Lockwood and Co

Lockwood and Co is a great fun of tv series, and I wish it was a more loud hit, to assure its better fate on Netflix.
A friend long ago recommended me books by Jonathan Stroud to read for my son. He read them and loved, I read them and loved, and then they stayed a pleasant memory until there was a tv series. IN fact, I remember reading somewhere a couple of years ago that the series were in the works, and then nothing – until it appeared on Netflix in the last weekend of January 2023. Great marketing. The timing was good, I think, as there was nothing to distract viewers from it, but it would be better if more people were looking forward to it instead of discovering by accident or because there was nothing else new to watch. Because Lockwood & Co. tv series are pretty amazing. One doesn’t need to read books to enjoy it, but mostly after watching it, it is too easy to want to grab the book to learn what else is going to happen.
Of course, there are differences, but they help the visual mostly. Some things work better as words, some as images.
The story happens in England, in the universe slightly different from ours – in that several decades ago ghosts suddenly became The Problem. They are everywhere, and their touch is lethal. Ghosts could be fought – with salt and iron, and some other stuff, but they could only be perceived and fought successfully by children with specific talents. By the time a person reaches twenty, their ghost-perception wanes and disappears, leaving them scarred and useless. So there are agencies all over England (we hardly ever know what is happening in the rest of the world) that employ children and teenagers to detect and fight of ghosts with swords, iron chains, etc. The adults are in charge, mostly. One notable exception is Lockwood & CO. agency, run by Anthony Lockwood, a charming and charismatic teenager, with money (a bit and a house), talent and a death wish.
His second in command is George, a nerdy sarcastic genius who makes questionable dressing choices and doesn’t like people, but likes experiments.
And that’s pretty much it, until Lucy Carlyle comes looking for a job, and our story starts. Lucy is a girl from a poor working class family from the North of England. She early discovered she had a talent of ghost perception, and as soon as it was possible, she was sent to a local ghost fighting agency, earning money for her family and fighting ghosts. Her last mission ended in tragedy, and she ran to London to find another job. Alas, despite her talent and her hopes, no big and famous agency wanted to hire her. Lockwood and Co was her last chance, and it worked. She found a job, a home and a new family here. Even if that family consisted of another two troubled teenagers and a creepy glass jar.
The first season of the tv shows covers the first and the second book out of five, and tells a gripping and coherent story of horror, adventure and friendship. Kids are somewhat older in the beginning (but time passes between the books where it probably won’t as much in the series, so it works.
Adventure and friendship is really enough for a good tv series, but there is more. Lovingly constructed reality – London, Lockwood’s house, other agencies, haunted places, with lots of details telling us the story of this strange and deadly dangerous world, people who live there – Lockwood and Co, their rivals, the Fittes Agency, their clients, their friends, the government, etc. The hints of darker mysteries of how and why the Problem started – the ghosts were not that abundant and deadly until 60 years ago. But still the best is the wonderful, funny, strong, damaged, brave and charming heart of the story – the three leads.