History Series / LockwoodAndCo2023

The show adapts the plots of the first two books: ''The Screaming Staircase'' and ''The Whispering Skull''. It premiered on Creator/{{Netflix}} on January 27th 2023, then was cancelled in May.

''Lockwood & Co.'' is an UrbanFantasy series based on a [[Literature/LockwoodAndCo book series]] of the same name by Creator/JonathanStroud. The first season was released on Creator/{{Netflix}} on January 27th 2023.

The first season adapts the plots of the first two books: ''The Screaming Staircase'' and ''The Whispering Skull''.

* IdiotBall: Twice within the same episode.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: 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.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Sir John Fairfax]] sets Lockwood & Co. up to be killed on a job, [[HeKnowsTooMuch 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 [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor 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 MakeItLookLikeAnAccident, he wouldn't have been killed.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Sir John Fairfax]] sets Lockwood & Co. up to be killed on a job, [[HeKnowsTooMuch 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 [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor she'll give him the ring]]... which contains Annabel's Vengeful Ghost, who promptly murders him. Had he not gotten involved at all, or had simply murdered them during the day instead of trying to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident, he wouldn't have been killed.

** WeaksauceWeakness: They can be hurt or contained by [[ColdIron iron]], [[SilverHasMysticalPowers silver]], or [[SaltSolution salt]], and are only able to manifest [[WeakenedByTheLight at night]].

** WeaksauceWeakness: They can be hurt or contained by [[ColdIron iron]], [[SilverHasMysticalPowerrs silver]], or [[SaltSolution salt]], and are only able to manifest [[WeakenedByTheLight at night]].

** WeaksauceWeakness: They can be hurt or contained by [[ColdIron iron]], [[SilverHasMysticalProperties silver]], or [[SaltSolution salt]], and are only able to manifest [[WeakenedByTheLight at night]].

* DiegeticSwitch: * 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 FireAlarmDistraction.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler: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 [[{{Retirony}} and is about to go back to them.]]

* CrapsackWorld: The present day, fifty years after "The Problem" started to manifest. Technology has utterly stagnated and is apparently permanently stuck in The80s 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. [[ColdIron iron works are much more lucrative). Oh, and only children can see ghosts, so [[ChildSoldier they're the ones actively fighting them]].

* AuctionOfEvil: 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”.
* TheBet: 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.

* DeathSeeker: 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.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The primary danger of the Bone Glass: simply glancing at it makes you obsessed with it, and looking deeper – into the land of the dead – causes permanent insanity.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Sir John Fairfax]] sets Lockwood & Co. up to be killed on a job, [[HeKnowsTooMuch 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... [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor which contains Annabel's VengefulGhost.]] Had he not gotten involved at all, or had simply murdered them during the day instead of trying to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident, he wouldn't have been killed.

* MasterSwordsman: 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 to a standstill.

* OffscreenAfterlife: We never see where the ghosts are coming from, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation and we don't want to.]]

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: 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.

* AdultsAreUseless: Many adult supervisors are incompetent cowards and don't care about the teen ghost-hunters in their charge except as a source of profit.

* CanonForeigner: Sergeant Wade is a new character for the TV series and seems to be the direct superior of Inspector Montagu Barnes. The Golden Blade is apparently a new character, but serves much the same role as Rupert Gale from the novels.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler: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.]]

* HeroInsurance: This trope becomes a plot point, since the various agencies ''do'' have insurance to cover damages incurred while fighting ghosts, [[spoiler:but Lockwood and Co.'s policy becomes voided when a house burns down in the first episode due to them not following proper procedure, leaving them in the hole for £60,000]].

* PragmaticVillainy: 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, [[OnlyAFleshWound he only hits his shoulder]].

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Bickerstaff’s ghost is dispatched this way twice, first by Lucy and later by Lockwood.

* PoorCommunicationKills: 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 and beloved 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.

* FireAlarmDistraction: Lockwood activates the salt sprinklers at Fittes House to cover his and Lucy's escape from the Fittes ball.

* RaceLift: White George Cubbins was changed to Middle-Eastern George Karim to reflect his actor’s ethnicity.

* AlternateTechline: 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.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: 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 TortureTechnician English Lord). None of this is mentioned in the show beyond the name of the room, although the same BloodyHorror (well, plasm horror) attack happens. As well, the story about the lord and lady who lost the favor of the King and [[AxCrazy massacred all their servants]] before [[DrivenToSuicide 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.

* GenderFlip: Joplin was a man in the book series, as was Fairfax’s assistant.

** Flo, Barnes and Kat Godwin, who were all white in the books, are Black in the series.