Lockwood & Company is a funny and colorful series for those who love ghosts and post-punk
Miscellaneous / / April 04, 2023
The story of teenagers who cleanse England of otherworldly creatures will appeal to many.
The first season of Lockwood & Company premiered on Netflix on January 27.
The series is based on a series of novels by Jonathan Stroud, a well-known British author of teen and children's books. The showrunner was Joe Cornish. Producer of Shaun the Zombies and Hot Hop, screenwriter of Ant-Man, director of the failed The Born to Be King is not the brightest filmography. However, this did not stop Cornish from putting together an excellent team for a new project.
Starring Ruby Stokes, Ali Hadji-Heshmati and Cameron Chapman. The first two previously starred only in episodes, and for the third this is generally a debut.
According to the plot, there has been a “problem” in England for many years - ghosts have come to the world of people. Only children and teenagers can fight them, because they have higher sensitivity. Lucy Carlisle drops out of her town's ghost catcher school to get away from her evil mother and mean teachers. Arriving in London, she tries to get a job in a serious agency to combat otherworldly forces, but she is not hired due to lack of education.
The only ones who accept it are teenagers Anthony Lockwood and George Karim. On the first task, they find an unusual ghost, which is associated with a long-standing crime. Trying to defeat the enemy, the heroes burn down the house. Now their agency may be closed. The only chance to stay afloat is to solve a crime committed many years ago.
Interesting characters
The main wealth of the series is the wonderful main characters. Three defiant teenagers are forced to confront not only ghosts, but also adults who treat them condescendingly. It doesn't scare them at all.
Lucy Carlyle is a post-punk fan who suffers from marital problems. She lacks love and care, so she quickly becomes attached to her new colleagues. George Karim is a geek who never misses an opportunity to prick his interlocutor. He is fascinated by mysteries and believes in conspiracies. Anthony Lockwood is a typical British TV series hero, placed in the body of a teenager. He reminds and Sherlock Holmes as interpreted by Benedict Cumberbatch and Doctor Who. It's hard to believe, but Lockwood is played by a debutant.
The main characters behave as they should behave teenagers. They are hysterical, afraid to confess their feelings, overreact to minor problems. They even utter words in the spirit of "it would be better if I weren't there." All this adds to the series of emotions, and to the characters - sympathy.
Great humor
Interesting characters not only investigate an old crime, but also constantly joke. The contrast between the importance of the deeds and the youthfulness of the characters sets the stage for humor.
For example, a discussion of a skull in a bank might end up talking about who ate a cookie in violation of the rules (in the Lockwood house, you can only take one cookie and strictly in order of priority). Going out to battle with the ghost that came to the heroes, George convinces his colleagues that only weaklings wear pants.
Not always funny jokes work because of well-written characters and brilliant acting.
Funny ghost bureaucracy
Ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are so firmly established in the world of the heroes of the series that they are perceived as completely everyday. A curfew has been introduced, ghost catchers study in special institutions, and you can work in this area only with a license. Even the word "problem", which refers to the emergence of otherworldly forces, looks like a classic euphemism from the world of politics.
Many strange things are not explained in any way in the series, they must be taken for granted. However, the nationalization of the fight against ghosts turned out to be interesting.
Appropriate musical accompaniment
From the very first minutes, the series pleasantly surprises music. Contrary to fashion, almost all background melodies are recorded on the guitar, not on the synthesizer. Christoph Bauschinger ("Golyak") and The Flight (Gotham Knights game) were responsible for the original music. The rejection of the already familiar quiet ambient sets the series apart from the general background.
Gradually famous songs are added to the original music. They seem to have been pulled out of the playlist of the main character - mostly post-punk plays. In one scene, the characters even fight under The Cure.
Bad graphics
Unfortunately, the worst moments of the series are the interactions of people with ghosts. It's the computer graphics, which are terrible. She would have been more appropriate in the early seasons of Supernatural than in the 2023 Netflix series. Because of it, any scene with otherworldly forces becomes painful, there is a desire to simply rewind it. Fortunately, there are not so many such scenes - more often the characters are in a domestic setting.
Lockwood & Company is a good show, but not perfect. Graphics problems don't appear often enough to be a reason to shut down the series. Banal jokes (of which there are quite a lot) are still funny, because they are played well. The over-emotionality inherent in the characters is easily attributed to their age - after all, this is a show about teenagers.
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