This website has given me a chance to discuss a lot of films and TV, but I’ve never had the chance to watch something entirely new before it comes out. That changes today, as I recently got a chance to watch the new Netflix series Lockwood & Co before its release at the end of this week, and I’m here to review the opening three episodes. I have watched past this point, but I think the first three episodes provide a really good showcase for everything the show has to offer. So, what is this show you ask?
Lockwood & Co is based on the children’s book series by Jonathan Stroud, centred on a group of teenagers who run a ghost-hunting agency, one of many that have been established after years of increasing paranormal activity and public paranoia. I haven’t read any of these books so I can’t speak about the faithfulness to the source material or any other aspects, but I had a rough idea of what I was in for based on the person bringing these books to the screen.
This comes to us from the mind of Joe Cornish, a name you might be familiar with because of his previous work. He has directed the sci-fi comedy Attack the Block which features performances from a young John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker, and the more family-oriented adventure film The Kid Who Would Be King which I highly recommend. Primarily though, he is a screenwriter who co-wrote The Adventures of Tintin and the Marvel film Ant-Man with Edgar Wright.
Although I wouldn’t call Cornish one of my favourite creatives, I have always had fun with everything he’s attached to, as there is a real sense of escapism and spirit to everything that he’s done, something that continues with Lockwood & Co. This is a really entertaining family TV show with a surprisingly engaging mystery at its core. Joe Cornish has shown with his two directorial efforts that he is capable of finding great young actors for his roles, and this trend continues with Lockwood & Co. Our central trio of Ruby Stokes, Cameron Chapman and Ali Hadji-Heshmati are a really dynamic main cast, and all feel really natural bouncing off each other.
Ruby Stokes’s Lucy Carlyle easily has the most emotional scenes and she pulls those off really well, but Chapman and Heshmati can’t be ignored either as they bring a sense of nerdy charm to the show, a charm that as an introvert myself I can’t help but enjoy. Chapman playing young detective Anthony Lockwood shows this off especially – I do see comparisons to Cumberbatch’s Sherlock with his suaveness, but we see a lot more warmth and sincerity in Lockwood as a character than we do in Sherlock’s cold smarminess. In fact, if he reminds me of anyone, it’s the character of Merlin from The Kid Who Would Be King. He stands out like a sore thumb in a social environment, but is wise beyond his years and really does care for everyone around him.
The pre-title scene with Lockwood and Lucy is a brilliant start to the show. It’s very witty and enjoyable to watch, with some great back-and-forths between the leads, but we also understand what’s at stake. There are nice little nuggets of worldbuilding here, revealing that the country has been riddled with ghosts and demons and people live in fear.
I just want to be entertained, and Lockwood & Co continues Joe Cornish’s spotless track record on that front. It’s really good family fun with wit and likeable characters…
The series also shows in this opening how good it is at balancing its lighter and darker elements. It’s a dark and troubled world that the show inhabits, but it never feels gloomy or lifeless. There’s always something going on in Lockwood & Co, and there was not a moment in these first three episodes where I was bored.
Cornish is not afraid to play around with elements of horror in this setup either. There’s a great build of tension in the opening prologue as we become more aware of what’s going on, and the series also shows off its good visual effects here too, when Lockwood and Lucy are confronted with a massive ghost, or a ‘Type Two’ as they refer to it as. The horror continues in Episode 1, as we get some genuinely tense and affecting scenes showing Lucy’s past in the ghost-hunting profession. No spoilers as to what happens, but safe to say if you want a family show that also knows how to scare your kids out a bit, this might be what you’re looking for.
It might also be your cup of tea if you want a good story, as Lockwood & Co offers us a story that is compelling enough to make up for the comparisons to every other paranormal show ever made. The show is great at making you care not just for the main trio, but also for the stories of the undead spirits who are waiting for closure after decades. The plot consistently ticks along and Cornish keeps things interesting by throwing in some plot twists that you don’t see coming. A seemingly standalone task for our characters ends up being connected to the mysteries of the season, and while all these things have been done before, I can’t complain because Lockwood & Co does all these things very well.
Also, I think the music here does a great job of establishing the mood. Cornish is seemingly a fan of 80s goth and alternative music, so if you’re a fan of acts like Siouxsie & the Banshees and Bauhaus you’re going to be very well accounted for. It might seem an odd choice to put all this post-punk stuff in the show considering Lockwood & Co is set in present-day London, but the music certainly adds to the atmosphere in a way that’s unexpectedly effective.
There are some problems with Lockwood & Co undoubtedly. The first episode does have some structural issues which can affect the pacing, as we cut between the past and the present. There are also some minor issues I had with the storytelling in parts, as sometimes it gives the answers away too quickly and doesn’t allow the audience much time to get involved in the mystery. It is a detective show after all, just with ghosts instead of murders and robberies, so there were a few missed opportunities when it came to gripping the audience.
Nevertheless, I can forgive these writing missteps because at the end of the day, when there is a detective show about some teenagers battling ghosts and solving mysteries, I just want to be entertained, and Lockwood & Co continues Joe Cornish’s spotless track record on that front. It’s really good family fun with wit and likeable characters, but spooky when it needs to be, and that’s all you can really ask for. I’m looking forward to getting to the end of the season as well as seeing what everyone else thinks because if this show does well we have a really reliable hit on our hands.
Lockwood & Co is out on Netflix Friday 27th January.
