Doing this a little different because I have not been great at writing up reviews on the “every episode gets one” plan.

To start with, if you are here then it is highly unlikely that you are unaware of the existence of this show. Before we get to the details of it though, let’s do a quick history. I bought and read IT in hardback when it was released in 1986. I was in my first year in high school and this was the last “new” Stephen King book I read before discovering Clive Barker (who I consider a far superior writer, but that is deviating.) IT was amazing. And when they did the 1990 mini series, I was thrilled. Sure, it had problems, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then came the 2017 movie, and changes. One big change was the era. Originally the book set things in the 60’s for the kids and late 80’s for their return as adults. The mini series kept this timeline. But when the 2017 movie was made, it made a time jump. The kids part was set in the late 80’s which let them have the adult part in our current time (2016.)

The newer movie having a changed timeline is important because Welcome to Derry season 1 takes place in 1962. The year that originally saw the death of Georgie. But this is now the previous feeding cycle 20 years before Georgie is even born.

I was worried about the initial premise I had heard for the season. The military wants to capture Pennywise and throw him at other countries as a supernatural weapon to cause chaos in those other countries. And my thought was “what a stupid idea!” Because Pennywise sleeps for 27 years, wakes up and kills a handful of kids, then sleeps again. How does this make sense as a military weapon?

Episode 1 started off with what has to be the most graphic birth scene ever as a demonic flying baby monster comes into the world. We get a handful of kids going to a movie and the flying baby monster kills most of them leaving Lilly alive, to become the main character. Or rather one of them.

Derry is a highly racist town, and the kids dying is quickly blamed on Hank (the black man who works at the theater.)

I’m no longer focused on specific episodes (that didn’t last long.) The military comes into play as Leroy Hanlon is brought to Derry to spearhead a search for Pennywise. Although he isn’t told what he is doing. He is sent on a flight mission with Dick Halloran (originally introduced in the Shining!) Dick is trying to use his abilities to locate Pennywise. Although in reality the military is trying to locate the “Pillars” that form a cage confining Pennywise to the area.

A new group of kids makes up the Loser’s Club (before it was named that in the future.) Lilly, Marge (her best friend), Rich (hopelessly infatuated with Marge), Will (son of Leroy Hanlon), Ronnie (daughter of Hank.) Ronnie is desperately trying to get Lilly to tell the truth about what happened at the theater to clear her dad, but Lilly doesn’t want to be deemed crazy and sent to a psych ward.

Pennywise does his thing causing chaos and fear among the (unnamed) Loser’s Club. There are times where this is amazing and times where it is so CGI that it is kinda cringey. And at this point I am a bit uncertain about how and why Pennywise works. I know he wants to instill fear and terrorize kids to tenderize them making them more yummy. But it seems unlikely that he keeps doing it to the outcast group. Why aren’t we seeing him target any other random kids? Maybe he is, but we are only following the Loser’s Club? That isn’t true, because later in the series there is a tribal council meeting of the native Americans who have taken it upon themselves to make sure Pennywise stays caged. In the meeting they talk specifically about the amount of kills Pennywise has done and that the cycle is done and he is going to sleep (this was in episode 7 of 8. Setting up a conundrum because he is sleepy and the cycle is done, but he decides to escalate everything for episode 8. Instead of sleeping, he kicks it into high gear. Which seems opposite of the rules we know about him.) But also I was confused about this because the council seems to know exactly who has died and how and when. Almost like they are watching. Not protecting people necessarily, but monitoring as they wait for the cycle to end. They appear to be concerned more with the long term goal of keeping him caged.

The aspect of this season that I liked the most was actually Dick Halloran. His time in the Shining was memorable, but short. Doctor Sleep brought him back into the spotlight, which was cool. And there was plans for a Dick Halloran centric movie, but it was cancelled after Doctor Sleep didn’t do well at the box office. Dick is a deeply troubled man due to the ghosts that haunt and torment him constantly. The “Black Spot” as mentioned historically in previous IT material was the site of a racial massacre. In Welcome to Derry, it plays out as a speakeasy type place for black airmen, but is still a site of a racial massacre. Dick is present for it, but when things go bad he is only concerned with trying to save himself. Most of the Loser’s Club is actually at the Black Spot, and Dick helps 2 of them escape. Later, in the closing moments of the series, Dick mentions that he is leaving the military to go work in a hotel in London as a cook. Which seems odd to me, why not just send him to the Overlook now? London seems like a long way to go to work in a hotel, and we know he is going to wind up at the Overlook (just as we knew he was never in jeopardy no matter what was thrown at him.) And interestingly, I’m pretty sure, that the Shining never set itself within a specific year or era.

But back to the military plan. They find one of the pillars and then surprise! The plan was actually to open the cage so Pennywise can go anywhere in America. They figure the fear instilled by Pennywise will quell the masses. But I don’t understand how. He kills a handful every 27 years. In the town of Derry, that is terrifying. Within the United States, that is pretty meh. I mean, more people die each year from accidentally shoving a Q-Tip too far into their ear in a given year than Pennywise eats in his feeding cycle. Probably.

Spoilers. We do get some interesting revelations. Marge will eventually be the mother of Richie from the original story! Although we never see her in the movies. And Will is the dad of Mike from the movies. Although Mike’s backstory doesn’t line up with the events from the series. Lilly and Ronnie are not part of the future stories. Bet we did get an interesting monologue of sorts from Pennywise that pointed out that he knew Marge would give birth to Richie and that would lead to him dying (or being born, he says oddly.) We also saw Henry Bowers dad in this, in a manner that shows like father like son. We saw a piece of history where Pennywise isn’t yet the clown, but sees the character of Pennywise and decides he likes the image. I believe that the next season of the show will be in the feeding cycle where he becomes the dancing clown. So likely more of that coming in season 2. And the last awesome thing was seeing Beverly (from the 2017 movie) as her mom dies (right before the movie events happen.) Although this is a little odd, because it felt like she hadn’t been around for a long time in the movie.

I realize I’m all over the place in this. But I am trying to recap like 9 hours of a series that I watched over the course of 8 weeks. And trying not to be too verbose as I do so.

I will say that I am 85% thrilled as hell with what this series did. The other 15% was massively disappointing. If you haven’t watched this yet, I highly suggest checking it out. It expanded the lore of the Pennywise world in many great ways. I’m going with a 9 star rating. I would definitely watch this again at some point.

Extra spoiler. There is a scene towards the end where a dense fog rolls out across Derry. I wonder if this is potentially related to the Mist. I don’t know that it makes a ton of sense for it to be, but there are a number of things that are retconned or tweaked or ignored in regards to being contradictory to other stories in Kings Universe.