Lockwood & Co: Full Season
January 31, 2023 12:05 PM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe
Based on Jonathan Stroud's young-adult book series of the same name, Lockwood & Co is set after "The Problem" unleashed all sorts of night-time ghosts and hauntings, leading to the establishment of Agencies that employ supernatural-sensitive children to remove unwanted entities for a fee. The story follows a renegade trio of talented young agents with their own unlicensed psychic detective agency as they try to make a living in a very depressed London, while also trying to figure out the cause of the problem. All episodes are currently streaming on Netflix.
i love the opening credits music! I need to hunt down the OST sometime.
We're up to Ep 3, and loving this so far, great world building, great premise, great actors. I haven't read the books either but the buzz via Mastodon seems that fans of the books are enjoying the show as well.
posted by jazon at 12:14 PM on January 31, 2023
We're up to Ep 3, and loving this so far, great world building, great premise, great actors. I haven't read the books either but the buzz via Mastodon seems that fans of the books are enjoying the show as well.
posted by jazon at 12:14 PM on January 31, 2023
I liked the books and the series did a good job adapting them. I burned through them in 2 nights like a fool. Might watch them again... joy division, the cure and siouxie are excellent choices for a ghost story
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:33 AM on February 1, 2023
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:33 AM on February 1, 2023
I really like the books - the audiobook version is great - and in the first couple of episodes am pleasantly surprised.
They make a couple of things about Lucy’s life and character more explicit. This drops one of the great pleasures of the book, which is working through Lucy’s first-person (mostly wonderful*) voice and the things she won’t say, doesn’t know, is afraid of thinking, makes mistakes about and has to fix… I really like the books. But they’ve stuck with the character as I understand her, which is a vast relief. Vast.
*Shes a real jerk about George being fat. The _plot_ doesn’t punish him for it; it’s not a world where fatness always loses, or where the traumatized heroic narrator can’t make real mistakes. But heads up in case.
posted by clew at 10:17 AM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
They make a couple of things about Lucy’s life and character more explicit. This drops one of the great pleasures of the book, which is working through Lucy’s first-person (mostly wonderful*) voice and the things she won’t say, doesn’t know, is afraid of thinking, makes mistakes about and has to fix… I really like the books. But they’ve stuck with the character as I understand her, which is a vast relief. Vast.
*Shes a real jerk about George being fat. The _plot_ doesn’t punish him for it; it’s not a world where fatness always loses, or where the traumatized heroic narrator can’t make real mistakes. But heads up in case.
posted by clew at 10:17 AM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm loving the low-key Goth revival happening this decade. I liked the use of Bela Lugosi's Dead on the soundtrack, and how a lot of the incidental music in scenes called back to the song and generally used guitar/bass for mood. I love hearing my teenage faves of Goth/post-punk turn up in current shows.
I haven't read the books. I enjoyed the show because I like spooky supernatural shows, but I did have to make myself be patient a few times with the slow pacing and the particularly YA elements (teen romance, really dumb decisions.) I was left intrigued and wanting to know more about The Problem and how the agents fight/kill ghosts.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 12:55 PM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
I haven't read the books. I enjoyed the show because I like spooky supernatural shows, but I did have to make myself be patient a few times with the slow pacing and the particularly YA elements (teen romance, really dumb decisions.) I was left intrigued and wanting to know more about The Problem and how the agents fight/kill ghosts.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 12:55 PM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
What time period is this? The technology all seems to be 1980’s, but it might be just slow developing because of The Problem.
posted by Mogur at 5:38 PM on February 1, 2023
posted by Mogur at 5:38 PM on February 1, 2023
And all the child labor makes it positively Dickensian
posted by Mogur at 5:38 PM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Mogur at 5:38 PM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Mogur, I drew the conclusion that The Problem had started in the 80s, and for some reason there was a huge tech crash (implied in the credit sequence) and industry turned away from communications and computers, into producing iron and ghost protection instead.
The uniforms definitely had a Victorian, or earlier, feel. And child soldiers fighting the supernatural with rapiers made me think of the Locked Tomb books, but to be fair, so does almost everything.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 8:37 PM on February 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
The uniforms definitely had a Victorian, or earlier, feel. And child soldiers fighting the supernatural with rapiers made me think of the Locked Tomb books, but to be fair, so does almost everything.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 8:37 PM on February 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
I was also guessing sometime in the early 80s based on the tech, as well as something the graveyard owner woman said in ep 4 about being very young when The Problem happened. She looks like she's mid-40s, so assuming now is now, that would place it around then.
Although it has to be after 1978, since Lucy has a Bauhaus poster in ep 1. "Bela Lugosi's Dead" came out in 1982, so if it is actually diegetic music, then that moves the lower bound a little further forward.
posted by autopilot at 12:42 PM on February 2, 2023
Although it has to be after 1978, since Lucy has a Bauhaus poster in ep 1. "Bela Lugosi's Dead" came out in 1982, so if it is actually diegetic music, then that moves the lower bound a little further forward.
posted by autopilot at 12:42 PM on February 2, 2023
Although the party in ep 6 is celebrating fifty years of the Fittes agency, and Penelope mentions digging up a ghost in 1971. So that pushes things further back. It also makes the tech and music timeline a little more confused.
posted by autopilot at 1:13 PM on February 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by autopilot at 1:13 PM on February 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
I loved this, such a fantastic primary cast. The music choices were so on the nose and it delighted me... Bauhaus! Siouxsie! The Cure! Joy Division! This Mortal Coil! The Associates!
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:46 AM on February 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:46 AM on February 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
I asked my daughter, "Is every adult in a Middle Grade novel an asshole?"
"Yep. Or dead."
posted by Mogur at 3:54 AM on February 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
"Yep. Or dead."
posted by Mogur at 3:54 AM on February 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Let's talk about the cabs, shall we? After dark, the only thing that moves on the streets of London besides fully-armed agents are taxicabs. I assume the cabs are warded somehow (there are silver lines on the windows but I don't know if that's normal for actual cabs), but how much are they getting paid, seeing as how the only people to take them are either criminals or cops? My headcanon (seeing as how we never see anyone actually pay for a cab - for that matter, we never actually see a driver) is that they're some sort of government funded utility, staffed perhaps by retired agents or the like.
posted by Mogur at 9:03 AM on February 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Mogur at 9:03 AM on February 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I also assumed the cab windows had some sort of wards. The weird streetlights with green lights and metal spikes and call boxes also seemed like maybe a anti-ghost sort of thing. The buildings having "salt sprinklers" was another fun bit of detail.
One of my disappointments was Flo picking up the idiot ball by leaving George alone at the DEPRAC office after being so competent in recognizing his infatuation with the mirror.
The opening credits (with music by BADBADNOTGOOD) has some of the backstory. The first newspaper clipping "Wave of unexplained deaths" is undated and the second "Ghosts Walk Among Us" is dated Sunday 20 Feb 1973 (although in our world that was a Tuesday). There is a timeline of deaths that starts at 1968 continues until 2025; the Problem begins slow with fewer than 100/year, ramps up 3k/year by 1980, reaching a total of 1.5m at the end or an average of 30k/year for the fifty years. It isn't clear if that is just the UK or the whole world.
Perhaps we'll learn more details in (the unconfirmed) season two along with what's in the room on the landing and the backstory with Lockwood's parents...
posted by autopilot at 3:04 PM on February 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
One of my disappointments was Flo picking up the idiot ball by leaving George alone at the DEPRAC office after being so competent in recognizing his infatuation with the mirror.
The opening credits (with music by BADBADNOTGOOD) has some of the backstory. The first newspaper clipping "Wave of unexplained deaths" is undated and the second "Ghosts Walk Among Us" is dated Sunday 20 Feb 1973 (although in our world that was a Tuesday). There is a timeline of deaths that starts at 1968 continues until 2025; the Problem begins slow with fewer than 100/year, ramps up 3k/year by 1980, reaching a total of 1.5m at the end or an average of 30k/year for the fifty years. It isn't clear if that is just the UK or the whole world.
Perhaps we'll learn more details in (the unconfirmed) season two along with what's in the room on the landing and the backstory with Lockwood's parents...
posted by autopilot at 3:04 PM on February 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
I suspect it's either a source for, or some other kind of remnant of, his parents, although safely contained because Lockwood is only sometimes a berserker.
posted by Mogur at 4:04 AM on February 5, 2023
posted by Mogur at 4:04 AM on February 5, 2023
Episode 1: I love Lucy telling off George and sticking to "I don't sense anything."
LOCKWOOD IS A DICK. How often do you disagree? Almost never....
I kind of want more of a clue as to what is going on with this world because I don't remember the books worth a damn (title is familiar and that's all to me at this point), but, interesting.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:44 PM on February 5, 2023
LOCKWOOD IS A DICK. How often do you disagree? Almost never....
I kind of want more of a clue as to what is going on with this world because I don't remember the books worth a damn (title is familiar and that's all to me at this point), but, interesting.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:44 PM on February 5, 2023
I had a quiet weekend, so I started the series and am on book four. A lot of recent questions here do get addressed as the series moves along. In the books, it seems like the problem starts in the early 1960s.
A tech crash is never directly addressed but apparently ghosts and so on interfere with electronics, so in 2013, they don't seem to have computers or cell phones, but do have telephone booths and home landlines. The 1980s music is all a TV addition (appreciated!)
The books are nicely written and the first season closely follows the plot of the first two books.
The show is cast for a lot more diversity (appreciated!), small details are moved around or adjusted but overall, a very diligent adaptation.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 5:54 PM on February 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
A tech crash is never directly addressed but apparently ghosts and so on interfere with electronics, so in 2013, they don't seem to have computers or cell phones, but do have telephone booths and home landlines. The 1980s music is all a TV addition (appreciated!)
The books are nicely written and the first season closely follows the plot of the first two books.
The show is cast for a lot more diversity (appreciated!), small details are moved around or adjusted but overall, a very diligent adaptation.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 5:54 PM on February 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
This show is very interesting, and yet I feel like I need to read some recaps so I'm sure what's going on. Anyone know of any sites doing this?
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:50 PM on February 5, 2023
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:50 PM on February 5, 2023
I've just gone and picked up the books.
There's a line in one of the episodes suggesting that the Problem radiated out of a certain area of England but it's not clear if only the British Isles are affected or this is a worldwide thing. One of the newspapers in the opening scroll mentions a tech industry crash, and I think we have to assume that the world is affected or there'd be something beyond 1980's tech going on. Ghosts traditionally disrupt electricity so maybe that's the excuse. The first novel was published in 2013 and given the 50 years figure both in a headline and the Fitts anniversary ball, I think we have to go with the show being present day-ish, with the start of the Problem kicking off somewhere in the late 60's or early 70's. That's as far as I got before having to decide not to think about it because things were not going to hold up to closer examination. It's notable that the author is very close to my own age and would have been a teen in the 1980's which explains a lot about the characters having access to more or less the same things I remember from that time. Except microfiche, but really, who misses microfiche?
posted by Karmakaze at 12:20 PM on February 6, 2023
There's a line in one of the episodes suggesting that the Problem radiated out of a certain area of England but it's not clear if only the British Isles are affected or this is a worldwide thing. One of the newspapers in the opening scroll mentions a tech industry crash, and I think we have to assume that the world is affected or there'd be something beyond 1980's tech going on. Ghosts traditionally disrupt electricity so maybe that's the excuse. The first novel was published in 2013 and given the 50 years figure both in a headline and the Fitts anniversary ball, I think we have to go with the show being present day-ish, with the start of the Problem kicking off somewhere in the late 60's or early 70's. That's as far as I got before having to decide not to think about it because things were not going to hold up to closer examination. It's notable that the author is very close to my own age and would have been a teen in the 1980's which explains a lot about the characters having access to more or less the same things I remember from that time. Except microfiche, but really, who misses microfiche?
posted by Karmakaze at 12:20 PM on February 6, 2023
I agree that it's a very good adaptation with all the changes made for the better.
The one thing that hasn't worked for me is that the direction did not sell me on George's obsession with the bone glass. He was a normal for George amount of obsessed with it research wise. We got told he had an unhealthy fixation, but I didn't see that from George at all. Not the actor's fault either.
posted by ursus_comiter at 9:58 PM on February 6, 2023
The one thing that hasn't worked for me is that the direction did not sell me on George's obsession with the bone glass. He was a normal for George amount of obsessed with it research wise. We got told he had an unhealthy fixation, but I didn't see that from George at all. Not the actor's fault either.
posted by ursus_comiter at 9:58 PM on February 6, 2023
The prolonged teasing of “A Forest” in episode 2 was kind of driving me nuts until they actually got around to playing it.
posted by snofoam at 8:57 AM on February 7, 2023
posted by snofoam at 8:57 AM on February 7, 2023
This was highly watchable. Fun (quiet) worldbuilding. I have very little interest in watching shows starring teenagers, but I finished this in three days.
(I can't believe a Netflix show was good.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:54 AM on February 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
(I can't believe a Netflix show was good.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:54 AM on February 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
We’re only a few episodes in, but are really enjoying this. I do have to ask, though...How many times can Lucy drop her rapier? It’s almost becoming a running gag.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 PM on February 11, 2023
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 PM on February 11, 2023
Although it has to be after 1978, since Lucy has a Bauhaus poster in ep 1. "Bela Lugosi's Dead" came out in 1982
Bela Lugosi’s Dead was their first single, and it came out in 1979. Just for the record.
Using Homesick in the last episode really made me want to listen to Disintegration. Even the lesser songs on that album are beautiful.
posted by snofoam at 4:59 PM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Bela Lugosi’s Dead was their first single, and it came out in 1979. Just for the record.
Using Homesick in the last episode really made me want to listen to Disintegration. Even the lesser songs on that album are beautiful.
posted by snofoam at 4:59 PM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
One of my disappointments was Flo picking up the idiot ball by leaving George alone at the DEPRAC office after being so competent in recognizing his infatuation with the mirror.
No, I don't think that was her picking up the idiot ball, so much as recognizing that he probably wouldn't be able to do it alone, but that she had no real alternative to allowing him to try. That's why she offers that they should drop it in the ocean and go check out a heron island. She, as a relic hunter, can't go into DEPRAC without being arrested, nor can she just hang around there for fifteen minutes being suspicious. But she can't wrest it away from him - and after what happened on the boat, it might well force a fatal confrontation. So she has to let it go. It's not her circus, not her monkeys - she's just involved as a favor for Lockwood.
posted by corb at 2:56 PM on February 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
No, I don't think that was her picking up the idiot ball, so much as recognizing that he probably wouldn't be able to do it alone, but that she had no real alternative to allowing him to try. That's why she offers that they should drop it in the ocean and go check out a heron island. She, as a relic hunter, can't go into DEPRAC without being arrested, nor can she just hang around there for fifteen minutes being suspicious. But she can't wrest it away from him - and after what happened on the boat, it might well force a fatal confrontation. So she has to let it go. It's not her circus, not her monkeys - she's just involved as a favor for Lockwood.
posted by corb at 2:56 PM on February 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
Ugh. I figured it was coming but it still hurts. Why do I always love the little unpopular shows?
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 7:11 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 7:11 PM on May 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Because it is the way, and Law and Order : Whatever is boring?
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:06 PM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:06 PM on May 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sad to see it was cancelled and they aren't able to move to a different service. I really was hoping for a second season
posted by jazon at 12:33 PM on May 14, 2023
posted by jazon at 12:33 PM on May 14, 2023
I really like the audiobooks, if that helps anyone.
posted by clew at 5:32 PM on May 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by clew at 5:32 PM on May 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
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posted by autopilot at 12:10 PM on January 31, 2023 [1 favorite]