Lockwood & Co (Netflix series, 2023)
To hunt or be to be hunted, that’s the question, in Lockwood & Co. A promising young adult detective series, based on the books by Jonathan Stroud.
The story concerns three young operatives of a psychic detective agency, but basically plays like a mix of Enola Holmes meets Ghostbusters.
Even though the agency is named after its founder, Anthony Lockwood (Cameron Chapman), the main and most interesting character is definitely Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes), a plucky young woman with a complicated past.
George Cubbins (George Karim), who bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Harold Ramis, is Anthony’s trusted sidekick.
The three meet when Lucy comes to visit the two gents in their London home, after being expelled by the psychic detective agency she used to work for. This involved some nasty business she’d rather forget about, and also a traumatic incident involving her BFF she can’t shake off.
After testing and getting on each other's nerve(s), the trio decide they like each other enough to work together. And possibly there’s also some attraction between Lucy and Lockwood.
At any rate, the threesome know they have to stick together, cause this is not London as we know it.
This particular version of the world is haunted by a supernatural phenomenon only referred to as The Problem, which has caused a lot of death and devastation.
However, a little thing like that will not stop Lockwood & Co, even more so since only adolescents have the magical powers to fight all the new ghosts and ghouls that have taken over London.
And so they venture into the night, into perilous combat with deadly spirits, who in this series are commonly referred to as ‘visitors’.
Their first case concerns a haunted house, which quickly turns into the case of Annabel Ward. A famous actress, who made a name for herself in the 1980’s playing Ophelia in Hamlet, but who went missing just as she was about to leave for Hollywood.
(This storyline made me think about Edgar Wright’s magnificent sixties-inspired Last Night In Soho, which is always a good thing in my book).
Even though they have their issues, Lockwood and Lucy work well together. And Lockwood becomes more interesting as a result. He is a ‘seer’ and she is a ‘listener’, so in a way they complete each other.
Some other interesting things about this show: the Victorian atmosphere, the sword fighting and the inspired musical choices from the likes of Bauhaus, Siouxie and the Banshees and The Cure. It’s all very Gothic, you know.
On the whole I think the concept of Lockwood & Co is pretty cool, and the story mostly works, even though the series looks like it was shot on a fairly limited budget.
Even though there is a fair amount of special effects, some of it looks pretty cheesy (which has its own charm) and a lot of the heavy lifting is done the old fashioned way: through character work, decent dialogue and some fine acting by the talented young cast.
In a way Lockwood & Co feels more like a traditional television show than as one of those big Netflix-shows like the immensely popular Wednesday or one of their big budget films like The School for Good and Evil.
This is one of those shows Netflix doesn’t spend a fortune on, at least not right away, because they are not sure it will stick. Because, as Netflix top executive Bela Bajaria pointed out in a recent New Yorker story, if a new show doesn’t work right away, it may be time to move on to the next new show.
That’s a bit too cynical for me, cause some shows need room to grow and in the case of Lockwood & Co it would definitely be a shame if it got canceled prematurely, since there is a lot of promise and potential here.
But who knows? If Lockwood & Co does become a hit, Netflix may just decide to splash out a bit more on Season two.