REVIEW: ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ’85’ Is Entertaining But Asks Too Much

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, from Netflix and animated by Flying Bark, returns to Hawkins in the winter of ’85, just as school is about to resume. With things finally calming down, Mike (Luca Diaz), Eleven (Brooklyn Davey Nordstedt), Will (Benjamin Plessala, Castlevania: Nocturne), Dustin (Braxton Quinney), Max (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, The Monkey King), and Lucas (Elisha Williams) are ready to enjoy a peaceful winter. But this is Hawkins, and peaceful doesn’t last long.

Trying to mesh the familiar tone of Stranger Things with a more kid-friendly animated style was bound to cause some hiccups. And it does. The biggest way the series is harmed by this attempt to reconcile the franchise with its new medium is through inconsistency.

The biggest is the presence of monsters in the series. While there are moments where they get to lurk about and create a threatening atmosphere, they are rarely given a chance to truly menace. In the earliest moments of the series, there is a sense that Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 could deliver genuine moments of fear, as the first attacks unfold with a measure of striking intensity. But that quickly fades from view.

Meshing kid-friendly animation with horror makes Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 a little bumpy.

That feeling doesn’t return until the series reaches its finale. Only when the full extent of the threat is revealed, and a catastrophic peril looms, do the creatures go all-out to create a sense of true danger and dread. Gorgeous lighting and camera work help to elevate the final threat, making it as monstrous as possible. However, it and its minions are still undercut by another problem that feels born of the switch in medium.

Between these two areas, the creatures frequently come across as more stooge-like than genuine threats. All too easily fooled and frequently incapable of running down an out-of-shape high school freshman, the monsters frequently feel less like threats and more like comedic props, which clash with the times they suddenly become genuinely dangerous again.

Adding to the desceprencies with the threats posed by the monsters in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is the insane levels of damage its young protagonists can take. They get thrown around, slammed into things, compressed, and beaten up so frequently, it’s amazing they have any intact bones by the end of the series. This sense of invincibility only further saps the danger from every encounter.

The monsters should be a greater threat, but are held back in intensity.

That an increased durability for the heroes would slip into the proceedings makes sense. It’s animation, and that sort of thing is more acceptable within this medium. But here, it goes too far, especially towards the end, as the series tries to re-establish the threat to them. These kids aren’t Looney Tunes characters, but their ability to survive falls and high-speed impacts comes too close to treating them like they are.

Adding another problem for Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 to manage is its new character, Nikki (Odessa A’zion, Marty Supreme). The child of a science-obsessed substitute teacher brings a bit of the ’80s punk-rock vibe to the group, which is great. Her tendency to tinker with things to make new, and often deadly, contraptions causes problems.

What this girl makes in her garage threatens to put Tony Stark to shame. Buzz saw launchers and fireball projectors are only the start of what this girl can do. Her contribution to the group’s final victory looks like something that an international treaty would ban. And her mom refers to these insanely dangerous gadgets simply as “Nikki’s Nicknacks.”

The inclusion of Nikki in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 also adds some inconsistency issues.

These deadly toys of hers further undermine the series’ consistency. One moment, they can keep threats at bay; the next, they are powerless to save the kids. It is another element that takes too much away from the series’ persistent threat. Either they work, or they don’t.

While Nikki’s hobby brings some major tests where suspension of disbelief is concerned, she also greatly contributes to Stranger Things: Tales From ’85‘s biggest strength: its interpersonal stories. Over the ten episodes of this series, every major character gets at least one arc of character growth centered on their interactions with someone else.

The biggest growth is Mike’s. Throughout the series, the protagonist struggles with his tendency to be overprotective of his friends, particularly Eleven and Will. Fully aware of the trauma both have undergone, he tends to overstep his bounds with both, even with the best intentions at heart. How the show addresses these elements leads to some of the best scenes, as it lets all parties see and acknowledge what is happening and learn from it.

At the core of the series, we see these characters grow, and that’s why we keep watching.

The other major interpersonal arc that steals the show comes from Will and Nikki. Being into punk and eternally on the move, Nikki understands what it’s like to be an outsider; people are all too eager to misjudge. From her first encounter with Will, she begins to help the boy see what makes him different from others. To see it not as a curse, but as a gift, no matter what others think. How Will, in turn, helps Nikke set down some real roots in Hawkins, makes the duo a scene-stealing pair when they are given time together.

Beyond the interpersonal stories, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 crafts a good narrative that keeps you guessing. The origins of the new threats and how to stop them are ever-shifting questions that remain surprisingly intriguing right up to the very end. Several different monster designs appear throughout the series, each with its own particular visual style and approach to attacking its prey. This keeps the action sequences varied, even if they lack teeth.

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is a mixed bag of elements that struggles to reconcile its medium with its source material. While frequently asking too much of the audience’s suspension of disbelief in several key ways, the strong character narratives and interesting core story make it a ride worth taking, bumps and all.

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.