Episode 3 of Welcome to Derry dropped yesterday, so far the series has been great overall but for sure there are moments that make you feel both good and kinda frustrating, Im not talking about the production but whats going on the story, aside from the fact that I havent read the books so this is just pure mainstream audience opinion. The show throws this massive nine minute scene that goes back in 1962 with a traveling carnival coming through town and yeah it looks beautiful, the production value is insane as always but the whole thing just feels like one giant explanation for why General Shaw is so obsesed with hunting down Pennywise, although he doesnt necessary knows wtf he is looking for, like we really needed all this backstory just to understand that this dude has some serius daddy issues and wants to prove himself to his dead father or whatever. The young Francis Shaw meeting Rose as a kid is actually pretty cool though and their friendship works way better than I thought it would, these two kids have some decent chemistry and when that creepy skeleton thing comes crawling out of the woods trying to kill Shaw and Rose saves his ass with a slingshot that moment actually hits because it gives that weapon some real meaning for later when Dick Hallorann grabs it during the plane ride and gets dragged into that insane vision, but we will get to that part in a minute because that whole sequence is probably the best thing in this entire episode.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19244304
- Platform: HBO MAX
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Chris Chalk is doing amazing work as Dick Halloran and every scene with him just feels more interesting than everything else going on, when he touches that slingshot on the plane and gets pulled into Pennywises lair with all those floating bodys and his dead grandmother telling him to run that shit gets dark real fast. You can see the terror on his face and when he almost jumps out of the damn plane before Leroy grabs him it feels like actual danger for once, this is the kind of intensity the show needs more of because it reminds you just how powerful and messed up Pennywise really is even when we are not seeing the clown directly. The vision itself looks incredible too with that whole underwater sewer vibe and the dead kids just hanging there in the air, its one of those moments where the show stops messing around with teases and actually delivers something that makes your skin crawl. Dick realizing he just touched something way beyond his understanding and that this thing can reach into his head whenever it wants to, thats the kind of horror this show should be leaning into way more often instead of dancing around it with all these side plots that do not go anywhere fast enough.
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The kids storyline with Lilly, Ronnie, Will and Rich doing their little graveyard scene to try and catch Pennywise on camera is where this episode starts losing me a bit because the idea is solid but the execution feels super rushed and not thought out, I really though Rich was going to add more context as he is the one who brought up the Santeria part of it but then they just jump directly into the scene at the graveyard. They go to this cemetery at night with a camera trying to summon ghosts or whatever and yeah some creepy stuff happens with gravestones cracking and dead kids showing up but it all feels like we have seen this before already, another scene where the show is holding back on actually giving us a proper look at Pennywise and just teasing us with blurry images and I get they just holding up the juicy part so the audience doesnt loose that fear generated by the Clown once is out there, its like watching Freddy after every movies it loose impact. When Will gets that photograph at the end showing the clown in the crypt it should feel like this huge reveal moment where finally the kids have proof that this thing is real but instead it just feels like another step in a process that is taking way too long to get where its going. I get that they are trying to build suspense and not blow their load too early with showing Pennywise in full clown mode but at this point I am just tired of waiting, we are three episodes in and the show is still playing this game of hide and seek when we all know what we are here to see. The kids actors are doing fine work and I like the dynamic between them but this whole plot about getting evidence to prove Pennywises existence is moving at a snails pace and its starting to drag down what could be a really tight and scary show, now been a more realistic I probably feel like this because of the movies to tv series transition, on a tv series things go slower than on a movie so I guess its totally normal if you feel this way too, its not that the series is bad.
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The 1962 stuff does add some interesting context about how Pennywise operates and why he seems to be traped in the forest during that time period, Rose mentions something about the creature not being able to leave the woods and that makes sense with what we know about the Native American tribe trying to contain him. Seeing young Shaw and Rose become friends and then having to deal with this monster together gives their present day reunion some extra weight, when adult Shaw shows up at Roses shop in 1962 pretending he is just there to talk about water pipes you can tell she knows he is full of shit and that he remembers way more than he is letting on. The slingshot becomes this artifact that connects the past to the present and its a clever way to tie the timelines together even if the execution of getting there feels a bit clunky, like did we really need nine whole minutes of carnival footage to set this up or could they have done it in half the time and gotten to the good stuff faster. I appreciate what they are trying to do with the dual timeline structure but it only works when both timelines are equally interesting and right now the 1962 stuff with Dick and the military is way more engaging than watching kids run around a graveyard taking blurry photos.
This episode is not bad by any means but it is definitely the weakest one so far out of the three we have gotten, too much setup and not enough payoff for my taste but its true that FINALLY the military story side is starting to connect with the rest, on the first two episode felt like a totally separated story. The show is juggling like four diferent storylines right now with the kids, the military, Shaws backstory and Roses tribe and some of them are working way better than others, Dicks visions and his whole story with the military feels like he has a lot to loose and in constant danger while the kids plot feels like its on a treadmill trying to stretch out a story that could have been told faster. I want to love this show and there are moments in every episode that remind me why I was so excited for it in the first place but then there are also moments where it feels like the show is stalling for time and hoping we do not notice that its not moving forward as fast as it should be. Episode 3 gets like a 7 out of 10 from me, still worth watching but not as strong as the first two episodes and I am really hoping episode 4 picks things back up and gives us more of that intense horror and less of the slow burn setup that is starting to feel a bit too slow.
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