Jason Fuchs says the first season of “It: Welcome to Derry” reimagines Pennywise’s origin in 1962 Derry while tying the terror to Cold War anxieties, racism and the civil rights struggle, and he defends the show’s gruesome violence as faithful to Stephen King’s emotional stakes.Bill Skarsgård returns to play Pennywise and Bob Gray, and the season uses original visual set pieces such as a grotesque winged mutant baby and a school-assembly blood scene that explicitly nods to “Carrie” while also weaving in the world of “The Shining.”Taylour Paige highlights Charlotte Hanlon’s choice to remain in Derry as reflecting the constrained roles expected of many women in 1962, the production finished the season with a cameo by Sophia Lillis, and the creators have sketched two further season-long arcs that could extend the story into Derry’s past.