IT: Welcome to Derry: The Complete First Season: Storylines of Mixed Quality Yield a Surprisingly Satisfying Prequel (4K)

The Show:

Ever since its publication in 1986, "IT" has been one of Stephen King's single most popular works, spawning not only a beloved miniseries adaptation in 1990, but also a much more recent two-part rendition from director Andy Muschietti in 2017 and 2019. The latter of the two attempts had somewhat mixed results, with Chapter One giving us a fantastic adaptation of the story that focused on the main characters as kids, while Chapter Two gave us a rather bland, over-long look at the events involving them as adults. Even so, there's no denying that both films were quite popular at the box office, grossing over $1 billion combined, leading to an exploration of how the material could potentially be mined even further.

This lead Muschietti and co. to the idea of attempting a TV prequel to the films, one that would reference certain events & characters from the book, but would, for the most part, feature many new characters & new plotlines that delve into the origin of Pennywise and his history in Derry. It was certainly a rather risky idea, not only attempting to come up with new material that goes with the original novel, but also trying to expand it into an entire eight-hour season, putting quite the burden on the writers' shoulder to make it something worth the time investment. As wild as the idea sounds, could such a thing possibly work in the realm of television?

Taking place in 1962, we begin by witnessing the strange disappearance of young Matty Clements (Miles Ekhardt). A few months later, Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack) has a disturbing vision of Matty singing, but her fellow classmates, Marge (Matilda Lawler), Teddy (Mikkal Karim-Fidler), and Phil (Jack Molloy Legault), don't believe her. That is, until Teddy has a horrifying vision of his own. They are soon joined by Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine), who's experienced a similar creepy incident. When the song from their visions leads most of them to a local movie theater, a horrifying attack occurs that leaves only Ronnie and Lilly alive, with Ronnie's father Hank (Stephen Rider), an employee of the theater, becoming the chief suspect. Later on, Ronnie & Lilly befriend Will (Blake Cameron) & Rich (Arian Cartaya) in their fight against the malevolent entity that's been stalking them, with Marge joining subsequently as well.

Meanwhile, the military has come to Derry in search of a special weapon, one that they can't even identify. Assisting in this operation are Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), Will's father, and Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), who has a special telepathic ability that's being utilized for the search. We soon learn that the military's operation and what's happening to the kids all revolve around the same thing: the aforementioned entity, known as Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), that stalks the children of Derry every 27 years. Will this brave group of youngsters be able to bring down this evil creature before they become his next victims?

When trying to turn the world of "IT" into a TV show, the immediate challenge is simply what shape such a story would take, and what it would focus on. It made obvious sense to take it further back into the past, but what happens then? Do you just have another group of kids getting terrorized by Pennywise and trying to stop him? Right off the bat, Muschietti et al. knew that that wouldn't be nearly enough to sustain an entire eight-hour series, so clearly they needed to add something else to supplement the familiar portion, hence why they opted to include the entire military subplot.

The question becomes, does this additional plotline serve enough of a purpose and does it provide enough compelling material to make the entire show worthwhile? Well, honestly, one has to say that the military material is nowhere near as compelling as the kids' part of the story. Sure, as mentioned, that part of the tale is pretty familiar at this point, but at least they're able to throw in a few new elements to make it feel a little fresh, particularly in the approach to facing off against the killer clown.

It seems the "IT" universe has always had a little trouble with making adults interesting within it. It's always been the least compelling part of the original story, as we saw in the 1990 miniseries, and is a big part of why Muschietti's "IT: Chapter Two" didn't work all that well. The same thing happens here, with the military conducting a mysterious search for a weapon that seems to take quite a while to get a move on. As mentioned, it does eventually intersect and have a direct impact on the other plot, but it has a fair amount of trouble making it particularly engaging or compelling along the way.

So, to go back and answer the question, yes, it does ultimately serve enough of a purpose as far as providing enough supplemental material to complete the overall shape of the show, though it'd be more fair to say that it balances out just well enough to make the entire endeavor worthwhile. Again, this was an extremely difficult proposition in the first place, not only creating a lot of new material to fit within the realm of the novel, but creating enough to sustain an entire season of television, and have it be engaging enough to make viewers want to see it through to the end. On that score, it's rather amazing that it turned out this well. It may not be particularly great, or something you'll be thinking about for a long time after, but as far as making a prequel to such a beloved book, Muschietti and his collaborators did just fine.

Video/Audio:

"IT: Welcome to Derry: The Complete First Season" comes to 4K in 1.78:1, 2160p Ultra High Definition transfers of marvelous quality. The picture is beautifully sharp & detailed throughout all eight, hour-long episodes, perfectly highlighting the show's gorgeous period details. Likewise, the Dolby Atmos-TrueHD audio tracks are outstanding, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in excellent quality. Overall, Warner Bros. has done a fantastic job in both areas for the show's physical debut.

Special Features:

Inside Derry (8 Featurettes): Behind the scenes looks at each of the eight episodes.

Welcome to Derry (6 Minutes): A featurette that has Andy & Barbara Muschietti discussing the show.

Becoming Pennywise (3 Minutes): A brief featurette that explores Pennywise's look.

Fear the Other (10 Minutes): A featurette that delves into the different people & cultures of Derry.

Conclusion:

"IT: Welcome to Derry: The Complete First Season" has Andy Muschietti & co. attempting to give us a prequel set in the world of the beloved novel, one that combines a very familiar, yet engaging plot involving a team of youngsters facing off against Pennywise and a far-less-compelling storyline regarding the military's search for a mysterious weapon, but which ultimately comes together to make for a surprisingly satisfying experience overall.

Score: 3.5/5

Available on 4K starting tomorrow.

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