It: Welcome to Derry

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Its a good show. Until episode 5, it was rather bland. It did focus a lot on the mysterious happenings around the kids who encountered IT but it dragged out way too long. A good portion of the first half of the show was dedicated to racial topics and its draining, even if the shows is set in the 1960s. Midway through episode 5 and until the rest, seeing Bill Skarsgard as a more brutal, unhinged Pennywise compared to the movies, landed iconic scene and line after iconic scene and line. From "Seeing things ? I think they see you too" with that maniacal laugh afterwards, or during the last episode when he even briefly sings as he gets ready to spread even more havoc... Bill carried this show for me and I am glad that the directors reconsidered bringing him back because an IT show without Pennywise would have been very bland. What disappointed me, which definitely made my final score a 6 is how they decided to go the route of Pennywise seeing through space and time and seeing his own death by the hands of the losers club... And then at the end him going back in time to creep out Beverly as the old lady from IT Chapter 2 (who is also the woman who is the daughter of the human Pennywise)... I mean, I dont like where this is going. In my opinion, this show should have done each season as each cycle ever since IT landed on Earth, in Derry... They effectively destroyed the prequel purpose of the show by making IT go back in time...

The “It” films are taken from Stephen King’s novel about an evil clown who hides in sewers, where he lures children. This series is a prequel with additional elements that weren’t in the book. It takes place in 1962, in the titular town in Maine. After children disappear, other kids take on the challenge to find them and conquer Pennywise (the clown’s name). The are some subplots, including one about racism, that drag out the story. There are also too many extended dialogue scenes. This show is really about the terror elements, some of which are OK and a few are creepy. Ep 7 is especially horrific. At least the young cast is age appropriate (I’m talking to you “Stranger Things”) and Bill Skarsgård is even more diabolical that he is in the films. Fans of the movies will appreciate the opportunities to extend the story, but the typical curse of a series is the rambling aspects that dilute the impact. (8 one-hour eps)

What made IT such a great watch was the child actors , welcome to derry lacks this in abundance although the children in this show are trying they lack the personality and depth of characters there movie counterparts had in abundance the adults are not much better other then the shinning, the plot with penny wise and his daughter has stired some interest but so far as it stands its bad ,even when the clown turns up that's still not enough to save this doo doo To far in to stop now but extremely underwhelming

The parts where Pennywise is actually in the show are the only reason I gave it a 3. There is a good premise: the whole military is trying to use Pennywise for their own purposes while Pennywise is doing his cycle thing. But damn, there is all this unnecessary narrative garbage that is just a yawnfest; I am fast-forwarding through the series to get to the VERY few good parts. What is it with Hollywood lately, using IPs to make movies, then not actually USING the main character in said IPs? Whoever is over this series, get a stopwatch and measure how much screen time Pennywise receives; if it is anything less than 50%, the show is going to ****.