TV review<\/h2>\n
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. \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry,\u201d HBO\u2019s prequel series to the 2017 movie \u201cIt\u201d and its 2019 sequel, squarely falls into the latter category.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Based on Stephen King\u2019s classic 1986 novel \u201cIt\u201d and premiering Sunday<\/span> (it\u2019ll also stream on HBO Max), the prequel carries many of the same trademarks of the first film: It\u2019s 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\u2019s up to a bunch of traumatized children \u2014 all way too curious for their own good and hilariously foul-mouthed \u2014 to try to put a stop to it all.\u00a0<\/p>\n But what elevates \u201cDerry\u201d \u2014 developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, who all were involved with the films \u2014 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\u2019s happening in Derry, as told through adults \u2014 Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk and Kimberly Norris Guerrero (all great) \u2014 who are all too aware of what\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n To say too much more would get into spoiler territory, but suffice to say that what I\u2019ve seen so far of the eight-episode series (the first five episodes were made available for review) is riveting television. You\u2019ll get the most out of \u201cDerry\u201d if you\u2019ve 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\u2019 central premise: loss and the grief that stems from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Headlines, puzzles and death notices from the Valley delivered to your inbox 7 a.m. daily.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There\u2019s a quote from King\u2019s 1983 novel \u201cChristine\u201d that I always felt better applied to \u201cIt\u201d: \u201cIf being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die.\u201d \u201cDerry,\u201d like \u201cIt\u201d before it, lives in that transitional moment when childhood innocence is lost and the realities of life, however cruel, begin to take root. It\u2019s a bittersweet revelation \u2014 well, as bittersweet as a thematic element can be when there\u2019s a giant space clown running around.<\/p>\n Speaking of, this being a prequel, \u201cDerry\u201d carries an underlying tension of viewers generally knowing how it\u2019ll all play out. Pennywise\u2019s reign of horror doesn\u2019t come to an end until the conclusion of \u201cIt: Chapter 2.\u201d 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\u2019s excellent pacing, and that it hasn\u2019t left me feeling in the dark even as it hints at greater mysteries, I\u2019d be surprised if they weren\u2019t addressed in due time.<\/p>\n What hasn\u2019t been excellent, though, is the show\u2019s wild swings in visual effects. Most of the time they\u2019re 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 Skarsg\u00e5rd.)<\/p>\n The novel and movies end on a melancholic note, and I\u2019m not expecting \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d to conclude any differently. But what exactly that means is still up in the air, and though I\u2019m not sure my heart can take any more clown-related scares, I know exactly where I\u2019ll be when those last three episodes premiere.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry,\u201d HBO\u2019s prequel series to the 2017 movie \u201cIt\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2076437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2109422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Seattle-Jazz-Fellowships-Monday-night-jazz-jam-draws-all-ages-crowd.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2109422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2109423,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109422\/revisions\/2109423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2076437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2109422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2109422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2109422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}