Want to turn your film franchise into a TV property but you’re unsure how to make it work? Try making a prequel! Are you worried that you’ll dilute the brand by creating a subpar product compared to the films? Don’t worry, it’s a prequel! Nothing matters when you set it in the past!
While I doubt many of the creatives actually working on a show like Welcome to Derry think that way. I can see a board meeting or two that went in that direction. The latest installment in the IT franchise, Derry takes the interlude chapters from the Stephen King novel and uses them as a basis for exploring the past of the town and, yes, the history of Pennywise. To say it’s a loose adaptation would be an understatement. Most of the action takes place in 1962, following a group of kids in search of their missing friend. Meanwhile, there’s a mysterious mission being carried out by the military, and Dick Halloran (Chris Chalk) from The Shining is there.
Those two disparate plot threads take up the bulk of the action in Welcome to Derry, but there’s plenty of other story beats to fill up time. There’s Charlotte Hanlon (Taylor Paige) and her family who are adjusting to their new home. There’s also the struggle of Lilly and Marge (Clara Stack and Matilda Lawler respectively) to fit in with the popular kids. The subplots successfully show that Derry is a sinister place where parts of everyday life become corrupted. The problem is that they often reiterate this point and have very little else to offer. These scenes exist to move us from one mysterious plot point to another.
With a whopping 15 characters listed in the main cast, there shouldn’t be room for padding, but Derry finds a way. The series creates stories for most of them, but never really establishes these characters. They all exist on the surface with nothing underneath. The kids are all neglected and traumatized. The adults are all cold and unfeeling. It all fits in with the established tone of the films, but doesn’t work as well in this longer format. The characters that stand out, like Lilly or Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), do so thanks to solid acting choices.
Like the films, Welcome to Derry is at its best during the horror sequences. Director Andy Muschietti helms the first two episodes and brings along the fun gross-out scares. Whether it’s a woman giving birth to a winged demon baby or the scariest version of The Music Man, Muschietti earns those jump scares. These scenes work so well that it feels like a drag when reality reasserts itself. Sadly, the show can’t be a straight hour of children experiencing their worst fears.
While it succeeds in parts, the series falls into the common prequel trap of overexplanation. The history of Derry, the dark forces that brought It to the town, and even the inspiration for the persona of Pennywise are all questions that the show aims to answer. The problem is that some things are better left unexplained. Pennywise is a clown because kids are afraid of them and it feeds off fear. That’s all we really need to know. Welcome to Derry attempts to answer as many mysteries as possible but fails to deepen the world it takes place in. It’s another corporate-mandated prequel that can’t live up to the hype.
IT: Welcome to Derry is currently streaming on HBO Max. New episodes air on Sundays.