i have known a love that many never know

things i liked:

will hanlon!!! he was so wonderful and sweet and much closer to what mike should have been in the 2017 movie if andy muschietti cared about him even a little bit… will is such an important character in the original novel and i really appreciated his inclusion in the show. the way they had the hanlons stay in derry was lazy and didn’t really make sense but i like that they set up so nicely how will goes on to serve as a keeper of the town’s history

and of course my queen miss margie!! maggie tozier u have always been loved by me!! and i thought matilda lawler did a really fantastic job emulating richie in her performance. let’s kill this fucking clown with mama <3

charlotte hanlon <3

honestly really liked that the writers were brave enough to kill off phil and teddy so early on it was a fun subversion of expectations

adored the little marge/rich romance and rich’s death was devastating (although i really did not like with the narrative choice to make a non-black kid’s death the emotional sticking point of an anti-black hate crime)

really enjoyed the title sequence!! like omg hi bradley gang and kitchener ironworks!!!

bob gray lore was interesting! appreciated the integration of the mrs kersh character from the book

things i didn’t like:

the weird reusing of names from the book for entirely different characters (specifically matty and veronica). i am willing to overlook the recycling of matthew clements’ name because the purpose of the character as a victim of It remains pretty much unchanged despite the huge age discrepancy between the two characters, but i am utterly baffled by the choice to reuse veronica grogan (who was initially a 9 year old victim of It whose body was found in a storm drain) for a main character who survives the series. also why did they change will’s mom’s name from shirley to charlotte?

how the fire at the black spot was motivated by some random guys knowing a murder suspect was inside. i felt like it kind of softened the entire point of the scene in the book which was that a kkk equivalent was committing a premeditated hate crime

i did not think lilly was a particularly strong main character and i would have liked to see ronnie in that group leader position instead

the pointless and incomprehensible new lore about the pillars. there is actually so much fucking lore in the original book that you could have drawn from and built on but instead it’s some new bullshit that doesn’t make sense

hated the finale. there were way way way too many people involved (why was the entire high school wrapped up in that shit?) and the inclusion of leroy/dick/charlotte/etc in the final battle fully went against the very important fact that one of the reasons pennywise is so scary is because the adults can’t see him!! they will actively ignore any manifestation of him!! bill literally says in the book “when It gets us, they won’t see, they won’t hear, they won’t know.”

them “beating” It goes against. the entire fucking spirit of the novel. obviously. whatever. like i like this group of kids but youre not the losers and you’re never going to be the losers!!! the were literally handpicked by the universe!!! no one else could have done it!!!

what the fuck even is the deal with the deadlights in this franchise

why did they kill taniel