around [[BareYourMidriff in revealing clothes]].]]

** Played straight with a development in season 3 that has earned the ire of both fans of the comic book ''and'' casual watchers: [[spoiler: Bode's possession by Dodge - or, more specifically, the cause of it. In the books, it happened because Dodge outsmarted Tyler, Kinsey, ''and'' Sam; in the show, it's because Bode was stupid enough to go back in time and taunt Dodge's past self. This has been greeted as one of the most boneheaded elements of the entire adaptation and a failure to convey even a third of the comic plotline's drama and menace.]]

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Downplayed. Most of the changes have been greeted positively, but there are fans disappointed with the changes to Jackie's character (from Kinsey's best friend to Tyler's girlfriend) and the omission of Jordan. The absence of the ever-popular Giant Key, and the changes to Sam's arc and characters have also drawn a mixed reaction.

* UncertainAudience: One point of contention among certain critics of the series is that the uneven tone makes it a bit vague as to who this was actually meant for. Bode's segments feature a lot of childlike whimsy that audiences who wanted a more adult story might be disappointed with; scenes focused on Tyler and Kinsey are more typically "teen drama", likely turning off viewers who wanted more magic and mystery; but Dodge and the demons from beyond the Black Gate bring in a lot of violence and horror elements that would probably discourage family viewers. Similarly, there's a lot of divergences from the original comics that have been met with confusion, especially in season 3, so it doesn't entirely appeal to the fans either.

** Sam Lesser is one. He's introduced as Randall's murderer, but later context makes him more sympathetic. He came from an abusive home and was manipulated by Dodge for her own ends, then had her mock him and what he did for her [[spoiler: while he was dying]].
** Eden comes on kind of strong, and doesn't exactly go out of her way to be nice to Kinsey, but she gets publicly humiliated with the Music Box Key while she has no idea why she can't control her body movements, then attacked by [[spoiler: Kinsey's escaped Fear]], is told that happened because [[spoiler: Kinsey is afraid of her]], a revelation she seems kind of hurt by, and finally, gets [[spoiler: hit by a bullet that spreads demon infection]] during the season finale after having been trying to help.

* UncertainAudience: One point of contention among certain critics of the series is that the uneven tone makes it a bit vague as to who this was actually meant for. Bode's segments feature a lot of childlike whimsy that audiences who wanted a more adult story might be disappointed with; scenes focused on Tyler and Kinsey are more typically "teen drama", likely turning off viewers who wanted more magic and mystery; but Dodge and the demons from beyond the Black Gate bring in a lot of violence and horror elements that would probably discourage family viewers. Similarly, there's a lot of divergences from the original comics that have been met with confusion, especially in season 3, so it doesn't entirely appeal to the fans.