What do we mean when we talk about Young Adult fiction? Utter the term YA, and you will most likely picture something resembling Lockwood & Co. Netflix’s newest No 1 series has all the hallmarks of a YA smash. A mixed-gender group of teenage protagonists. A healthy dollop of the supernatural. A shelf-load of lore. Adapted from novels by Jonathan Stroud and created by Attack the Block’s Joe Cornish, the series follows a trio of juvenile ghost-hunters, played by Ruby Stokes, Cameron Chapman and Ali Hadji-Heshmati. It’s a CGI-laden fantasy melodrama, big on quips, and even bigger on action. And yet, Lockwood & Co also follows another of Netflix’s time-tested YA rules: it’s not actually very good.
Look back through the past five years of original programming, and you’ll see that the YA market is a well that Netflix has returned to many times. But the results have been mixed, to say the least. The streaming service’s back catalogue is laden with forgotten, indistinct YA series. Some of these lasted for multiple seasons before facing cancellation – programmes like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Locke & Key, Firefly Lane, or Ryan Murphy’s The Politician. Others were culled after just one run of episodes – insipid teen dramas such as The Society, One of Us is Lying or Raising Dion. Given that Lockwood & Co has remained at the top of Netflix’s TV chart for more than a week, it seems more than possible that it’ll return, at least for a second series. But make no mistake, Lockwood & Co is trite, unedifying filler – despite what some of its fans say.
