The Incendiary Chemistry Between ‘Lockwood & Co.’ Leads Ruby Stokes and Cameron Chapman is Hotter Than Your Fave Romance Stars

Lockwood & Co. is a show that manages to pull off more than one magic trick. It’s a Netflix YA show that seems to breathe new life into a genre often plagued by laziness and cliches. It’s full of charm, wit, and fully-formed teen characters. Most of all, it constantly underscores the emotional horror of a fantasy world where teens would have to be sacrificed on the frontlines for the sake of everyone else’s survival. However, I keep thinking the wildest and most wondrous part of Netflix’s Lockwood & Co. is how it nails the will they/won’t they trope.

Lockwood & Co. leads Ruby Stokes and Cameron Chapman have more chemistry between them than 99.99% of the couples on TV. When they look at each other, you can feel the ache of unspoken desire, the tenderness of true connection, and good, old-fashioned teenaged nerves. If you’re not watching Lockwood & Co. and screaming at the screen that Lucy and Lockwood should just kiss already, you’re far more dead than any of the ghosts these teens are hunting.

Based on the best-selling books by Jonathan Stroud, Lockwood & Co. takes place in an alternate history where the world was suddenly struck by an influx of deadly ghosts approximately 50 years ago. Chaos reigned until folks discovered that young people — specifically teens — have the ability to see, hear, and sense these apparitions and fight them back. At the age of 13, and with a parent’s consent, children can be trained as “agents.” The big agencies are illustrious and flush with money, while more provincial operations are less than savory situations. Teen agents risk their lives and their sanity in the fight against ghosts and sometimes come back “ghost-locked” or not at all.

After she’s framed for causing a disastrous operation in her small Northern town, talented “listener” Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes) runs away from her abusive home and journeys to London. The only agency that will take Lucy on is the rogue independent outfit known as Lockwood & Co. She teams up with posh orphan Anthony Lockwood and his one friend/colleague George Karim (Ali Hadji-Heshmati), and they soon form a ragtag sort of family.

And, of course, Lucy and Lockwood clearly, obviously, very much are destined to fall in love. And kiss.

I have not read the Lockwood & Co. books, but I did devour all eight episodes of the Netflix series last Friday. From the moment that a downtrodden, but defiant Lucy and the besuited (as if a classic professional suit could double as full-plate armor) Lockwood meet, I felt the sparks. It’s in the way that Stokes and Chapman lock eyes and size each other up in every scene. It’s how they organically fall into a familiar banter in their earliest jobs and call each other out on their trauma in later episodes. It’s in how they move around each other — tender, but teasing — and how they clearly should be kissing already.

One of the things I love best about Lockwood & Co. is how it deals with the dark dichotomy of its characters’ realities. Lucy and Lockwood’s lives have been marred by trauma. Friends and family have died. Ghosts stalk their nights and death is just a single stupid mistake away. Therefore Lucy and Lockwood both behave with a bit more maturity than most teens, but they’re still teens. They might feel things a bit more deeply, have learned to compartmentalize their emotions with a bit more tact, but they’re still teens. They’re nervous, horny, and still not fully-formed. The way their could-be romance plays out in flickers has more heat than some balls-to-the-wall erotic thrillers.

Lockwood & Co. is a great binge because of its action, world-building, and good old fashioned storytelling, but it’s a show that gets under your skin because of its characters. Specifically, Lucy and Lockwood…who, I’m sorry, but should totally kiss.