TV review
Prequels have the unenviable task of telling you a story in which you already know the ending. The worst ones are lazy and uninspired. The best, though, enrich and deepen the source material, revealing something new to you along the way. “It: Welcome to Derry,” HBO’s prequel series to the 2017 movie “It” and its 2019 sequel, squarely falls into the latter category.
Based on Stephen King’s classic 1986 novel “It” and premiering Sunday (it’ll also stream on HBO Max), the prequel carries many of the same trademarks of the first film: It’s set in Derry, Maine, in 1962, 27 years before the events of the first movie. (Fans will recognize the importance of that number.) Kids are going missing, and the adults are becoming unhinged. Pennywise, the ancient shapeshifting horror that takes on the nightmarish visage of a clown before eating terrified children, has returned. And it’s up to a bunch of traumatized children — all way too curious for their own good and hilariously foul-mouthed — to try to put a stop to it all.
But what elevates “Derry” — developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, who all were involved with the films — from being a mere rehash is the introduction of a secondary plotline that pivots away from the young protagonists. (They may as well be called the Losers Club at this point, for all the similarities they share with the heroes of the first film.) Instead, it focuses on adding lore and context to what’s happening in Derry, as told through adults — Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk and Kimberly Norris Guerrero (all great) — who are all too aware of what’s going on. That through line also focuses on bigotry, particularly racism in the years before the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, and Cold War propaganda as fears of a nuclear apocalypse rise ever higher. It makes for an interesting cross-section of outright horror and unnerving tension as the two threads begin to weave together.
To say too much more would get into spoiler territory, but suffice to say that what I’ve seen so far of the eight-episode series (the first five episodes were made available for review) is riveting television. You’ll get the most out of “Derry” if you’ve seen the movies and read the novel; it was a delight to notice the many Easter eggs that were included, even as clown-induced terror was unfolding on screen. And that background knowledge helps with understanding the series’ central premise: loss and the grief that stems from it.
There’s a quote from King’s 1983 novel “Christine” that I always felt better applied to “It”: “If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die.” “Derry,” like “It” before it, lives in that transitional moment when childhood innocence is lost and the realities of life, however cruel, begin to take root. It’s a bittersweet revelation — well, as bittersweet as a thematic element can be when there’s a giant space clown running around.
Speaking of, this being a prequel, “Derry” carries an underlying tension of viewers generally knowing how it’ll all play out. Pennywise’s reign of horror doesn’t come to an end until the conclusion of “It: Chapter 2.” So, what does that mean for the current kids and adults dealing with the monster? By the end of Episode 5, you can start to see some of the pieces falling into place, but there were plenty of questions still left unanswered. Considering the show’s excellent pacing, and that it hasn’t left me feeling in the dark even as it hints at greater mysteries, I’d be surprised if they weren’t addressed in due time.
What hasn’t been excellent, though, is the show’s wild swings in visual effects. Most of the time they’re fine, if not quite on the same level as the movies. Other times, they were utterly immersion-ruining. (A standout, though: the horrifically mesmerizing reveal of Pennywise, once again played by Bill Skarsgård.)
The novel and movies end on a melancholic note, and I’m not expecting “It: Welcome to Derry” to conclude any differently. But what exactly that means is still up in the air, and though I’m not sure my heart can take any more clown-related scares, I know exactly where I’ll be when those last three episodes premiere.
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