‘Welcome to Derry’: We’re In a Bit of a Pickle

Releasing an adaptation of a hugely popular Stephen King novel right before Halloween is a logical move, even if there’s some quibbling over the timing. Count me among the many who enjoy a bit of spookiness (even if I have to cover my ears when I know something scary’s about to happen), and being eager to return to the world of Derry, Maine and its demonic clown, Welcome to Derry seemed poised to be a good scare wrapped around an engrossing drama. When I failed to even blink at a newly birthed demon baby lunging toward the camera, I thought the show might have some kinks to work out. But it was when I found myself scoffing at the tearful tale of a father’s demise that I started to think this show might be in trouble.

My laughs have nothing to do with enjoying a child’s trauma; it’s about the delivery, which neatly sums up all the first episode’s pitfalls. We’re introduced to a group of kids in short order—due in part to practical reasons revealed by the episode’s bloody end—each of whom is presented with the real world authenticity of an aughts-era WB show, and while I’m loath to speak poorly about child performers, the sitcom quality of the fictional kids is exacerbated by some of the more, erm, amateur acting decisions.

However, the majority of the blame has to be placed on the writing, which is why when Lilly (Clara Stack) recounts the accident that took her dad’s life, I was far more preoccupied with trying to follow the chain of events that start with a mood ring and end with being crushed by machinery. I had to rewatch the scene to make it clear the ring itself wasn’t in the machine, the accident was just a matter of bad timing, correcting my mistaken impression that Lilly was for haphazardly loitering by the machines (while still inviting the question as to why she or her mother felt inclined to go inside in the first place).

The adults of Derry aren’t immune either. A lack of believability lurks through the entire script, such as James Remar’s General Francis Shaw, who the series undertakes an immense effort, almost condescendingly so, to show he’s one of the Good Ones when Major Leroy Hanlon’s (Jovan Adepo, who eagle-eyed viewers may remember from HBO’s The Watchmen as the younger version of Hooded Justice) arrival to the air base is greeted with racial tension. As for Hanlon, whom IT fans will recognize as Losers’ Club member Mike Hanlon’s grandfather, he has the bravery and resoluteness to match his impressive rank, though I’m left wondering if being accosted in the middle of the night by armed masked men demanding classified information should warrant more alarm than a, “Get the **** outta here!” from his friend and colleague, Captain Pauly Russo (Rudy Mancuso), after narrowly besting them.

Aside from its many affectations—even the 1960s setting feels unlived in, much like a production for a Coke commercial—Welcome to Derry truly falters in what IT (both the book and the adaptations) excels at: the specific nature of the horrors that befall the children of Derry. While we never get to know Matty (Miles Eckhardt) on any substantial level, I can bear co-showrunner Andy Muschietti and writer/executive producer Brad Caleb Kane’s explanation that the absurd demon baby that kills him is a manifestation of the real fears of nuclear war following the Cuban Missile Crisis, but having that same manifestation appear at the episode’s end feels like the audience got shortchanged (some credit is due for upending the expectations as to who the predecessors of the Losers’ Club would be). The lack of any emotional resonance renders the whole thing unremarkable, the lone exception being the nightmarish specter that goes after Teddy (Mikkal Karim-Fidler): a lamp fashioned out of screaming faces, after he’s informed of a few of the atrocities that took place at Buchenwald during Shabbat dinner.

But if Welcome to Derry’s remaining episodes maintain this otherwise general approach to Pennywise (no sign of him yet, but Bill Skarsgård will be reprising the role), the series will amount to little more than yet another bump-in-the-night monster film. There are few things I can think of that would scare IT fans more.

Welcome to Derry streams on HBO Max on Sunday nights.

Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor for Pajiba.