For years Stephen King’s universe of books and movies have all dominated literature and cinema. This year he’s doing the same thing, producing movies like: Running Man, The Long Walk and The Monkey. In addition, he also produced the HBO show “Welcome to Derry.” This may be the best show of the year while being in competition with Stranger Things. This is a huge feat and a testament to modern day film and television, as we’ve seen a drought with good cinematography this year. “Welcome to Derry,” being just an eight episode show and releasing episodes every Sunday, has already made a mark this year.

Starting off with the acting, the cast of this show seems to be almost perfect. The Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård takes the lead as the main antagonist known as “Pennywise the Dancing Clown.” This is his third time playing Pennywise, since he was the character in the first two most recent movies. For the protagonist they used child actors, and the way they act makes you think otherwise. The children’s screen presence is captivating, authentic and makes you truly interested in the characters and show. They have Blake Cameron James playing Will Hanlon, Arian S. Cartaya playing Rich Santos, Matilda Lawler playing Marge and Clara Stack as Lily Bainbridge. All these actors work amazing together, putting on-screen performances that can only change their career in a positive way. The raw emotion from love to being scared for their lives, and all of the emotional trauma they gain for each episode, shows every new episode. Building the world and characters as the show continues on, making it more engaging for the viewer.

Now going into the overall cinematography, it’s excellent. The camera shots and the CGI have really helped the show break away from other shows and bring it up to the top. From flying bat babies to Pennywise eating a skull like fried chicken, the show’s way of making the CGI and close-ups into truly unsettling scenes for the viewers makes it a true horror show. The camera work is set a lot like Pennywise is watching them, with pipes or branches in front of the camera to make some scenes awkward and creepy. The transitions are really good too, from sewer water all the way to bathtub water; it’s so seamless and clean. The setup of Derry makes it seem like a perfect town with something truly demonic and evil in the center of it all. It isn’t just Pennywise who is evil, it’s the people in the town who make it horrible as well.

Since the show aired its final episode for the year, and ending off the first chapter, “Welcome to Derry” solidified itself as the show of the year. Edge of your seat cinema was made in the final episode, and if you followed Stephen King’s universe of madness, you would have noticed all of the easter eggs and connections tying it all together. From making jokes referencing the movie “The Shining” all the way to Pennywise pulling out a picture of one of the main characters in the “IT” movie, which in that universe the two pieces of film are set 27 years apart. The episodes throughout the show brought brilliant acting, amazing CGI and special effects and raw suspense on whatever screen it was watched on.

Overall, this show deserves a four out of five. It’s not perfect, but pretty close. It has a couple of the normal corny scenes and some characters that feel useless, but overall it’s a defining show of the year. Standing out amongst other great shows and films that were made this year, I think this show will age well and maybe contest for an award.

★★★★