by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
When the sun goes down, and the ghosts come out across the pond, who ya gonna call? Apparently, a group of teenage paranormal private eyes.
That’s the premise of Netflix’s newest streaming series, Lockwood & Co., which is adapted from a series of books.
The show introduces us to Lucy (Ruby Stokes), who has a talent for hearing the paranormal, and, after tragedy strikes in her small-town ghost-hunting training outfit, she heads to London and falls in with the titular startup company run by cocky Anthony Lockwood (Cameron Chapman), and assisted by the eccentric George (Ali Hadji-Heshmati).
The show’s intriguing premise is bolstered by how the story sets things up. It works to actually explain why it has to be kids putting themselves in danger of being killed or in a ghost-locked coma. They’re the only ones who can sense the paranormal, and their powers eventually fade. The opening credits really helped me get a CliffsNotes version of how the world came to be. It also makes it so there are different talents among people. Lucy is shown to be a listener of some special skill early on, Lockwood can see paranormal evidence, and George has a real investigative knack. While Lockwood’s skills can sometimes feel like they’ve been put to the back burner at times, I enjoyed what Lucy’s skills show about the world and the dangers of the connection to the paranormal. While there are some evil demons, the adults in this world are often shown to be the true monsters, though the show never hesitates to show the slippery slope our protagonists find themselves on with their interaction with the spiritual world.
I was shocked at how much I found myself enjoying what the show has to offer. Even more miraculous, I didn’t even mind the cold open to “three years ago” title card after the credits. I felt the reasons here are justified, because the strength of the show is in the interactions between the Lockwood & Co. crew. The repartee between Lucy, Anthony, and George, in any permutation, is pretty good. By starting the premiere out this way, it locked me into the dynamic, and had me bought in while it sped me through the necessary backstory to get us back to the moment it had showed me just 30 minutes earlier. Their bond develops quickly, but it’s one that’s believable due to the chip that’s been placed on their shoulders, and a need for everyone to prove themselves.
When it’s at its best, the show is just our main trio interacting, and it’s when they’re actually doing their jobs that I’m not quite as invested. If I’m honest, the ghost effects do look better than I’d feared they would. They are still not anything that’s going to blow your mind or win Netflix any awards, but it’s not a distraction, which was something. The action scenes do offer a couple of surprises in how they are shot. With one of the major weapons of ghost-fighting in this world being a rapier, there are some extended shots of swordplay, particularly in the penultimate episode, that I was pleasantly surprised to see aren’t sliced to death. A small victory.
If you’ve seen any young adult work, the tropes won’t surprise you much. It does get a bit eye-rolly with the arguments and tension, and the obligatory will-they-won’t-they romance between Lucy and Lockwood doesn’t always work for me — I prefer their normal banter — but that’s why the buy-in elsewhere is so important. It got me through those moments.
The world-building leads me to want more. That, and mystery at the heart of the season, kept me engaged, and the show teases further possibilities well enough. Though there’s an odd “reveal” in the finale that I don’t understand why it is framed as being dramatic — considering what the show itself gives the audience in the previous episode.
Between the tropes and the mystery, yes, there are some moments as see through as the paranormal foes the crew are tracking, but it’s also a show that I will go back to for more. Particularly if the streamer decided to continue to stake the show’s clam in the usually barren wasteland of January, where there’s less content generally vying for my attention, and the weather makes me even more likely to bunker down in my apartment. If it has the misfortune of returning in a more congested release period, it’s one I could see myself letting slide into the abyss.
Overall, I hope the streamer gives the show another stab in Season Two to see what else these teenage sleuths can uncover.
Score: 6/10
Lockwood & Co. is currently streaming on Netflix
You can read more from Jake Bourgeois, and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd