Welcome to Derry is a more complicated show than you might expect, and my feelings about it are equally complicated. The "prequel problem" looms large over the story: you know exactly where the story is heading. And yet arguably that isn't so big a deal? The horror genre isn't necessarily one to surprise its audience with unpredictable endings, especially not once a film becomes a franchise. The thrill of watching is to feel your skin crawl with well-executed suspense, get surprised by a perfectly-timed jump scare, or to recoil from a grisly visual. Put simply, horror is often about the journey more than the destination, so knowing the ending -- in this case, that the monster is going to live to fight another day -- might not be a dealbreaker.
Still, Welcome to Derry tries to replace the surprise it can't give you in the end with a number of other surprises along the way -- often zigging whenever you expect it to zag. Episode one delivers a truly shocking subversion of audience expectations. Other "twists," like the decision to withhold the appearance of Pennywise the Dancing Clown until deep into the season, feel less successful to me. Regardless, there are enough thrills in each episode to pull a horror fan along.
Three aspects of the show are especially well executed. Foremost is another round of superb casting. It's hard enough for a movie that calls for one important young character to find the right child actor. The 2017 It movie caught lightning in a bottle by casting multiple excellent child actors. Welcome to Derry pulls off this magic trick once again -- though the evidence would suggest that a large part of the credit should go to director Andy Muschietti, who helmed both movies and half of this show's eight episodes. He clearly knows how to capture great performances from young actors, and it's good that this prequel story plays to that strength.
Another highlight of Welcome to Derry is a particular event that happens deep into the story. It's been a long time since I read the original Stephen King novel It. I'd forgotten (though online fans are there to remind you), that three "interludes" in the book tell short stories of things that happened the last three times that this monster emerged from hibernation. The show runners of Welcome to Derry have said they hope for a three-season run in which those three events each anchor one season. In this first season, that event is a powerful reminder of an often-forgotten theme of King's book: that the evil people do can be just as terrible as that of an imagined monster. If the writers were secretly building their entire season to one pivotal sequence, they certainly nailed it when they get there; the events of the penultimate episode, "The Black Spot," are haunting in a way that has nothing to do with the supernatural.
Finally, speaking of Stephen King, Welcome to Derry delights in sprinkling references to the writer's other works. From playful mentions of Shawshank prison to taking a character from another novel and making him a major player here, Welcome to Derry is full of fun Easter eggs. And I'd wager, being only a casual fan of Stephen King, that plenty of other connections slipped by me without notice.
But eventually, that "prequel problem" is going to rear its ugly head. The show contorts mightily to convince you that you don't actually know how this story might end... and that it doesn't matter if you do. But despite a final episode with a big showdown on an epic scale... the ending of Welcome to Derry is a bit unsatisfying. How could it not be, when it has to tee up both the movies it spawned from and potential future seasons of the show?
Still, I feel like knowing that is just part of the contract of sitting down with Welcome to Derry in the first place. So in the end, and overall, I felt I'd been entertained and rewarded for my time. I give the show a B+. I suspect most people who would like it are already well aware of it -- but for what it's worth, I'll give a gentle nudge to any people out there sitting on the fence.
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