‘The town is the monster…’
Despite the fact that they fumbled IT Chapter Two spectacularly, I still had faith that Andy and Barbara Muschietti would learn from the myriad of mistakes they made with that movie when writing and producing Welcome to Derry, a prequel to the IT movies for HBO. What I didn’t expect was that rather than learn from them, they would actually end up leaning into them even more…
Taking place in 1962, 27 years before the events of IT Chapter One, Welcome to Derry is primarily the story of how the Hanlon family arrived in Stephen King’s most famous fictional town. Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige), and their son (and eventual father to Mike Hanlon from the source material), Will (Blake Cameron James), end up in Derry after Leroy, a US Air Force Major, is stationed in Derry on an important mission. Upon arrival, he meets Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), a character who goes on to play a major part in The Shining. As we are in the world of IT, we must also have a Loser’s Club made up here of Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack), Rich Santos (Arian S. Cartaya), Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine) and Marge Truman (Matilda Lawler). And of course, we mustn’t forget the main event – the return of Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
The plan for Welcome to Derry is three seasons based on three different ‘interludes’ in the book (as Pennywise emerges from his slumber every 27 years or so, each interlude covers another of his atrocities). The problem is that these interludes in the book are relatively short, so of the eight episodes here, only one of them is an adaptation of an event that actually takes place in the book. Unsurprisingly, that particular episode (‘The Black Spot’) is also the standout moment. There are other good segments, too. ‘In The Name of the Father’, in which we find out the origin of how IT became Pennywise, is an excellent episode of television, and both the first and last episodes bookend things nicely, but the rest of it must go down as a crushing disappointment. The whole military angle is both too reminiscent of Stranger Things and absolutely mind-numbingly stupid; the constant changing of the parameters of what Pennywise can and can’t do is maddening; and the relentless and repetitive use of CGI (a hangover from the movies) is also infuriating. The top end of the cast do their best (Chalk, Lawler and James Remar as an uncompromising lieutenant general are all excellent), but there are too many forgettable performances here, and while Skarsgård is gleefully deranged as ever as the guy in the clown outfit, he is also often underused, misused or hidden behind too much CGI.
I can see how casual fans of IT who have only seen the films will find plenty to enjoy here, but as someone who considers IT to be one of my favourite books of all time, I can’t help but feel disappointed. The good bits are good, but when it’s bad (‘29 Neibolt Street’ is probably the worst episode of television I’ve seen all year – and I still watch new episodes of The Simpsons), it is genuinely awful.
Having said all this, I did enjoy spending so much time in Derry, and while I think season one has to go down as a missed opportunity, there is enough here to make me hopeful for the next two seasons. Anyway, I’ve got to shoot off, I’ve just spotted a red balloon in the distance that probably needs investigating.
