What has Joe Cornish been up to lately? Well, he's just finished adapting Jonathan Stroud's "Lockwood & Co." YA book series into a Netflix show. It's a fun one, featuring an alternate history version of London, where malicious ghosts started appearing 50 years ago that can kill people with a touch. Only children are found to have the supernatural gifts to fight "The Problem," so they were recruited and trained to become "Agents" - essentially professional ghostbusters. Nearly all the firms that employ Agents are controlled by adults, but a small independent outfit, Lockwood & Co., consists of a trio of teenagers.
Initially "Lockwood" starts out with a gloomy tone, as Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes), a talented "Listener" who can hear ghosts, is recruited to become an Agent, and encounters repeated mistreatment and tragedy. Ghost hunting is a dangerous line of work, and the Agents are often exploited by the adults who handle their jobs. Then Lucy makes her way to London, where she meets the dashing, reckless, and wildly overconfident Anthony Lockwood (Cameron Chapman). He and his bookish partner George (Ali Hadji-Heshmati) have decided to strike out on their own, running an agency out of Lockwood's deceased parents' house. Nobody takes them seriously, but Lucy and Lockwood are soon running around London, chasing ghosts and getting into all kinds of trouble.
The dynamic between the two leads reminds me so much of "Doctor Who" and other British adventure series. Lockwood is very much in the romantic tradition of the cocky, brilliant, man-of-action who leaps before he looks, and takes charge of every situation. Lucy is the sensible one who helps to keep his ego in check. However, they're both teenagers, and no matter how mature they try to act, they both clearly have a lot of growing up to do. Lockwood's lack of restraint and habitual self-aggrandizement keeps landing everyone in trouble. His swagger is backed up by the fact that he actually is very heroic and self-sacrificing in a very endearing way. However, the agency is constantly in danger of being disbanded by DEPRAC, the government agency overseeing all supernatural activity. Inspector Barnes (Ivanno Jeremiah) is frequently looming in the background, as the representative of adult authority, keeping a wary eye on their activities.
I like the worldbuilding here, which is very reminiscent of anime - in the sense that it utilizes some familiar tropes, and it is absolutely committed to a wild fantasy premise. You've got the idealistic rebel kids versus the adult establishment. You've got the dystopian world where the only hope is putting youngsters with unusual weapons into combat situations. The Agents are all armed with rapiers, and occasionally get into showy fights with each other. Other weapons include iron chains, flash bombs, and salt circles. The atmosphere is creepy, but rarely very scary. The show's live human enemies are much more unsettling than the dead ones. The ghosts are honestly pretty underwhelming, and the effects work is dodgy if you look too close. However, the action is exciting and the show does a good job of keeping the emotional stakes high.
The young cast is very good, and I expect they'll all go on to long and fulfilling careers. Ruby Stokes shoulders the lion's share of the dramatic weight of the early episodes, and is easy to root for. This is Cameron Chapman's first screen credit, and it looks like he's having a ball playing an intrepid action hero. Ali Hadji-Heshmati doesn't get nearly as much fun material as the other two, but acquits himself well with what he has. They all have the tricky task of being early twenty-somethings playing teenagers who have had to grow up too fast because of their circumstances, thus acting older than they really are. In this case, it mostly works.
My biggest complaint is that "Lockwood & Co." is only eight episodes long, and only scratching the surface on the source material. The first season gets us through two major cases, but it still feels like an overture to a much longer and more interesting story. This bodes well for the show if it gets renewed, and I'm crossing my fingers that it will. It's darker and spookier and better executed than similar YA shows like "Locke & Key," and I suspect it'll only improve from here.
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