Welcome to Derry Review: Without Pennywise, It’s All Filler and No Fear

As viewers press play on HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry, we’re already five episodes ahead—far enough in to chart where the dread is headed. Consider this your early warning from deep inside Derry.

Here is where early screeners can be both a blessing and a reality check: I watched the first five episodes of HBO's It: Welcome to Derry back to back. If I had been watching week to week with everybody else, I would have bailed around episode 2 or 3. Getting a chunk of the season at once kept me in the game. Waiting months would not have.

What this thing is

Welcome to Derry is a prequel to the recent It films, jumping back roughly 27 years to follow a new set of characters long before the Losers Club saga. It is absolutely stuffed with lore - like, book-nut deep cuts and then some - which is catnip if you live for the Stephen King universe, but borderline overkill for a series that still has to stand on its own. The wildest swing: Dick Halloran from The Shining (played here by Chris Chalk) shows up in a prominent role. Yes, that Dick Halloran. It is a bold crossover move, and it is going to be a conversation starter.

The setup and who is who

• Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) and Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige) move their family to Derry for a top-secret military assignment. As they settle in, General Shaw (James Remar) slowly peels back why this town matters and how it ties into the thing everyone in Derry pretends not to notice.
• Meanwhile, a new group of kids bands together to figure out what happened to a missing friend. Early on, the show makes a shocking, frankly frustrating choice to wipe out a cluster of its most likable characters just to crank the stakes. It connects to the horror machinery, but it is a choice I would put in the minus column.

The Pennywise problem

Warner Bros. has been upfront that Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) is not in a hurry to make an entrance. That is not marketing spin. Across the first five hours, he barely factors in, and the wait is rough.

"I waited about five hours for Pennywise to show up, and that wait was excruciating - one of the worst creative decisions imaginable."

Yes, It can take many forms, and the show tries plenty of them. But the non-Pennywise manifestations are the least interesting versions on the board. Too often an episode plays like this: someone sees disturbing things only they can see, no one believes them, and we spin our wheels until a few loud jolts near the end. Rinse, repeat. It is not compelling momentum.

What actually works

When the series commits to pure horror, the filmmaking wakes up. The set pieces are frequently inventive and, at times, impressively gutsy for TV. Andy Muschietti, the films' guiding voice, clearly understands what clicked on the big screen, and some of that DNA carries over. You can feel a steady hand behind the camera when the show leans into scares instead of myth dump.

Why it feels like the wrong format

This would have played better as a movie. On TV, the cinematic punch that made the films pop gets diluted. There are too many characters, too many threads, and the season stretches itself thin to fill roughly ten hours. The lore is thick, but the story inches forward. After five episodes - which, if you are watching weekly, takes you well into late November - it still feels like the show is saving everything for later. That is a maddening vibe for a weekly release.

Performances, pacing, and patience

The cast is solid across the board, though no one leaps off the screen yet. The problem is more structural than acting-related. Episode to episode, not much actually happens. It is the kind of season that seems designed to justify a season 2 rather than deliver a satisfying season 1.

Bottom line

It: Welcome to Derry has flashes of the nasty, nervy horror that made the movies hit, but it badly needs a jolt of energy and a clearer target. As a single theatrical prequel, this might have been a blast. Stretched out weekly, it too often feels like it is wasting your time while it waits for the clown you came to see.

Release info

It: Welcome to Derry premieres Sunday, October 26 on HBO, with new episodes rolling out weekly. I watched five of the eight episodes.