The first season of Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85, was released at an odd time. The Netflix live-action series had wrapped up after nearly a decade only a few months before, and fans were still arguing about the ending of the show (and indeed, whether it was ending at all [it did]). So premiering an animated spinoff set between the second and third seasons that banked on nostalgia for Stranger Things that hadn’t had enough distance to percolate may have hurt the reaction to the 10-episode season, which also posited that between fights with the evil alternate dimension known as the Upside Down, the kids of Hawkins had… Another fight with the Upside Down.
Given all that, is September enough distance from the live-action show to debut a second season of Tales From ‘85? Probably not, and it’s definitely not enough time for the creators of the series to respond to any criticisms of the first season (though not stated in interviews, it’s more than likely this was all produced as one, 18-episode season and then split into two, per modern streaming animated schedules). But the short version is if you liked Tales From ‘85, the second season (all eight episodes were provided to critics for review) is more of the same. If you didn’t like the series? Well, it’s more of the same.
…Actually, that’s not entirely true. Season 1 set the action almost entirely in January of 1985, while Season 2 moves the events a month forward to February, aka right around Valentine’s Day. And Season 1 embraced more of episodic nature as a new Upside Down-plant hybrid menaced Hawkins; Season 2 purports to be a ghost story, and plays out much more like an eight part movie, with none of the done-in-one adventures (mostly) that characterized Season 1. Both seasons eschewed the most natural fit for the series – Saturday morning cartoon – and instead aim to be lost seasons of Stranger Things. In that, Season 2 is probably more successful at aping the general arc of a season of the series, though Season 1 had more character development.
Can you tell that this is a review of the “mixed bag” variety? Personally, having watched the first season early and devoid of discourse, I generally enjoyed what it was going for, and though the voice work varied – Braxton Quinney is eerily similar to Gaten Matarazzo’s Dustin, while two seasons in they still can’t figure out how Eleven speaks – it brought a lot of the fun aspects of Stranger Things without the baggage of “where will this all end up.” The music choices were fun, the action moved, and the finale, likely by accident rather than design, felt like the final battle-style climax that was missing in the rather empty live-action finale.
Now, having watched the second season early, some things have gotten smoothed out, particularly the Poochie feeling of new character Nikki Baxter (Odessa A’zion) whittled off thanks to the lack of pressure of introducing a new Hawkins resident to the gang. Nikki is still good at everything, but focusing her as the gadget-maker for the gang, allowing them to infuse a little Ghostbusters in the Stranger Things mix helps the scripts downplay the rounds of “wow Nikki is so cool” and “check out what Nikki is doing” that pervaded Season 1. Instead, time is spent on the romantic shenanigans of Max (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and Lucas (Elisha “EJ” Williams), and Eleven (Brooklyn Davey Norstedt) and Mike (Luca Diaz)… Which can’t progress that far given we know where the couples stand entering Season 3, but Tales From ‘85 gives us just enough for it to feel like forward momentum.
Far better is the ghostly action throughout the season. Diehard fans will likely have some extremely pointed questions about how a ghost invasion of Hawkins has never been mentioned at any point in the continuity of the main series, but it barely matters because the blue-glowing “ghosts” are neat to look at. The reason they’re there also ties nicely back to the events of Season 1, and leads to a Big Bad towards the end of the season that moves like a stop-motion character and is a mix of Guillermo del Toro and Hellraiser.
If there is a future for Tales From ‘85 – and if there is, they’ve likely already started given the pace of making an animated show – this points to where the series can go, veering further and further from the main look and feel of Stranger Things. Sure, the plan is to eventually loop back and reset things so they’re ready for the July-set Season 3 (you may notice they’ve got four months/seasons to go to get there). But Tales From ‘85 excels when it worries less about how this will all make sense and instead leans into wilder creatures, and weirder scenarios.
Like I said earlier, there’s probably still not enough distance from Stranger Things or the first season of Tales From ‘85 to form a different opinion than you had going into the first season, and Netflix might have been better served to launch this whole thing in 2027, when fan reaction had time to settle down. But as a pleasant reminder of what we all liked about the franchise for a decade, this provides a nice little additional treat, and a fun kick-off to Spooky Season. If there are more tales to tell in 1985, I’ll be there to listen.
Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
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