A trio of kids look for a missing friend while a new pilot lands at Derry AFB as Pennywise in It: Welcome To Derry, Episode 1: The Pilot.
It: Welcome to Derry premiered this week, on Sunday, October 26th. The eight-episode series is a prequel to Andy Muschietti’s two-film adaptation of the 1986 Stephen King tome (with Muschietti returning to direct). For It: Welcome to Derry, I’m switching up my normal “review the whole season at once” like I have for Alien: Earth, Haunted Hotel, or Hell Motel. I’m going to review and muse on each episode as it airs, with a collection and overview review when it finishes in the middle of December. The show airs Sundays, except for the second episode, which airs on Halloween. These might be a little looser than normal, as full story and character details aren’t known until the end. It should be interesting to revisit after the full arc to see how the in-show observations line up with the end.
It might be obvious, but to be on the same page, I want to be clear: It: Welcome to Derry is directly a precursor to Muschetti’s take, existing in the world he set up in adaptation. As those films pushed up King’s 60s/80s to 80s/2010s, that leaves the 60s (as the first, Tim Curry-led, directed by Halloween III’s Tommy Lee Wallace adaptation used as well) open for the story. It: Welcome to Derry is set to follow the residents of the Maine town during the Pennywise feeding spree before the Loser’s Club figures out his game. It’s a nice touch to visit the novel time in a new way.
It does feel very King. From the way people talk, the characters themselves (especially the so-direct bullies), and the general feel, it has the tone I feel from the book in spades. As he does best, a wide variety of characters are ready to start coming together. That’s essentially the push of the first episode. Meeting the characters and setting up the pieces to move, with just enough horror and danger.
It all starts as pre-teen Matty goes missing after watching The Music Man at the theatre. A fantastic short film of an opening sequence jumps into how Pennywise terrifies and messes with its victims. This sequence is disturbing, with a wonderful build and an awesome monster. As a standalone, it’s solid. Following, we meet Lilly, a girl dealing with the death of her father (a slightly embarrassing one, so here come bullies) and the boy’s friends Phil and Teddy (the chemistry and readings of these kids is fantastic). They do research and try to find out what happened, starting to slightly uncover the town’s history. On the other end of town, Captain Leroy Hanlon has arrived at Derry Air Force Base and is dealing with racism in the ranks, espionage, and a secret project.
Yes, Hanlon. Presemingly, the father or grandfather of Mike Hanlon. One of the boy’s last name is Uris, matching Stanley. Relations of two of the Loser’s Club? I really hope we don’t go too far down the direct connection, generational/”hey, know this” elbow nudges. I’m pleased with the restraint in Pennywise and expectations. After the first film’s success and cultural acceptance, Chapter II was Too Much on all levels, especially in how they used Pennywise, taking what worked in moments in Chapter I and running to the ground (looking at you, Richie quips). But Muchetti keeps a low use, just enough to tease and set up for this version of kids vs monsters.
I’m off two minds on the look. The clean-cut sixties have a specific cinematic style at this point in culture, and Welcome to Derry follows to a tee – matching King’s outlook of the era. To create the look, however, it looks overly digital. Too clean. Too neat. The shots of the kids on the balcony are overly processed. So it bounces from verisimilitude to “oh, that’s digital.”
I wonder where this all can go. We know the story of IT. We know Pennywise won’t be defeated until two more returns of its 27-year sleep cycle. The kids feel like stand-ins for the Loser’s Club, unpopular and odd. But King and the audience love the oddballs, but it does seem just a bit too familiar. With the weird stuff at base on the Hanlon side of the story, I wonder if we’re going to slide into things going wrong ala the Mist and become more of a King pastiche ala Castle Rock (that two season show was… okay. Season 2 was better but it was a mess overall) since can’t go too deep into the sewers of Pennywise’s doings. I do like seeing a specific Stephen King character, well-known from another novel, who was in It, show up. In a specific “where does this go?” I loved the climactic sequence and the implications of the cliffhanger. I do suspect it’s all part of Pennywise’s machination, but we’ll see!
It: Welcome to Derry, Episode 1: The Pilot, is a solid start to the prequel series. With a restraint in use of Pennywise and setting up the dominos without leaning too heavily on scares for scares’ sake (some may find the “make the normally friendly now creepy” use of Music Man to be much), and enough character, with the promise of building up well.
Keep coming back for each episode reviews as soon as I can after airing!