It: Welcome to Derry (Season 1)

The new series IT: WELCOME TO DERRY is everything that the disappointing "Alien: Earth" wasn't: scary, thrilling and one hell of a franchise expansion. THIS is how you create 8 great episodes that expand the Stephen King universe while honoring its legacy.

Noah Hawley's "Alien" FX series spent most of its time focused on a bunch of Peter Pan mythos and androids, reducing the xenomorph to a domesticated house pet.

Not here. Pennywise is one lethal, gory, brutal sonofabitch. Just the way we like him.

Fans of the two blockbuster films will be thrilled to know that Director Andy Muschietti is back as show runner, building a superb story arc that takes place in 1962. The entity known as Pennywise is back to start another killing spree after resting for 27 years and he finds plenty of tasty food in Derry.

Missing kids pile up fast as the first episode details a lethal, gory killing spree in a local theater that kicks off our story line. Theater employee Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) isn't there when the murders happen, as the surviving children of the attack, his daughter Ronnie (Amanda Christine) and Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack) will attest.

But being African American in 1962 near a killing where the population wants answers is a very bad place to be and Pennywise feeds off hatred. A lethal mix.

As the local police chief and city council ratchet up pressure for an arrest, the story moves to a local, sprawling army base, where Officer Leroy Hanlon (a superb Jovan Adepo from "Overlord") arrives for a top secret mission. His commanding officer, General Shaw (James Remar from "The Cotton Club" in a great role) has a very special task for Hanlon, who seems unable to feel any type of fear due to a recent head injury. That trait is going to come in VERY handy in Derry.

Hanlon meets fellow soldier Dick Halloran (the excellent Chris Chalk) a key member of the mission who seems to have what you might call a "shining", the ability to see deep into people's minds.

King fans already know where I'm going. It's a thrilling conduit to the world of King and a brilliant storytelling device.

Ronnie and Lilly bond with several other young kids to face off against the terrors that seem especially focused on Derry. Blake Cameron James is terrific as Hanlon's son, Will and Arian S. Cartaya is hilarious as Rich, the smallest and funniest of the group, whose knowledge of the occult may just come in handy.

As a kid, if you've ever had nightmares about riding your bikes through a cemetary, that nightmare is about to get a whole lot worse.

Taylour Paige is also a standout in the massive cast as Charlotte, Hanlon's wife who finds far more of the backward South in the scariest town in Maine than she expects.

Muchietti crafts a sprawling narrative in which Pennywise's thirst grows with each kill, the children begin to form a bond to face off against the evil they can't identify and all the dark conflict of the early sixties era provides a feeding ground for the hate and fear that Pennywise feeds on.

The eight episodes give the story room to breathe, for characters young and old to emerge and evolve. Popping back and forth between the military base and the local high school offers up plenty of chills in both locations.

King's original hook was brilliant. Muschietti's film version over two exceptional film adaptions of the monster King novel was flawless. There is no let down here.

Like Spielberg did with the shark in Jaws, you don't see much of Pennywise for much of the series, but when he arrives, it's in his full glory. Bill Skarsgard returns in the role and just doesn't rehash it. The tale expands to include the origins of Pennywise and how that traveling circus clown became the eater of worlds.

No one on the planet could deliver the voice, the pitch, the curling sneer, the voracious thirst for souls that Skarsgard delivers. He's fantastic.

Also returning from the films is composer Benjamin Wallfisch (Twisters, Blade Runner 2049) who serves up a score that pulls you into the town and then scares the hell out of you time after time. It's haunting, seductive and terrifying, a beautiful and immense score.

King fans will find Easter Eggs aplenty as well as some surprising cameos and appearances in the final episode that made me grin bigger than that damn clown.

The final scenes offer up some of the best story links to the IT films since that thrilling end of "Rogue One" led right into the start of the original "Star Wars".

Character names and background characters dish out a lot of great references to the future.

This is the first season of the series, which Muschetti has said will total three seasons, each in a different time period around the 27 year cycle for the reappearance of Pennywise.

Packed with bloody suspense, creative storytelling and a narrative that kept me glued from first frame to last, Muschietti has served up one hell of a first season.

The Deadlights have never looked so terrifying.

IT: WELCOME TO DERRY gets an A+.