"Lockwood & Co.": A Teenage Mulder and Scully, with Mean Ghosts

 

Netflix has been pestering me to watch Lockwood & Co., about teenage paranormal investigators, for weeks.  It finally dropped this morning.  Here's hoping there are gay characters.

Scene 1: Teenage Anthony and Lucy approach a mansion, discussing strategies.  Their client, Mrs. Hope, meets them outside: she needs the disturbance cleared up so she can sell the house.  She criticizes them for being paranormal investigators instead of "chasing boys and having fun," and leaves.  She wants Anthony to chase boys?

They enter, make tea in the kitchen, and read the report: Mr. Hope died after falling down the stairs.  But the manifestations are rather aggressive, as if he was murdered.

They find a manifestation in an upstairs study that used to be a bedroom: a woman reliving her murder years ago, before the Hopes moved in.  Suddenly she tries to push Lucy down the stairs  That's how Mr. Hope died!

Intro: The intro gives us the background through newspaper headlines: we're 50 years into The Problem, where ghost began manifesting at night, and killing people.   So there's a curfew, and since kids are better able to detect them, a new coterie of teenage ghost-busters.  Who you gonna call?  A high schooler!

Scene 2: Three years ago, a rustic English village with bleating sheep. Lucy and her mother are being interviewed by a ghost-busting agency. Mom praises her paranormal powers; Lucy looks bored.  An operative was killed yesterday, so there's an opening; Lucy is hired.  

Someone else handles the paperwork: Lucy is 13, just old enough to be an operative, qualified as a Listener for both Type 1 and Type 2 visitors.  The payments will go into Mom's account.

Scene 3: Out on the street, Lucy complains "I don't want to do this!  It's too scary.  I don't want to be scared all the time."  Mom: "Everybody's scared all the time.  We need the money, so shut up and fight ghosts!"

Scene 4: In uniform, Lucy starts her training with a blue gunk-mixing class: "Spill any, and it comes out of your salary!"  Then making a ghost-bomb of sand, salt, and silver fulminate, and unrattling chains.  Lucy has a sarcastic female friend, but there are no cute boys except in the background. 

 First assignment: six team members head to the Swan Hotel, where there are unpleasant sensations on the top floor.  Lucy finds the spirit and incapacitates it with ghost-bombs.

Afterwareds, in the locker room, a cute boy in a muscle shirt compliments Lucy's technique.  Finally!  But he's just background.

Sword class, an assignment in a schoolroom, and two years have passed.  Lucy has reached Level Three!  Everyone applauds.

Scene 5: Lucy returns to the dorm room and sits on the bed next to her roommate, Norrie.  Hey, they're awfully close.  Maybe a lesbian subtext?  They complain about working for the agency until their powers fade, in their mid-20s, only to find that their parents have squandered their money.  "Let's run away together -- to London!"   But Lucy wants to wait until they are fully qualfied. Look at how close their faces are.  They could kiss at any moment!  

Scene 6:  Next assignment: Moorgate Mill needs to be cleared.  They discuss Maria Fittes, the original ghost-buster who discovered the link between visitors and sources, and the only person ever to vanquish a Type Three.  The Cute Boy  -Paul-- suggests that maybe Maria didn't solve the problem, she created it.

Sorry for the lack of illustrations, but I can't find beefcake photos of anyone in the cast.  Paul isn't even listed in the IMDB.

Uh-oh, this visitor is Type 2, much more powerful.  Lucy runs out to tell the boss, but he dismisses her; "Just do your job."  She goes inside -- the other agents are screaming and dying, and her girlfriend Norrie is catatonic, but the boss doesn't help.  He locks them in!  Wait, I thought Type 2 was commonplace.  At her interview, Lucy said that she was qualified to see both Type 1 and Type 2. 

Scene 7: At the inquest, the boss claims that Lucy never told him that it was a Type 2, so he acted according to protocol.  "And you didn't hear any screams or cries for help?" the judge asks.  "No."  The four dead agents' names are added to the memorial outside.  Norrie will remain catatonic --  ghost-locked -- forever. Lucy is fired.  I didn't know that this series was going to be Lucy-centric.  What about Anthony from Scene 1?

Scene 8: After Mom finishes yelling at her, Lucy runs away to London.  She applies at the Fittes Agency, the biggest in the country, but she has no certification or parental permission, so no dice.  The same story at three other agencies. 

The last agency on the list: Lockwood and Co.  A cute curly-haired boy, George, answers the door and ask if she's Arif's new girlfriend.  (Arif runs the donut shop on the corner.)  No, she's an applicant.  

He leads her to the drawing room, where Anthony complains that they have already finished with the interviews.  "No, there's one more."  He turns around and jaw-drops in Girl-of-My-Dreams hetero-horniness.  "Um...er...where shall we go on our honeymoon...I mean, you're hired."  

George grimaces.  "Let's test her first."

"Ok, first test: Do you like walking hand-in-hand in the rain?  Um..I mean, analyze this apparition in a jar."  

"Easy.  The skull is the source, the ghost is tied to it, and trapped by the silver in the jar lining."

"Next test.  Do you kiss on the first date?  Um, I mean analyze this knife."

"Not violent.  This belonged to someone happy, gentle."

"Very good.  Next test.  Are you free tomorrow night?  Um...I mean analyze this watch."

"A lot of negative energy.  Many people screaming.  Lots of murders."

Obviously she gets the job.  George acts like the wife in a male-female couple, doing the cooking, fetching the tea, fussing about housework.  Plus he's obviously and overtly jealous of Lucy.  Definite gay subtext here, in spite of Anthony constantly insulting him.

Scene 9: Anthony explains: they're a new agency, accredited, but independent, so they can set their own rules, and they don't need adult supervisors. 

He gives her a tour of the house: office, Anthony's room (drop by any time!), George's room (don't go in without knocking, in case he's doing yoga naked), off-limits super-secret room, library, kitchen, training room, arsenal, attic -- and Lucy's  room, with private bath and a view.

"Well, I'll leave you to get settled in," he says, staring longingly as if he wants to rush over and kiss her on the spot.

Scene 10: Lucy unpacks, thinks about her catatonic girlfriend, and goes downstairs.  She runs into George in his underwear (no beefcake), gazes at the forbidden room, and goes into the library to flirt with Anthony: "how do I know you're good enough for me?"  

There's more, but that's enough to give you the gist: a boy-girl couple and their bumbling sidekick fight evil ghosts, with gay subtexts all around.