Lockwood & Co is yet another Netflix YA supernatural series — has this one got what it takes to survive?
Netflix has a habit of cancelling shows after one or two seasons, often to the bemusement of fans. With yet another series arriving, why should fans watch Lockwood & Co if it might not make it to season 2? We look at the evidence so far?
Is Lockwood & Co any good?
We liked it and would like a further season or two. The cast are good, leads Ruby Stokes, Cameron Chapman and Ali Hadji-Heshmati carry the show well, with plenty of chemistry and it’s set in the UK, so plenty for Cultbox fans to connect to. It’s an adaptation of a Jonathan Stroud novel, the first in a series of five, so plenty of potential. It’s not just we who like it — Rotten Tomatoes currently shows 89% critics and 95% audience scores (on 9 and 332 ratings respectively).
Of course Netflix does like to be driven by the data…
How did it perform on opening weekend?
Recent experience waiting for The Sandman to be renewed (and to a lesser extent Wednesday) shows Netflix works to its own schedule. We know it looks at audience, audience over 28 and 60 days, how many finish the season and other demographic factors. Of course cost comes into play, but is not easily available. The show was released last Friday, and Netflix has just dropped the figures for the week-ending January 29, giving us 3 days of data. It’s not good reading for fans of the show:
On the English TV side, fans continued to flock to member favorites. Wednesday landed in the #2 spot (35.86M hours viewed), Season 1 of Ginny & Georgia (31.14M hours viewed), That ‘90s Show (26.25M hours viewed), Season 2 of Vikings: Valhalla (25.12M hours viewed) and Kaleidoscope (12.11M hours viewed) all returned to the list. New entrants on the list included supernatural adventure series Lockwood & Co. starring Ruby Stokes, Cameron Chapman and Ali-Hadji Heshmati with 25.12M hours viewed, the glitz and glamour crew of Bling Empire: New York with 14.28M hours viewed, and Season 2 of reality baking series Bake Squad starring Christina Tosi with 13.04M hours viewed.
As to the #1 title:
Season 2 of Ginny & Georgia is holding on strong on the English TV List with 55.61M hours viewed. The series now has 486.2M total hours viewed and nearly 53M households who have seen the series (486.2M hours viewed divided by the run time of 9 hours).
It tied with Vikings: Valhalla season 2, and came in joint 5th. The most positive interpretation is it failed to shine against established titles and the vast popularity of Wednesday. The acid test will be next week. Popular opinion suggests a target of 100 million hours in week 2 as a good rule of thumb. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for news. Until then can we gently recommend you gives his excellent series a watch?!