Stephen King is famous for many things, but brevity is not one of them. He’s produced more than his fair share of short stories and novellas, but King’s biggest successes — The Stand, It, 11/22/63 — double as doorstops. It in particular, often considered King’s masterpiece, is meticulous to the point of exhaustion. It’s unlikely that anyone finished its 444,000 words and thought, “But how did the evil, shapeshifting clown impact the United States Air Force?”
And yet that’s the premise of prequel series It: Welcome to Derry, which is answering question after question about Pennywise that no one has ever had. Derry has generally been well-received for the grisly inventiveness of its scares, but even positive reviews, like that of SlashFilm’s Chris Evangelista, noted that it “seems a little too hellbent on explaining every single mystery.”
