Late one Friday night while seeking an escape, even if momentary, I noticed a new show recommended to me in my Netflix feed. The artwork was intriguing: a ghostly green emitting from the picture, a skull trapped in an iron lantern. I had to check this out.
I was immediately hooked. It has since become one of my all-time favorite shows. It saved me from myself. It offered me a healthy escape when reality was too much to bear. The paranormal seems like a strange place to find comfort, but it came to me at a time where for once, fiction needed to be stranger than truth.
About Lockwood and Co.
Lockwood and Co. was originally a book series written by the talented Jonathan Stroud. It was produced for screen by Complete Fiction Pictures, the studio also responsible for one of my favorite movies, Shaun of the Dead, starring Simon Pegg.
The show follows three protagonists, Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle, and George Karim, as they navigate an alternate reality of modern day London. This reality involves ghosts, known as visitors, capable of killing or paralyzing — ghost-locking — people. Adults are helpless as they do not possess the skills necessary to detect visitors. This is referred to as “the sight” and “listening” skills. Remedying this issue requires talented teenagers, beginning at the age of 13, to protect humanity and put an end to “The Problem,” the term for the phenomenon that has claimed countless lives.
Without being judgmental or heavy-handed, it addresses many important topics such as loss, grief, corporate responsibility, and government overreach. It is thought-provoking and provides viewers a magnificent journey that does not disappoint.
Finding Comfort
I immediately binged the series by myself, and then again with my daughter. Even after finishing it twice, it became my late night companion. If I couldn’t sleep, I would turn the show on. I would watch until my eyes grew heavy. I could fall asleep without nagging thoughts or worry creeping in. Lockwood, Lucy, and George would be there keeping watch while I slept, just in case I woke up. It became a source of comfort; something I could rely on to feel better. My 3:00 AM awakenings no longer haunted me like a visitor. I could count on Lockwood and Co. for safe passage from negative thoughts and find my way to sleep.
I also purchased a copy of The Screaming Staircase for my husband to read until he can come home and binge it, too. It’s helped bridge the gap; something special we can share even with the distance between us.
The most compelling aspect of the series is how three talented misfits who otherwise were alone or felt “different” have found family in one another. This concept transcends from the books, the series, and right to the core of its fandom. I’ve shared my thoughts and love of the books and series a few times on Twitter, and why it is so important to me. Fellow fans have surrounded me with love, comfort, and support. They’ve said they’re thinking of me; that they are sorry for my loss, able to recognize my grief. There was no judgment, no stones thrown. Similar to the special abilities teens have in the series, the Lockwood and Co. community has a sensitivity that others do not. We feel for and care for our own.
And Kinship
Yesterday, I posted a Lockwood quote, and commented on how much the show meant to me to a new friend. A few minutes later, I started getting email notifications. One of my Change.org petitions relating to my husband’s case was rapidly increasing in signature count.
I knew immediately where it came from: my fellow fans. My people.
Once again, a show that very likely saved me from crippling depression was saving me through my fellow fans. I have never been a part of a community so kind and compassionate, so willing to show up for a total stranger, just because they love the same thing I do.
Netflix, for whatever reason, still has not decided to renew the show for a second season.
Or else you’ll need a ladder.
