A welcome sight to see for fans of the King of horror

HBO's 'It' prequel series returns to Derry with a backstory on the deadly Pennywise.

- ROBERT LLOYD

MIKKAL Karim Fidler, from left, Clara Stack and Jack Molloy Legault are among the kids investigating a malevolent presence in “It: Welcome to Derry.”

(Brooke Palmer HBO)

It’s dead certain that if you've been a television critic for, ahem, a number of years, you're going to have reviewed a passel of shows based on the writing of Stephen King, America’s most adapted, if not necessarily most adaptable author. (It’s been a mere three months since the last, “The Institute,” on MGM+.)

The latest float in this long parade premieres Sunday on HBO — it’s “It: Welcome to Derry,” a prequel to the 2017 film, “It” (and its 2019 followup, “It: Chapter Two”) based on King’s 1986 creepy clown novel, each of which made a packet. (There was a 1990 TV miniseries version as well.)

Developed by Andy Muschietti (director of the films), Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, “Derry” is an extension of the brand rather than an adaptation, which features a white-faced circus-style clown called Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård, back from the movies) who lives in the sewer and comes around every 27 years to feed on children’s fear — fear being the preferred dish of many famous monsters of filmland, and white-faced circus clowns having lost all goodwill in the culture. (No thanks to King. Or Krusty.)

And while I assume some of the series’ points may be found within King’s original 1,138-page novel, life is short and that is going to have to remain an assumption. In any case, it’s very much a work of television — not what I'd call prestige television, despite a modicum of well-done fright effects — just ordinary, workmanlike TV, with monsters. (Or one monster in many forms.)

KIMBERLY Guerrero, left, and Taylour Paige are among the concerned adults in the HBO series.