Stranger Things: Tales From '85 has an identity crisis

Before it went out with a highly polarizing and poorly paced season that arrived a few years too late, Stranger Things was one of the biggest shows on the planet. It became Netflix’s largest genre blockbuster, a series you could launch an entire cinematic universe with. So far, we’ve seen Netflix release a bizarre canonical stage play (The First Shadow) that revealed important plot points months before the TV show caught up. Now, we get the first proper Hawkins spin-off with Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a Saturday-morning cartoon set between seasons two and three of the original show. All your favorite Indiana denizens are back, meeting new friends, facing new dangers, and encountering new mysteries. 

From the get-go, it’s clear the show has a bit of an identity crisis. Tales From ’85 tries to appeal to both longtime fans of the live-action series wanting more of this universe and also kids who aren’t old enough to watch Stranger Things. That divide impacts every aspect of the show, from the visuals to the tone to the story—and not for the better. 

Kids’ cartoons based on blockbuster hits aren’t new. There were shows like Karate Kid and Back To The Future offering weekly adventures with your favorite characters from the movie and even R-rated fare like RoboCop and Rambo doing child-friendly stories with bright colors and life lessons instead of carnage. The difference here is that the Rambo cartoon didn’t expect the audience to be familiar with the movies, nor did it expect fans of Ted Kotcheff’s action film to watch the spin-off cartoon. Tales From ’85, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to appeal to ardent fans who want to see more of their favorite characters and explore sides of Hawkins the main show didn’t get to or introduce the franchise to a new, younger audience. 

Set in the winter of 1985, this show follows the gang as they navigate a new wave of Upside Down creatures that start seeping into Hawkins. Along for the ride is a new kid in school, Nikki Baxter (voiced by Odessa A’zion). Though this is toned down enough to appeal to an audience too young to watch Stranger Things, Tales From ’85 constantly references the main series. There are cameos from all your favorite locals, jokes about the events of season two (including allusions to the darker plot points involving Billy), and plenty of setup for the third run of the original and talk of the Starcourt Mall. Sure, you can view this cartoon without having seen the original, but the show assumes that you have and rewards you for it. And yet it’s clearly not made for ardent fans of Stranger Things looking for important missing pieces to the lore. Even the fact that the entire cast has been replaced here makes the argument that this is but a cute, disposable side story rather than a proper extension of the franchise.