It: Welcome to Derry 1x04 Full Reaction!
Added 2025-11-17 21:24:54 +0000 UTC
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Still a redlink on Tv Tropes, so that one’s interesting. That Moonlight/La-La Land snafu was a hell of a thing. No, yeah, you knew that the kids would be back to square one, you just waited to see how. Confirms about Bowers that it is true: this man has no dick. Madeleine being Pennywise? ...I’ll buy that idea. The idea of her being the woman that Hank was sleeping with, likewise, I’ll buy that. (And please, by all means, be insufferable about the one part.) The kid and adult plotlines coming together is great, particularly as Hanlon does believe his son with putting two and two together with the connection of their hunt. Shame about that which we both know from the book is coming together. Fair on being turned off by Hanlon at this point. In fairness, I don’t think we’re meant to side with him on that one, and Jess is surely on Charlotte’s side, so it’s working out well. I take your point though, and the reference with Rose, good catch. Probably about the cordyceps. Like we’re saying, the Carrie of it all was apparent. The whole business was very unfetch, hence Margie trying to step up and be Amy Irving before Pennywise came out to play. First I’ve heard about the sizable amount of people who were complaining the show isn’t that scary. Wouldn’t doubt that this would shut them up. It is a rare thing when you can honestly say that something horror throws at you is a new experience, and this does that. The shot of Margie’s foot slipping was tense for the reason you mentioned. Yeah, it is a tiresome trope of someone discovered in a scene like this looking as suspicious as possible. In fairness to your example listed, to be fair to Frank, he was rather distraught over losing all the Buffy on the Tivo. Here, it’s done well of as you say, Lilly would be in such a seemingly incriminating pose. Hoping her friends get her out of the mess. It seems likely that this will get Margie on board with them. Lead to the not ok transition to the tomatoes. Fair your comment on the Cobra Kai cut with Kreese. There’s also the one with Waingro in Heat with him about to kill the prostitute, and the cut to the bottle cap on the bottle of beer being snapped off. Similar assessment of appreciation of how they made the effort to update the Native American aspect of this. Sounds plausible that the ending was supposed to be a whole episode. Hallorann having that Peter Capaldi villainous smile is unsettling. That is amusing about the Dark Tower of it all. Been hearing about the speculation of the show not being prepared for the advertisements playing up Pennywise. And I’ve been hearing the Spectre and Into Darkness of it all. (The latter was particularly, unbelievably dumb.) I’m not minding terribly much as it does raise very strong tension of just wondering when Pennywise is actually going to appear. Plus, I applaud the guts of this show to hold off as long as they have. All of this is still very good, so we’re set to wait.
Thomas Corp
2025-11-18 01:44:28 +0000 UTCI won't bury the lede here: the best thing of all about this episode is that it broke TV Tropes. Apparently the program to automatically activate the episode's page once it finished airing messed with the title being longer than the maximum the site allows, and it got stuck in a feedback loop that as I write this nearly 24 hours later no one has yet figured out how to fix. It's not quite "The Best Picture goes to La La Land," but I'm glad I was there to see it in the moment. The opening wasn't much of a surprise to me, as I'd figured even last week that nothing would show up in the pictures in the first place. Also no surprise that the cops would all go "Oh my god, look at all the junk food" with it. And once more we get a single scene of Madeline Stowe that doesn't seem to serve much purpose as yet, and just like the family that got Mattie, I'm starting to suspect anyone this nice has to be Pennywise playing a long game. She made such a delicious villain in Revenge that I was already hoping she'd end up there somehow. Or she's the white woman Hank was sleeping with (and by the way, to anyone who was calling me racist for not assuming that evidence was just fake, I am now going to be absolutely insufferable about this). After three episodes of the adult and kid stories never touching, it's a big relief that not only does Will now open up to his father, but Leroy actually takes him seriously and makes the connection to his own work. Just too bad we know "You'll burn too" is going to come true no matter what, and with Halloran now starting on building the Black Spot the pieces are already being set up for it. Though I'm otherwise severely turned off by Leroy now, with his insistence that being a model minority until pure fate solves all racism is the way to get things done. At least Charlotte now has Rose to talk to about this stuff; she took enough crap from Jerry and that cigar store Indian that she's not letting this go any time soon. I'm sure I couldn't have been the only one thinking "If you think these worms are bad, wait until you hear about cordyceps." But either way, any savvy viewer instantly knows exactly where this is going, even if we first have to sit through Margie setting up Lily for some pig blood. But she never even gets to say anyone's too gay to function, because we get to easily the worst thing Pennywise has yet dished out in the show, and I can't help noticing the sizable amount of people who were complaining the show isn't that scary are suddenly very quiet this week. I've reached a point where I can't often say in a horror story "Well, I've never seen that before," but this one did it. I especially love the shot of her feet slipping on the bandsaw's footrest, making you briefly think her whole head is going in there. And I have to give special kudos to the scene avoiding a trope that always pisses me off, when people seem to go out of their way to look as suspicious as possible when others discover them in a moment like this, maybe even following a note to say into a tape recorder that they killed the dead body in the room. But here, it's 100% believable that Lily would be in such a seemingly incriminating pose, and I'm most curious what her new friends are going to try to get her out of this. And will this finally get Margie on board with them? The last ten minutes, I'm really torn over. On one hand, the first couple decades of King's work has A LOT of badly aged stuff around Native Americans and it's nice to see steps taken to correct that (the tribe here is fictional, but they did have a Native cultural consultant about what people in this area at the time would be like, and cared enough to not just take a con man's word like Voyager). But then, it feels awkward as hell to just get this giant dump of narration, and I'm actually wondering if this was supposed to be a whole episode but HBO wouldn't pony up the money for it, so they had to make do like this. And it really doesn't feel right to have Halloran portrayed this evilly, giving a smile like Peter Capaldi talking about the Monks. Though I do have to point out the imagery of the smoke pillars means this show officially has more to do with the Dark Tower than the actual Dark Tower movie. One more thing I have to point out: I'm now very suspicious that while making the show, they weren't intending the marketing to openly reveal that Bill was coming back, and we were supposed to be spending all this time speculating on whether it would happen. Because we're now halfway through the season with nothing from him, which doesn't even make sense in-universe. None of these kids know about the Pennywise form that would make this slow build to it worthwhile, so it comes off like the movies that tried to play the identities of Khan and Blofeld as a huge twist despite meaning nothing to the characters. But luckily there's still plenty here to latch onto that makes it worthwhile.
Ryan
2025-11-18 00:57:01 +0000 UTCI always thought maybe they could safely adapt the orgy scene and keep the meaning of it by just having Bev kiss the others. That would maintain the 'love = connection = power to know how to get out' theme without getting into the below-age-of-consent stuff.
Ed Green
2025-11-18 00:15:11 +0000 UTCPlenty going on in this one, as you said. Rotten that Pennywise doctored the photos. Greater anger is toward Bowers being a complete dick about it. Had the smile at the Dracula hypothesis, both for love of Dracula, and thinking about the recent reaction. Miss Mystery Lady from the hospital continues to be a question mark. The scene with her talking about the cycle in the thirties reminds us that Pennywise seems to have the preternatural luck of his twenty-seven-year cycle of rest usually ending around historical periods of great turmoil in the world. Makes me think that if Pennywise was after me at the ages the kids generally are, that would have been the early to mid-2000’s, which would track with the theme, and twenty seven years hence would be the end of this decade, and given how things are going, that, also, tracks well with how this usually plays out. The kids are proving sharp with discovering Pennywise’s game: They all taste so much better when they’re afraid. Love Rose having the talk with Charlotte. Charlotte has the good line about the contrast between her and her husband. He doesn’t question orders; she questions everything. I’d be somewhere in the middle of that scale. Sort of like how we’ve discussed certain Star Trek episodes, or Umbara in Clone Wars. Nice to get more of Hallorann and his group. I channeled you, Jess, with the singing and dancing when they played Ray Charles to lead into the one scene. Instant. Didn’t even flinch. I imagine to be safe, you’d more or less not include most of that spot on the youtube upload, which is smart. The men have the space for themselves. You say it’s a bit of a fixer upper. Among other things, they should set up a still. In the meantime, it is nice that they’re rather stocked with plenty of Schlitz and Pabst. Good stuff to go with. I’m more partial to Old Style myself, but those are excellent go-tos. And the place they have to make their own should be something very nice. Sure hope nothing bad ever happens to it. Good touch with Hallorann’s grandmother. Love how Charlotte is emerging as the favorite for you. She goes to bat for Ronnie’s dad. Great scene that they had. Anticipated that he was with a woman, and when that got revealed, deduced that said woman is white right before Charlotte said it aloud, which, yeah, that’s NOT going to be good when that information gets out. And Charlotte started to get informed about what Will was up to. Had the comment when Charlotte says that Will will be in deeper shit with his dad than he will be with her if Hanlon were to find out. I dryly quipped, “Find that one rather difficult to believe, but all right.” leads to the nice father and son fishing scene. Never really did any fishing with Dad. Nor have I ever done it much with Mom. Nor was it ever done with any of the grandparents, or aunts and uncles. That isn’t really a thing with either side of the family. I jumped on Hanlon when he failed to properly respond to Will saying that Ronnie is not his girlfriend, chiding, “Sir, you’re supposed to have the customary dad response of asking, “Well, is she a girl?”, and the kid says, “Yes.”. And you follow with “Is she friend?” and when the kid says “Yes” to that one, you then say that yes, the kid does have a girlfriend. That is the dad rule. It exists. It is known.” Adore how your Pennywise detector was working very well there. Horrifying thing: Making Will see his father very badly burned. Huh, irony abounds. You had such a great reaction to that part. Love how because Hanlon is aware of Shaw’s bullshit plan, he’s more inclined to believe Will. Greater still how he visits Hallorann for information, and gets unsettled how Hallorann is scared. The adults getting involved is a new wrinkle to all of this, and we share the appreciation of that. The plotline with Lilly and Margie was horrible. Hate how we’re both simpatico with catching the cruel prank set-up. You said that you were going to HATE whatever was planned, and I deadpan, “Well, yes, but not for the reasons you’re thinking.” Lead to the striking moment when Margie has the quiet scene of crying, and how she made the decision. She was prepared to shoot straight and to hell with whatever plastic wannabe Nancy Allen wants. Margie was going to try to be Amy Irving. A smart move as one should strive to be like Amy Irving. One big plus is you get to star in The Fury. Before she could, that horrific eye scene, resembling that of the worms in Chekov’s classroom, which you caught. You’re so smart, Jess. And it ties into the earlier scenes of Margie’s complaints about the glasses. Maybe because there’s several family members who wear glasses, for instance, Dad wore them from when he was seven up until his death at sixty-two, and I’ve had prescribed reading glasses since about ten, I’ve never got the thing of people hating having to wear glasses. We about shared the reactions to the eye scenes with Margie. The editing struggle with said eye scenes with Margie, yeah, I can understand how that would be a problem. Poor Lilly, and Margie. Cue the sick transition. See, you and I are on the same page with the transition from the Margie scene to the slicing of the tomatoes. That really was not right. That was an unnecessary transition. Love how Hanlon, after Pennywise scares Will more than Raymond Burr scared Jimmy Stewart, he just marched in, demanding answers. Some answers are given via Hallorann shining so very brightly. Do like how when Taniel spat at Hallorann, Hallorann had that, “Really wish you hadn’t done that.” response. You get the information about the origin of Pennywise. The meteor crashing into what became Derry: Yeah, that’s what happened. Precise cosmic origins are still unclear, far as I recall, but yes, this matches up with what’s been established. The story of the Native Americans keeping it contained to Derry is new. That is the exact details of that are new; the general idea was in the book, if I remember properly. Haven’t read the book in a while, so my memory might be wrong in some spots. Don’t recall the term “Galoo”, so that one sounds new. Was watching that whole sequence with a rather studious expression it felt like. The whole thing ends on the image of a very familiar house. Love the gasp you had there. Meaning Shaw is going to commit to being stupid, made more prominent with the casual line that he’s familiar with Pennywise’s cycles. Should be plenty of death ahead. Again, we know Hallorann is safe. Hanlon is safe, as is Will, for now. And my favorite character of this show will of course live as they have an appointment with the Losers’ Club in the late eighties in this timeline. Otherwise, we do have mysteries still ahead. One thing for sure is that they need to stop teasing us with the turtle imagery if they aren’t going to have payoff with that. Love the words you have for how the show keeps you on edge, and you’re very much on board with that given your love of horror. Share the feeling. I’m nervous. And it takes a lot to scare me. I love the sensation. The Shenanigans by Mike Flanagan comparisons are apt. Speaking of that, I kind of want Flanagan to tackle It. Set it at or around the early to mid-2000’s, and have a twelve-thirteen episode miniseries where you can include most everything from the book. (NOT the orgy scene, of course) Maybe that’s just me. Regardless, another fantastic Pennywise reaction, Jess, thank you.
Thomas Corp
2025-11-17 23:38:42 +0000 UTC
