Once upon a time, early on in my short-lived UK writing career, my agent asked me and some colleagues to write some short stories for a surprise critic. According to said agent, that critic was none other than the god of horror literature himself: the great Stephen King.

My agent has since passed away, so I can verify none of this. Still, there’s a chance that THE Stephen King has read one of my short stories. It was about a werewolf who fed at truck stops and planned on suicide-by-cop in Central Park. I used to write the good stuff.

The chance to put some of my work in front of those eyes made the whole fiasco worth it. I personally don’t love every Stephen King story, but I love Stephen King. The Shining is one of my top five favorite films, even though Stephen King himself hates that adaption. He and I are all over the place, barely seeing eye-to-eye, unlike many indie horror authors who lick the ground the man walks upon. Whatever helps you keep those pages turning!

When I heard they were making a Pennywise origin story based on the newest IT movie franchise, I cringed. I’ve despised watered-down, made for television productions based on existing intellectual properties since the days of Sci-Fi Channel Originals. Then, the world converted to streaming…

Many of the Star Wars series and Alien: Earth on Disney Plus have knocked my socks off, allowing for massive amounts of world building not traditionally allowed in film. Ultimately, did one of horror’s greatest villains need an origin story? Sometimes, it’s better off left to the imagination.

Let’s see what the fine folks at Wikipedia have to say about this series…

The Rev-iew:

I hate television shows. It seems like every time I get invested in one, it gets cancelled, the story arc isn’t completed, or it’s obviously rushed to finality. Then, there are times when characters get a spin-off series, so they needn’t bother with an ending. I still can’t believe I gave eleven years of my life to The Walking Dead. I felt cheated.

Then, during the height of COVID, my wife introduced me to the 2000’s Battlestar Galactica and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. They’re rare examples of shows who stuck the landing, and didn’t drag on pointlessly like Supernatural. If we can keep it to about four or five seasons, I’m good. Game of Thrones-ish length. LOST would be pushing it.

Those are my boundaries. Once I heard it would be a stand-alone prequel series to the IT theatrical films, I figured there wasn’t much damage they could do to the existing lore. I decided to give it a shot, but I refused to hold my breath.

Tonight was the final episode to the first (and possibly only) season.

Thoughts?

That’s easy. It’s worth the trouble of a month’s long sub and cancel to HBO Max. With every episode nearly an hour in length, you’re getting an additional eight hours of footage within the mythos of Derry, Maine.

The source material takes place in the fifties and late eighties (If I’m not mistaken. I’m not going to bother looking it up. Just brush me off if I’m wrong), but the film franchise came about in the height of the ‘eighties nostalgia’ movie boom aka in the time of Stranger Things. They even share one of the same stars!

That said, this series takes place in the super-racist fifties, and serves as the battle against Pennywise prior to that of the legendary Losers’ Club. Perfect timing in our horrible, hate-filled political timeline. Now, if only someone would pay attention, take the hint, and do something about it…

Not only does this series connect to the IT film franchise, but it crosses over with characters from both The Shining & Doctor Sleep. If you stretch a bit of the imagination, you’ve also got some connections to one of Stephen King’s most underrated features, The Mist.

Hell, since I’m not a King worshipper, I may have missed a few other connections within his world. Let me know what I missed in the comments below.

I won’t go much deeper than that, because it will remove from the wonder of the creature’s well-written and surprisingly imaginative origins. In my opinion, this show knocks it out of the park in ways rarely conceived by television writers. I rewatched both IT and IT Chapter Two in the week prior to the show’s final episode, and the existence of this story actually made them better films!

There are some who’ve complained about a few of the creature effects, but they were handled better than the CGI abominations from IT Chapter Two. Also, there were a few scenes in which a line of dialogue felt forced for the sake of continuity with King’s existing material. You can let those slide.

This television show isn’t perfect, but it’s perfect television. It was suspenseful between episodes, it was incredibly acted by most, and Pennywise deserves your full attention whenever he appears on screen. It contains much more of a macabre feel than either of its theatrical counterparts, and some of the imagery is downright terrifying. I actually stood and applauded in my own living room after many of the episodes.

And, there you go. That’s about as far as I can get in a review without spoiling some of the wonderful surprises Derry has in store for those who’ve awaited a final verdict before forking over the subscription fee.

This simple, eight part television series was better than most theatrical films I saw in 2025.

4/5

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