HBO’s ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Feels Too Much Like a Sideshow in the Stephen King Circus | TV/Streaming

It’s funny to think how much television owes to Stephen King. High-profile adaptations of literary hits like “The Stand,” “The Outsider” and “The Institute” are one thing, but “Stephen King Expanded Universe” (SKEU) could also be expanded to include shows inspired by the masterful storyteller. Hits like “From”, “Midnight Mass” and especially the very HEThe King Thing-inspired “Stranger Things” has been doing its variations on King Thing for years, casting a long shadow over the first stretch of “IT: Welcome to Derry,” a show whose atmosphere, pacing and characters pale in comparison to those examples.

The team behind the hit stage adaptations of “IT” – Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs – creatively lead “Welcome to Derry.” But it’s a show that’s too often stuck in first gear, only coming to life in its big, surreal set pieces, and lacking almost everywhere else. It also suffers from that common scourge of the streaming age: it takes forever to get to where it’s obviously going, just circling the same sewer grates while viewers wait to get to the good stuff.

“IT: Welcome to Derry” is set in 1962, primarily following two interconnected narrative threads tied together by the Hanlon family. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Mike Hanlon is a key member of the Losers Club, the protagonists of the hit book and movie, played by Chosen Jacobs and Isaiah Mustafa in the films. Hanlon’s father Will (Blake Cameron James) was a child in 1962, having just moved to Derry with his mother Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and father Leroy (Jovan Adepo). Dad has taken a job as a military pilot for a covert operation in suburban Derry run by General Shaw (James Remar). This thread includes another familiar name: Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), the character best known from “The Shining” as the guy who teaches Danny how to use his very special powers. The powers that be use these abilities in a way that relates to the interdimensional being who most often manifests as a murderous clown.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a new version of the Losers Club is forming, led primarily by Lilly (an effective Clara Stack). Reeling from the traumatic death of her father, she is empathetic in a way that her often intimidating and unpleasant classmates often are not, making her more curious about the unusual disappearance of a local child. When this incident is followed by child deaths, the whole town begins to take notice, but it’s Millie and her pals, including Will Hanlon, who put the pieces together, following Breadcrumbs’ horrific thread back to Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård).

Other characters play on the periphery, notably those played effectively by Madeleine Stowe, Kimberly Guerrero, and Peter Outerbridge. The heart of the show traces how a military operation and a group of aliens are linked by a force that has been tearing the planet apart every generation for centuries.

“IT: Welcome to Derry” clearly wants to be a series about the darkness beneath the pristine surface of beautiful ’60s suburbia. Whether it’s the supernatural force in the woods or the racism the Hanlons face in town and on base, things are not what they seem in Derry. It recalls the driving aesthetic of “Twin Peaks,” a show that also imagined powerful, impossible forces at play beneath naturally beautiful landscapes.

Yet Muschietti and his team seem almost decidedly unwilling to play with dread, tension, or atmosphere. Too much of “Welcome to Derry” exists on the surface with characters saying what they need, what they feel, and what they are going to do next at every moment. The characters are almost perfunctory, pawns being moved across a chessboard as they are forced toward the Crimson King’s grasp. There are glimpses of strong character work from Paige, Adepo, and Stack, but they too often fall victim to superficial writing. By far the most interesting performance comes from Chalk, who imbues Hallorann with a sense of doomed responsibility. His work here, especially in the fifth episode, is easily the best thing in the series.

Some of the big, scary set pieces also work in a way that almost seems manufactured for virality. Whether it’s a movie theater, a grocery store, or, of course, the sewers, “Welcome to Derry” goes to great lengths to turn mundane settings into pure nightmare fuel. But it’s hard not to imagine these explosions of horror grandeur in a feature film or even two that don’t stretch the material in between beyond its breaking point. As is often the case these days, it feels like the writers came up with a movie script and then figured out where to expand it to fit the episode order.

Of course, it’s extremely unfair to compare a new series to a show like “Twin Peaks,” but the truth is that pop culture has been living in its own Derry for decades now, because the creators grew up enough with King’s work to draw inspiration from it. Of course, “IT: Welcome to Derry” may have names like Hallorann and Pennywise to attract the King’s loyalists. But this vision of Derry too often resembles one of those Hollywood backlots: all the facades look good, but there is nothing behind them.

Five episodes screened for review. Premieres Sunday, October 26 on HBO and HBO Max.