‘Stranger Things: Tales from ’85’ review: Animated Netflix spinoff drags

TV review

In the concluding season of “Stranger Things,” the hit Netflix series about a motley crew of charming youths navigating dangerous supernatural shenanigans and the perils of growing up, things finally, mercifully, came to an end. No spoilers, but it did so with a massive battle, most of which felt utterly disposable, before an effectively bittersweet coda in the basement where we first met the original ensemble playing Dungeons & Dragons.

It was far from perfect, with plenty of painfully clunky dialogue and iffy visual effects, though at least it ended on a strong emotional note that provided a cathartic closing. After spending nearly a decade with this collection of characters, it was time to say goodbye and let their adventure come to an end. There were no more stories to tell and the show, for all its stumbles, somehow just barely stuck the landing.

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Rather than let a good thing lie, there is now “Stranger Things: Tales from ’85.” An animated spinoff that takes place between seasons 2 and 3 of the original series, it’s an experience that, even with some playfulness, is so narratively boxed in and stuck looking back that it proves to be a largely dull drag. 

It brings back Eleven, Mike, Will (bowl cut intact), Dustin, Lucas and Max, and introduces a handful of new characters and some additional supernatural monsters, some of which are at least more colorfully designed than the mostly interchangeable CGI monstrosities that came to define the original show. However, it all just feels more like a glorified side quest in futile search of something even remotely substantial or entertaining than it does a meaningful expansion of this world. There was no need for this show to exist other than to capitalize on the massive interest in anything “Stranger Things” related, and these 10 meandering episodes don’t do anything to change that. 

Most frustratingly, for all the occasionally fun sequences we get where the show takes advantage of the vibrant potential of animation, the story itself feels stuck going through the same motions we’ve already seen with these characters. In the sake of maintaining continuity with the main show, everyone has regressed to what was a rather hit-and-miss stretch for each of them. Eleven is back to saying only a few words, Hopper is just bumbling about in the background as the woefully overprotective father figure, and everyone else is again just being a kid after we’d already seen them grow up. 

Like the original show did when it ran out of ideas, it splits them up into groups for a bit, brings them back together, overexplains everything that just happened for those scrolling their phones; rinse and repeat. It’s revealing that, for all the ways the main series had challenged its younger audiences to grow up and grapple with what it means to leave your youth behind, this one comes in to just provide yet more of the same and ensure they never have to grow up. It’s all about returning to playing it safe, bringing out plenty more monsters and the threat of The Upside Down realm once more, but with little in the way of remotely resonant stakes to hold onto. 

The sole standout is the new character Nikki Baxter, voiced by Odessa A’zion of the recent “Marty Supreme,” who brings more energy to even a single scene than most of the other main characters do over the entire season. It makes you wish the show focused on her and left everyone else behind to explore something new. Yet, once more, the “Stranger Things” that used to be nostalgic for other genre films of the past is gone. In its place is something that is now merely nostalgic for itself and its past.

For those who don’t want to say goodbye to these characters, this may be enough, but it’s hard to see anyone who was already tapped out jumping back in and finding much that’s rewarding. Instead, when the season concludes with the classic song “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn, it plays more like a threat than an exciting promise of more to come. But at this point, it feels inevitable that “Stranger Things,” in one form or another, will never actually die.

‘Stranger Things: Tales from ’85’
All 10 episodes are now streaming on Netflix. 

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