Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 Brings Back The Stranger Things Magic
Turns out, there is a way to make it 2017 again.
In the wake of the Stranger Things Season 5 finale, it became very clear that the show in 2025 was nothing like what it was in 2016. The story was bigger, the stakes were bigger, and all those child actors were considerably older. But that’s just an occupational hazard with shows with young casts: you can’t freeze them in time. Or can you?
Enter Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85, an animated spinoff series that picks up right after Season 2, the season many fans agree to be the end of the show’s Golden Age. Upon first watch, this series really delivers what Stranger Things grew out of in later seasons, as long as you don’t ask too many questions about the canon.
Tales from ‘85 follows the Hawkins gang of Mike, Eleven, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max as they return to school after winter break. Unfortunately, their beloved science teacher, Mr. Clarke, is going on sabbatical, and he’s being replaced by the lovably quirky Ms. Baxter. It’s not long before Ms. Baxter’s punk daughter, Nikki, runs into a sticky situation with our band of heroes, and together they form the Hawkins Investigators Club. They investigate some odd happenings going on around town, and discover that, unfortunately, though the gate to the Upside Down may be closed, that doesn’t mean that everything’s safe.
It’s not difficult to see where the inspiration for this series came from. The “midquel” setting, stylized animation style, and self-contained story are all eerily similar to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the spinoff animated series that showed a new side to the Star Wars prequel trilogy. This is the show’s best idea: just as Clone Wars was able to expand the Star Wars universe, Tales from ‘85 reveals new threats that may not be as terrifying as Vecna, but are perfect for an animated series.
If Tales from ‘85 is Stranger Things’ take on The Clone Wars, then Nikki Baxter is its Ahsoka Tano: a spunky new character only added in the spinoff, even though she’s never referenced in the flagship media that came before, or after. Voiced by Marty Supreme breakout Odessa A’Zion, she’s a great addition to the gang, adding a level of world-weariness from her constant moving from town to town, and a penchant for tinkering that supplies the show a Ghostbusters-esque edge. Also brilliant is the science behind the main threat, which is just believable enough, while still incorporating some Dungeons and Dragons monsters.
Nikki Baxter is an excellent addition to the already quite large Stranger Things ensemble.
That said, not all the issues with late-stage Stranger Things are fixed with a move to animation. It feels like every episode has at least one moment where a character is almost about to fall to certain doom, only to be rescued at the last second by Eleven’s telekinetic powers. And while the alternate casting is fantastic, the absence of Joyce and Jonathan Byers is quite conspicuous — even ten episodes is not enough to include the entire expansive cast.
The biggest issue is, unfortunately, one that is unfixable: the plot implications. It’s sad hearing Nikki talk about how she doesn’t even bother to make friends anymore because she knows she’ll move again eventually, and everyone will forget her, but that conversation becomes heartbreaking when you consider that these friends go on to save the world multiple times without ever mentioning Nikki or using any of the tools she made them. The Clone Wars got around this by having Ahsoka leave the Jedi Order, but there’s no clean way to do something similar here.
But if you can suspend your disbelief about that, then this show is the perfect palate cleanser for the series finale, something that brings the show back to what it was always supposed to be: kids on bikes solving mysteries and getting themselves into hijinks.
