Lockwood & Co. is an Urban Fantasy series based on a book series of the same name by Jonathan Stroud.
The series takes place in an alternative version of the UK where ghosts started haunting the living a few decades before the start of the series. While adults can't sense the ghosts at all, some children and teenagers are able to see or hear the ghosts. These kids often get recruited by agencies dedicated to destroying ghosts led by adult supervisors.
The series follows Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes), a teenage girl from Northern England working for a local agency who is exceptionally good at hearing ghosts. After all her teammates get killed by a ghost due to the incompetence of their supervisor, Lucy decides to run away to London. Here she joins a small agency without supervisors led by the mysterious Anthony Lockwood (Cameron Chapman) with the help of his nerdy friend George Karim (Ali Hadji-Heshmati).
The show adapts the plots of the first two books: The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull. It premiered on Netflix on January 27th 2023, then was cancelled in May of the same year.
This series contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Lucy’s mother, who sees her daughter only as an income source and forces her to become an agent against her will.
- Adaptational Attractiveness:
- George is described as fat and slovenly in the books, but has a pretty average weight in the series and is not notably less handsome than Lockwood. He does wear thick glasses so we know he’s the nerdy one.
- Flo Bones goes from a hideously filthy scavenger who can barely be tolerated in close quarters to a well-kept young woman who is apparently just really into thrift stores. That said, she does still leave dirty footprints on the carpet of 35 Portland Row.
- Quill Kipps is depicted in the books as being around Lucy's height (5'5), having a "bird-like" appearance and short cropped auburn hair and green eyes. In the show, however, he's 5'11 with curly light brown hair and blue eyes, and looks far more "conventionally" attractive (although he's still noticeably older-looking than Lockwood - Jack Bandeira is eight years older than Cameron Chapman).
- In the books Lucy says she is "growing into a tall girl with strong features (thicker set than she liked), with large eyes, heavy eyebrows, an over-long nose and sulky lips" and "dark" hair. In the show she is played by the very lovely Ruby Stokes
.
- Adaptational Backstory Change:
- In the novels, Lucy has six siblings, but in the TV show no siblings are seen or mentioned. Additionally, in the books, her mother is described as cold and distant, but there is no indication she forces her into work like the TV show.
- George talks about having three siblings who are all engineers in the TV series and being the oddball of his family, unlike in the books where no siblings are ever mentioned.
- In the original novels, Fairfax and Annabel were in a toxic, tumultuous relationship and he wound up murdering her accidentally because he got jealous that she was out with a male friend he had ordered her to stay away from and knocked her to the ground, snapping her neck. In the show, however, Fairfax choked her to death in a moment of anger. Also, the ring in the show is originally a locket with "Tormentum meum, laetitia mea"note engraved on the back, and Lockwood realizes that the quote engraved on the inside is from Hamlet while they are in Combe Carey Hall, and that the murderer is Fairfax because Lucy showed Annabel a photo of what she thought was her and Hugo, but she was accidentally covering Hugo's face and showing Fairfax's instead, prompting Annabel's rage.
- Adaptation Expansion: In the original The Screaming Staircase, Lucy narrates her past as a child with her sisters and mother and the tragic incident that drove her to London and Lockwood & Co. in a few pages. On the TV show, this is about half of the first episode "This Will Be Us," and particularly viewers are introduced to Lucy's best friend Norrie White, who in the original novel is only mentioned once and isn't given a last name.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In The Screaming Staircase, Fairfax and the trio, while discussing Combe Carey Hall, bring up the "Red Room" and its many sordid theories about exactly why it was so named (including a rather nasty one about a Torture Technician English Lord). None of this is mentioned in the show beyond the name of the room, although the same Bloody Horror (well, plasm horror) attack happens. As well, the story about the lord and lady who lost the favor of the King and massacred all their servants before killing themselves by (respectively) throwing themselves over the balcony and hanging themselves is left out - probably because it would be a shade too dark for an adaptation.
- Adaptational Name Change: George's last name is Cubbins in the books and Karim in the series. This is probably due to his change in ethnicity.
- Adaptational Timespan Change: In the novels, there is a period of approximately seven months between the end of The Screaming Staircase and the opening events of The Whispering Skull during which Lockwood & Co. has built themselves up somewhat thanks to a number of cases and are becoming more known throughout London. These events are briefly described as backstory by Lucy's narration towards the beginning of the novel. In the TV series, "Doubt Thou the Stars" ends with Lucy collapsing on the basement floor after the Skull first speaks to her. She wakes up in the opening of the next episode, "Sweet Dreams," after having slept for about 14 hours, having been moved to her bed, and the events of The Whispering Skull kick off.
- Adults Are Useless: Many adult supervisors are incompetent cowards and don't care about the teen ghost-hunters in their charge except as a source of profit. Lucy actually says that adults are useless... to an adult client, and has to explain it's because of their lack of ghost-sensing talent.
- Affably Evil: Pamela Joplin is this as the true villain of the second story arc. She genuinely is interested in history and science, and wants the Bone Glass solely for the knowledge it could provide.
- After Action Patch Up: In "Sweet Dreams," Lockwood comes to Lucy's room to help patch up a cut on her arm as a way of apologizing for being an ass to her earlier.
- Alternate Techline: The expository title sequence shows that after the outbreak of the Problem, technology stocks plummeted. The series takes place in the 2020’s but the technology is at 1980’s level. The timetable is pushed forward from that of the original books to set the series in the modern day. Thus, while there is never any mention of computers in the original novels, in the series the young Fittes agent Bobby Vernon is mentioned as getting information from a new database that has only just been developed.
- Ambiguously Bi: Lucy seems to be attracted to Lockwood (as in the books), but her friendship with Norrie can also be read as romantic leaning (and indeed, Lucy/Norrie took off like a rocket on Tumblr and Tiktok).
- Artifact of Doom: The Bone Glass, which is made of the bones of seven people, taken while they were still alive. Simply glancing at it makes you want to look into it again (which causes insanity). George's mind is slowly corrupted by it over the course of the story arc, including having frightening visions and being violently paranoid.
- Auction of Evil: Julius Winkman arranges underground auctions for dangerous contraband artifacts, complete with patrons in face-concealing cloaks and little children forcefully brought in as psychic “canaries."
- The Bet: Lockwood and Kipps place a bet on who manages to solve the Bone Glass case, with the loser retiring from the business. Lucy lambasts Lockwood on how stupid this is, which he eventually admits to be true. Him and Kipps agree to drop it in the end.
- Big Fancy House: 35 Portland Row, Lockwood's childhood home and now headquarters.
- Big "SHUT UP!": In "Sweet Dreams," after George reveals his evidence and Lockwood and Kipps's teams all start arguing loudly over who should have the case, the supremely long-suffering Inspector Barnes shouts loudly for them to shut up.
- British Brevity: The first season consists of eight episodes, covering the events of the first two books.
- Canon Foreigner: Sergeant Wade is a new character for the TV series and seems to be the direct subordinate of Inspector Montagu Barnes. The Golden Blade is apparently a new character, but serves much the same role as Rupert Gale from the novels.
- Crapsack World: The present day, fifty years after "The Problem" started to manifest. Technology has utterly stagnated and is apparently permanently stuck in The '80s despite the show taking place in the modern day. Anyone can become a ghost and start haunting a place, which then makes it dangerous for anyone else to live there, and it's so dangerous to walk outside at night that there is a mandatory curfew. Whole businesses have sprung up to exploit the Problem for profit (e.g. iron works are much more lucrative). Oh, and only children can see ghosts, so they're the ones actively fighting them.
- Curse Cut Short: At the end of "Let Go Of Me," Lucy reveals that she's been keeping Annabel Ward's ring around her neck, and thus the intruder wasn't able to steal it. "What the fu-?" asks George as the show slams to the credits.
- Death Seeker: Lockwood seems all too eager to heroically put himself in harm’s way, which Lucy notices about halfway through the season. He all but admits to her that he has been having suicidal thoughts for a long time. Overlaps with Glory Seeker in that he keeps doing reckless things in order to win.
- Diegetic Switch: In "You Never Asked," "Party Fears Two" plays as an instrumental as Lucy and Lockwood get ready to go to the Fittes Ball. As they arrive, the vocals play loudly on the soundtrack, then as the scene shifts to them talking to each other at the party, it can be heard playing on a loudspeaker at times over the background chatter. At the end of the episode, it plays again as an instrumental as they flee from the Black Library and then enact a Fire Alarm Distraction.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Lockwood's greatest frustration with signing the NDA at the end of the Annabel Ward case: not only does it mean that they won't be able to grow their brand by advertising a major win, but even the people who do know about it (i.e. Kipps) refuse to acknowledge it.
- Eye Scream: Danny Clough apparently clawed his own eyes out after taking a look in the Bone Glass.
- Failed a Spot Check: It somehow manages to escape Lucy, George and Lockwood that the person attempting to burgle their house in "Let Go Of Me" is quite obviously female, which makes Ellie's later "war wound" lie and Lockwood's realization strain the audience's Willing Suspension of Disbelief a bit.
- Fatal Family Photo: While he doesn't actually show a photo, the undercover DEPRAC agent's chance of survival obviously drops once he mentions he has a wife and kids and is about to go back to them.
- Fire Alarm Distraction: In "You Never Asked", Anthony Lockwood does this to cover his and Lucy's escape from the Fittes Ball after they are caught by a mercenary within the Black Library of the Fittes Agency. The world they live in being one in which real, dangerous ghosts come out at night, the alarm instead releases sprinklers from the ceiling which spray saltnote and a soothing voice telling everyone to make their way calmly and carefully to the nearest exit.
- Gender Flip: Pamela Joplin was Albert Joplin in the book series, while Fairfax’s assistant Ellie was a big hulking male thug named Grebe.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: The primary danger of the Bone Glass: simply glancing at it makes you obsessed with it, and looking deeper – into the Eternal – causes permanent insanity.
- Heroic BSoD: Lockwood briefly goes into one while believing he caused the death of the undercover DEPRAC agent at Winkman's auction. He snaps out of it once the Golden Blade mentions that Winkman already knew who the man was, and was planning to kill him anyway.
- Hero Insurance: This trope becomes a plot point, since the various agencies do have insurance to cover damages incurred while fighting ghosts, but they need to follow proper procedure in order to be covered. Lockwood and Co.'s policy becomes voided when a house burns down in the first episode from them using a flare indoors, leaving them in the hole for £60,000.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: The Golden Blade, a mysterious swordsman who works in accord with Fittes for the sake of some sinister agenda, but claims to be serving other, even more powerful forces.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Sir John Fairfax sets Lockwood & Co. up to be killed on a job, keeping them from revealing him as a murderer and allowing him to simply take the ring (which incriminates him) off their cold, dead bodies once the sun rises. He's about to kill Lockwood when Lucy says she'll give him the ring... which contains Annabel's Vengeful Ghost, who promptly murders him. Ironically, the team were focused on another suspect at the time and no where near realizing his involvement. Had he not gotten involved at all, or had simply murdered them during the day instead of trying to Make It Look Like an Accident, he wouldn't have been killed.
- Hope Spot: In the end of "Mesmerised", George seems like he's going to deliver the Bone Glass to DEPRAC, thus winning Lockwood and Co. the bet and ending the case in a safe and orderly manner. Alas, it is not to be.
- Idiot Ball: In "You Never Asked," twice.
- Instead of going to the Fittes Ball with Lockwood and Lucy, George chooses to stay at home to research with Pamela. As soon as they're gone, George reveals what their plans are to Pamela even though Lockwood explicitly told him to keep the whole thing a secret.
- Flo spends a good amount of the episode handling George's behavior while under the mirror's influence, and at one point tries to get him to just toss the mirror in the river and have done with it. She then leaves George alone with the mirror on the steps of DEPRAC headquarters because she's sure he's strong enough to resist the mirror's influence, at least for the couple of feet between the door and the lobby inside. She's wrong.
- Indy Ploy: Lockwood’s signature planning style. Realistically, his plans quite often go wrong and land the team in trouble.
- I Love the Dead: That's the story everyone knows about Bickerstaff. The truth, unfortunately, is a quite a bit worse.
- Last-Name Basis: Everyone calls Anthony Lockwood by his last name, except for Kipps who calls him Tony and Flo, who calls him "Locky".
- Magic Mirror: The Bone Glass is a mirror created through horrific experiments. It supposedly shows you the world of the dead, but everyone who looks into it goes crazy or worse.
- Makes Us Even: Kipps is prepared to concede the bet, since he embarrassingly needed to be saved from a ghost by George and then sat out the entire climax handcuffed on the floor, but Lockwood calls it off, as both teams helped each other.
- Master Swordsman: All investigators carry rapiers to ward off ghosts and are meant to be this, though finesse isn't strictly necessary (simply touching the ghost with iron damages them). Lockwood, however, is good enough to beat multiple living adults.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Severely ghost-locked people develop opaque, milky eyes.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: In "Not the Eternal", Lockwood says he's going to save his friends "...and Kipps".
- My Skull Runneth Over: Pamela Joplin experiences this after looking into the Bone Glass, before being fully incinerated by its power.
- Offscreen Afterlife: While "the Eternal" is discussed at length, we never see where the ghosts are coming from, and we don't want to.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Heard on the Screaming Staircase from the ghosts of the monks, glorifying Death and Satan. This does mean the staircase never actually screams.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: "Visitors," who are broken into "Type Ones" and "Type Twos" (and the elusive "Type Three") depending on the strength of their powers, which are proportional to the gruesomeness and violence of their deaths. Their powers include:
- Telekinesis, of the "poltergeist tantrum" variety.
- Death Touch: Merely touching them or their ectoplasm can kill.
- Ghostly Chill: The ambient temperature drops in the presence of ghosts.
- Weaksauce Weakness: They can be hurt or contained by iron, silver, or salt, and are only able to manifest at night.
- Poor Communication Kills: Lockwood has a bad habit of not telling people things because he doesn't want to burden them. In the second episode, he doesn't tell Lucy that DEPRAC has learned she's only grade 3 and is pressuring him to fire her, and he doesn't tell her that he's going to mention her on television to make it so that she's too famous to be fired. So to Lucy, this just looks like him disregarding her request to be left out of agency publicity and using her the same way her mother did, resulting in her nearly quitting. It also results in a dramatic argument outside at night near a former gallows, which attracts multiple ghosts they then have to fight off.
- Power Trio: Lockwood is the Kirk, George is the Spock and Lucy is the McCoy.
- Pragmatic Villainy: In their last encounter at the catacombs, the Golden Blade eschews yet another fencing match with Lockwood and elects to just shoot him instead. Luckily, he only hits his shoulder.
- Psychometry: One of the standard psychic talents, dubbed "touch".
- Race Lift:
- White George Cubbins was changed to Middle-Eastern George Karim to reflect his actor’s ethnicity.
- Flo, Barnes, Grebe and Kat Godwin, who were all white in the books, are Black in the series.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Inspector Barnes isn’t happy with Lockwood and Co.’s antics, but he means them no real harm and tries to protect them from the consequences of their own actions.
- Religion of Evil: The Satanist monks at Combe Carey Hall, who committed mass suicide as part of their death cult. This represents a departure from the book, where it was never clear if the monks were actually worshiping dark forces or whether it was a smear spread by the nobles who murdered them to take over their property.
- Secret Test of Character: When she applies to Lockwood and Co, Lockwood has Lucy inspect several items with her ghost-sensing powers. The first three (skull, folding knife, watch) are very potent, but the last item is just George's toothbrush cup. Lockwood throws that one in to see whether applicants will admit they can't feel anything or make something up. Apparently a lot of people before Lucy failed that one.
- Ship Tease:
- Lockwood and Lucy grow very close over the season. Lockwood gives Lucy a family heirloom necklace for the Fittes ball, and seems jealous when she admits Kipps asked her on a date.
- Relatedly, Kipps outright asks Lucy out to the Fittes Ball (then downgrades to asking her out for coffee when he realizes that was a lot for a first date).
- Flo asks George out, and he seems inclined to go with her before other matters divert his attention.
- More creepily, the middle-aged Joplin's behavior towards teenager George carries some clear grooming vibes - she takes him to dinner at her house, serves him alcohol and tries to drive a wedge between him and his friends by convincing him she's the only one who can understand him.
- Norrie and Lucy bond very quickly and intensely in "This Will Be Us", to the point where both of them call out for each other when attacked by a ghost and later sit on Norrie's bed together leaning closer and closer towards each other while looking into each other's eyes as Norrie talks excitedly about the idea of their running away to London together. They're also very physically affectionate (Norrie kisses Lucy's head and Lucy kisses hers later after she's been ghost-locked), and have photos of the two of them embracing on their mirror (which Lucy takes with her to London and stares at while making audio recordings for Norrie and talking about how she "should have helped" her more before breaking down and sobbing over how much she misses her). The most obvious tease is in "Let Go of Me", where Lucy leaves a note for Norrie's mum telling her to tell Norrie that she loves her.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Lockwood & Co. It's been operating as an agency for three months when Lucy joins it, and it's severely in the red even before they're slapped with a £60,000 fine, and yet Lockwood keeps referring to it as a "prestigious agency" and looks down his nose at cases he thinks are beneath them.
- Soul Jar: All ghosts have one, called a Source. It's either an item of personal emotional significance that they had when they died, or just their body. The object of any investigation is to find the Source and then destroy it or contain it, or it will keep coming back.
- Supreme Chef: George boasts a repertoire of delicious Persian specialties.
- Tagline: "Hunt or be haunted."
- Take a Third Option: In "Not the Eternal," Joplin has kidnapped George to use his powers to look through the Bone Glass. Lucy volunteers herself instead to protect George, since looking into the Bone Glass causes insanity and death... and then holds the Skull up to look at the Bone Glass instead.
- Talking to the Dead: Lucy narrates some of the series' events into a tape-recorder, addressing her friend Norrie who is in a ghost-induced coma and not expected to ever wake up. She also talks to a few ghosts, including Annabel and the Skull.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Bickerstaff’s ghost is dispatched this way twice, first by Lucy and later by Lockwood. Justified as what hurts ghosts isn't the being stabbed, it's coming into contact with the iron.
- Time for Plan B: The opening of the premiere episode, "This Will Be Us," has Lucy and Lockwood going over the various ghost-hunting plans that Lockwood has cooked up, from Plan A to Plan F. Lockwood gives Lucy a 10/10 for remembering them all; she points out there were only six. He tells her he'll have to think of another four. Later, on the job, he can't remember his own lettering system and quips that they'll need to rework it.
- True Blue Femininity: Lucy almost exclusively wears blue, and is the only girl in Lockwood & Co.
- Would Hurt a Child: Winkman and the other relic men are perfectly fine with torturing and killing kids in pursuit of their own interests.
- X Meets Y: Alex Meyers said this show was like the characters from Cowboy Bebop doing Ghostbusters things in the A Series of Unfortunate Events universe.
