Welcome To Derry: HBO IT prequel show aka “ITT we talk about IT” or “Down here we all reboot/float/etc”

New show on HBO set up as a companion prequel series to the recent “IT” movies (ie the Bill Skarskgard drooly Pennywise jobs) and the Stephen King book etc

Episode 1 went up Sunday night
Who’s in?

I liked the first ep well enough, hints at having a bit of gonzo-King in the tank for some of the crazy nightmare-fuel stuff, but at times felt a little yadda yadda kids, mystery, meet in secret place, etc

so we’ll see!

bingo card so far
(these aren’t really spoilers i dont think? )

- a Paul Bunyan statue reference
- IT canon character connections:
Teddy is Stan Uris’s uncle;
Col Leroy Hanlon is Mike Hanlon’s grandad
- Drain-Talk! we got talking from inside drains (also talk abt drains)
- TURTLE

tbh this is corny to say, but as such a lifelong fan of King and IT the novel specifically, revisiting a past version of Derry is v enjoyable to me! it’s like my fictional hometown but for nightmare-fuel experiences

like gah! the theater, gah! the water tower, gah! the school library, gah! chinese restaurant etc etc

(even though yes i know timeline for this show is diff to novel blah blah etc etc)

I'll give it a whirl.

sorry for multi posting itt but in my flurry i forgot to share actual useful context

Welcome To Derry creators have said that the show draws some of its story from the Interludes in the original King novel, ie it will cover the fire at the Black Spot juke joint, for example

and:
bingo card addition
Dick Halloran

gathering that this is not a Derry Girls sequel?

heh, I literally thought this must be a Derry Girls spinoff when I saw it on the torrents

Get out of here with this Derry Girls nonsense--this is Stephen King world.

I liked the first episode a lot, but was it just me or did the aerial shots of Derry look way too CGI? took me out a few times.

was hoping this wasn't gonna be worth watching because my tv show backlog is large and my time is short lol. assuming this is (so far) way better than the dumb dune prequel that i didn't bother to finish?

this is also a prequel to Dune

brig-a-dune

yeah Dune Prophecy prequel was really bad. This is not that at all imo

First episode was good

Wasn't expecting most of the kids to get killed at the end though and hope they don't pull some kind of fake out in the next episode

yeah i’m even more curious abt the series now because of that!

Didn’t know this was a thing until I saw a poster of it in Basel today. Any good?

if anyone is a fan of the Kingcast podcast, the current hosts have a new standalone watch-along podcast for Welcome to Derry called “Watching IT: Welcome to Derry” that just started this wk

xpost it has potential to be really good - i’ll say after first ep that it’s promising?

I’ll go with it, I need a new show to watch and I’ve been recently reading some of his short stories

It’s by the same ppl that made the atrocious films idk if I can put myself through eight more hours of that

i liked the first one well enough, the 2nd one was not as good imo

i don't think i ever saw the second one. missed it in theaters and just haven't wanted to spend the 3 hours

it’s a lot shaggier than the first one imo

For me the first “chapter” is merely very bad, 2nd is legit one of the worst films I’ve ever suffered thru

Both shit qua movie and a baffling waste of source material, maybe these chumps have learned to do it but I don’t have much hope. Funny to think there’s a world where Cory Fukunaga made them instead of rando hacks, an hbo series of the interludes would be a bit more of an interesting proposition there

*cary ffs

I'm with wins, although for me the first Muscietti IT was worse. I will never need to revisit them. My big complaint about both IT adaptations was that they neglected the Derry Interludes from the book, and I know that's supposed to be what the series revolves around, but I can't.

For those of you who are continue to thrust your fists against the posts and still insist you see the ghosts, may the turtle help you.

tough crowd

Enjoyed the nod to “The Mangler”

I’m still mostly enjoying this after Ep2. Loved Mom Hanlon being the only one seeing Derry as it truly is, that whole sequence was great.

I think the dream sequences are so impressive at heightening that incremental fear up and up and up until it just turns completely batshit. Really good visuals & effects.

but omg miss me with the “Top Secret Weapon…(dramatic pause)… Powered By Fear”
loooool come ON we’re really doing THAT!?

like of all the dumb shit

anyway, I guess i’m on this stupid train too now jfc

choo choo

I don’t know if an IT thread is the right place for train references.

I’ll allow it!

I'm enjoying this despite it having some atrocious dialogue spoken by the kids. the two who bit the dust in the first episode really had some preposterously unbelievable lines. I'm with everyone else who disliked the films; first one ok, second one god awful. This looks like we'll get some turtle action.

I started watching this and just paused to say, and I appreciate that this is very minor, but it doesn’t seem that likely that a kid making his bar mitzvah in the early 60s would be hearing about the Holocaust for the first time at that age?

Yeah I don’t care for this military plotline at all

I don’t know if an IT thread is the right place for train references.

Ep2. Loved Mom Hanlon being the only one seeing Derry as it truly is, that whole sequence was great

Iirc this reminded me of a scene in IT with Beverley being chased by her dad, and people just look away or close their doors. Just the ambient level of evil in the town.

the way the gang of boys stare her down, dead-eyed like a pack of wolves was scary as hell

Enjoying this but yeah the military plot just seems wtf

The two dream sequences this episode were fantastic and seemed very much in tune with those from the novel.

the military plot is going to wind up being the entire plot by the end I'm quite sure

i havent watched ep3 yet but i have started another reread of IT :D

we’re floatin!

is 3 out already? I thought it moved to sundays now

oh wait - yes you’re right

I think ep3 helped the military plot from cheesing out completely (kinda?)
Liked all the Dick Halloran stuff in this episode a lot

The carnival stuff was creepy, and the forest monster was p scary

The kids stuff in the graveyard was the weakest effects-wise so far, it felt like a bad direct-to-video Ghostbusters knockoff

Also Mr Veg noticed they took 5 photos but that flash was only good for 4 pics! harrumph! lol

official HBO podcast is really good btw: Marc Bernardin and Princess Weekes hosting!

Kingcast spinoff Welcome To Derry podcast is decent & they catch a lot of good details but man Vespe & Breznican get so easily lost in the “well-actually” weeds, or just go down the most boring rabbitholes, i find I often get annoyed w them - i hate saying it but I really miss Scott Wampler (rip)

I like this show but the CGI is really bringing me down. Not only was the forest monster/pennywise cheap looking, but the general backgrounds, particularly when they are up in that observatory thing, are so awful. Hoping this gets a budget increase next season.

Have we agreed as a civilisation just to not talk about snail eyes?

ok i was behind but holy fucking nightmare fuel the fucking parasite nightmare

gaaaaaaaaah

i was immediately dismayed that it was Eye Stuff bc i hate that the most and jfc that was a speedrun into the worst version of Eye Stuff ever

NOPE NOPE

ep4 maybe went a little heavier on exposition for my liking and some buts were corny but i’m still digging it overall

ok finally caught up

Episode 5 is really good, mark SEWERS on yr bingo cards we’re goin in baby

Chris Chalk is next-level fucking great, dude is so good

Ep6 was combo good + ooooooookay whatthefucknow

madeline stowe as bob gray/pennywise’s daughter is some deeply stupid prequel shit. i’m suddenly very not cool with this direction & i fuhucking hate it.
dunno abt The Black Spot now either.
but i like the Dick Halloran stuff so i guess i’ll see where it’s headed.
but jfc.

co-sign on the Ep6 hidden text..

the ep went quickly, but any leaning into the wider King universe kind fails it.

had to read something about Doctor Sleep to have it make more sense.

not sure the DoctorSleepstans are big enough to warrant this level of shared universe deep dive.

we’re 1 ep away from the finale & this thing feels like a runaway train of interlocking dumpster fires

Lady Pennywise/Periwinkle whatever the fuck got even dumber than the dumb it was last week

she stands there & watches her “Dad” cleaver a person’s head in half & eat it and THEN two minutes later notices oh his eyes light up and NOW she’s all YOU’RE NOT MY DAD ?!

and the standoff w Scanlon & the General and his speech about harnessing fear was even dumber than the dumbest shit we’ve seen

BUT then the freezer scene at the Black Spot fire w Richie & Margie felt like it came straight out of an SK book, his memory of seeing her for the first time when the guinea pigs got loose etc

Like this show has the ability to be so fucking great, and really has almost gotten there a few times this season but omg their compulsion to put twelve hats on every hat and turn every dial on the board to eleven is so fucking annoying

and I really do not enjoy Skarsgard’s Pennywise. it’s too OTT. the voice, the drool, the vocal delivery, it just takes me out.

but let’s kill this clown entity i guess. sigh

finale & then a whole second season to come

Finale was impressive, in spite of my previous misgiving. They really gave it the King finale full orchestra treatment - while of course its hats on hats on hats but, idk, the fucked up visuals elements were really something

I didnt even hate the symmetry of Margy being revealed as future mom of Richie Tozier.

Loved the many weird deformed heads of Pennywise as it cycled through its visages

Maybe couldve done w a little more on Dick Halloran plugging into Pennywise but maybe i just want more Chris Chalk in general, he’s so fkn great.

Overall I was just mostly relieved not to have to deal w Little Miss Pennywise in the finale or whatever the fuck she was called.

Not sure how they do two more seasons of this though. Assume we'll be in a different time period next time? Could maybe be interesting if they went a couple of hundred years back rather than just retreading more recent times

I did lol at Hallorann's "How much trouble can a hotel be?" line

yeah i don’t fully understand what future seasons would entail. aside from other groups of kids in other timeframes ?

My guess, based on the whole "time is different for Pennywise" is going back to previous cycles, but I dunno. The next two cycles were covered in the movies and they touched on the previous two in this season and those are the only other two with Pennywise in human form. I guess they could go back hundreds of years, but I'm not sure it'd work as well with Pennywise as more of a supernatural being.

I enjoyed this overall and was glad they didn't lean on the plot that VG also correctly hated. I did love the level of gore in this and would be happy to see more. The kids were pretty great, especially Marge.

I think by the end the girl with the Pickle Dad was my least favorite - the only thing she seemed to do was cry and/or make anguished crying faces

also feel bad for whatever town Hank Grogan is heading to. All love & light to Simone she is a smart kid but omg her Dad is a mess & seems only able to make the absolute worst decisions lol

xp - otm, I actually almost said something similar, she really got on my nerves too but felt churlish singling her out.

yeah it does feel kinda mean to say it, being that she’s a kid and all. happy to put some of the blame on Muschietti

i believe it was said somewhere that the next seasons take place during the iron works explosion as well as deeper exploration of Rose when she was younger, ie: it will go back into the past. maybe we'll get a season without Clown pennywise, dunno.

I think this series was significantly better than IT: chapter two.

oh that’s a good focus, i’m def interested in both of those

bar for improving on IT ch 2 is very low but yes, i agree 100%

the series does underscore how much I dont like Skarsgard’s Pennywise, in conceptualisation/design or performance

Pennywise is supposed to be a folksy, familiar type of clown like Bozo because he’s supposed to draw you in

what Victorian-ass doll clown is going to draw anyone in? kids would run a mile at the first sight of that fuckin thing.

the high voice sounds like The Simpsons teenager kid that works at Krusty Burger

his “dance” strays way too close to stupid Burton/Depp Mad Hatter Futterwacken and just pisses me off more than anything bc it’s annoying

and the drooling is gross

I like it but a little goes a long way and there were times in the last episode where he was frankly annoying. I did like the slow mo run in the fog on the ice though.

on the other hand, I did like Madeline Stowe as Periwinkle, but I always like Madeline Stowe.

the ice run was great!

also the weird pause with him in full multi-teeth creature-face looked pretty great

oh and i like anytime he goes into deadlights mode
that shit is cool as hell

Yeah, the deadlights is a hard thing to bring to life in a convincing way but I absolutely think this show nailed it.

definitely!

oh and the endless procession of floating kids behind the carnival wagon over the river looked really cool too

Felt like this went from not enough clown to too much clown with nothing in the middle.

Kids were actually ok with Snail-eyes Marge being the standout,

no interest in more Pennywise and the co-sign on all of veg's issues with daughter / drooling.

the 'how much trouble line.....' actually caused an involuntary eyeroll, but they are kinda damned if they reference Shining and damned if they dont.

this also did benefit from the Stranger Things season limping out the gate....