Wow, the made a TV show out of the book series. I had absolutely no idea this was coming, but it drops on Netflix this Friday. I’ll be checking it out, read all of the books.
Loved the books, but I don’t feel up for this. They would have to do some incredible casting. Anyway, husband won’t be interested.
I hope it is good and furthermore, I hope it is fun for my family to watch. I assume it is appropriate family entertainment?
I loved the books and thought, while reading them, that they’d make a pretty good TV or movie series if done right.
From that trailer, I have no idea whether they’re being done right. It just looks… trailery. The one thing that stood out to me was that George looks wrong (i.e. doesn’t match how I pictured him from them books). Checking Wikipedia, I find that they have changed his last name (and presumably ethnicity?). Where the books made George a slob and a schlub, the show takes the overused approach of taking an attractive actor and just having him wear glasses to appear plain and nerdy.
I hope it’s good. I enjoyed the books.
Stroud’s The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne is becoming a movie for Amazon Prime as well.
I’ve read the books and there just isn’t the same creeping dread in this trailer. You got the sense that terrible things had happened and the kids could die at any moment. This looks pretty Disney-fied.
Mrs. solost and I watched the first ep. It has a definite YA feel, but there’s plenty of threat that kids could die or be permanently harmed at any moment. Will likely continue watching until Netflix unceremoniously cancels it 
Interesting world-building. Let me both summarize and ask if I am understanding the in-universe sitch correctly, as the show is letting things unfold without a lot of exposition (none of this should be very spoilery since I only watched ep1 and know nothing of the books):
So this is a world in which paranormal hauntings are very real and very dangerous- a ‘ghost touch’ will instantly kill a human and even staring at ghosts too long appears to induce a permanent state of catatonia. Ghosts come out and roam the streets at night so there is a curfew after which everybody must stay indoors for their safety. There are mentions of ‘The Problem’ which apparently references the incident or underlying cause of the ghost infestation.
There are state-supported quasi-paramilitary groups of psychics which are apparently composed of only young people, teens and preteens (apparently psychic ability is lost upon adulthood), supervised by adults, who use various methods to fight or exorcise the ghosts. Lockwood and Co. are one of these, but operate without adult supervision.
Is ‘The Problem’ confined to Great Britain? Does the show take place in the 80s, as it appears to, or is it supposed to be present-day, just having progressed differently than our universe?
I think it is the 80’s as it appears. It’s been awhile since I read it, but I don’t remember that there are any mentions of The Problem happening anywhere else than the UK.
I think it’s definitely a parallel now-ish - at least 21st C if not 2020s. The sub-mystery in the first few episodes features an actress whose body they found bricked up. She was murdered in the early 80s and it’s mentioned this was 20 or 30 something years ago.
It does have a lovely 80s UK goth soundtrack tho. 
OB
Interesting. I’m sure they mentioned the dates in the books and I missed it.
So far the series has been pretty good. I’m about half way through. Speaking of music, first episode had a lot of Bauhaus. I was into Bauhaus in the 80s.
The world seems to be in the 2000s+ but no cell phones so far, little internet or computers so feels like 80s. Cars seem to be older also. Maybe like a dark and dreary Pushing Daisies in this regard. Not really set in a time.
The bully seems heavy handed and irrational, but I have to allow for the YA roots for the show.
I don’t remember any absolute dates mentioned in the books. (There could well have been; I just don’t remember.) But there were plenty of references to things happening a certain number of years ago.
Didn’t read the books, don’t like horror movies.
I really enjoyed this series. A very good take on “what if ghosts became real”. A good reason behind teenage protagonists, which makes in-world sense. Likeable characters, good actors.
And yes, I got creeped out. But not overwhelmingly so.
See, the way I interpreted this is that The Problem affected societal growth, and technologic growth. Things just… stopped. The need to develop technology and materials to defeat the spirit world trumped the need for home electronics and personal devices. The real-world need to not get your face eaten by bad guys made the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates focus more on Iron and Silver, instead of silicon.
I’m two episodes in. In terms of Disneyfication, my 10yo noped out of the show halfway through the first episode, based on a scene in which
a child ghost murders a bunch of the teenage ghostbusters
so it’s not entirely unscary.
That said, I’m mostly watching it because my wife enjoys it, and because the 80s goth soundtrack is custom-made for my nostalgia in a way that nothing else I’ve ever experienced is. They keep playing songs and I’m like, oh shit, I had that on repeat when I was fifteen!
Same on the goth nostalgia, am 3 episodes in.
Loving it so far. Great acting, clear influence from the Davies/Moffat/Gattis production school.
Yeah, on watching the second episode I noticed a lot of exposition is in the intro. There are a series of graphics and newspaper-style headlines. One is ‘Technology stocks crash’ and an image of CRT monitors and other computer detritus in an abandoned pile. There’s a scene where Lucy is in the hospital and the vital signs monitor attached to her looks pretty high-tech, so apparently they do use modern tech for the really important stuff.
Huh. Thank you for that. I just skip the intros, so I don’t see that.
We finished it last night. It was pretty good, but not super amazing. About the door that Lockwood keeps locked, I read the books and is it(book spoilers below):
Something to do with a dead sister? Like her ghost is in there or something?
Well, yes, but that isn’t revealed until the, I think, third or fourth book.