Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 (2026) 💜💙🩷

From cosmic horror… to a McDonalds ad!

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we? 🎬

Also heres the extremely dumb McDonald’s ad.

Also heres the music that’s used in the opening theme and end theme.It sounds similar to the main theme, but also not really at all.

I’m gonna be blunt right off the bat. I was against the show the whole time. The issue I first have is that this show came out way too. Soon after season, five ended and keep in mind season. Five ended poorly, if you are curious on my thoughts on season five, please go check my reviews on all 3 parts.

Also, this spinoff got ten episodes total. Why didn’t season five get ten episodes beyond me. Also of course, I was against this spin-off because the Broadway prequel already ruined continuity. So I had a feeling that they will continue to ruin continuity. And oh boy, buckle up because everything’s about to get messy.


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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview 🧭

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 takes place between Season 2 and Season 3, which means we’re back in that weird little pocket of time where the gate is supposed to be closed, Hawkins is supposed to be recovering, and the kids are supposed to be able to have one normal winter without another interdimensional nightmare crawling out of the ground.

Spoiler alert: they do not get that.

I mean, this season opens up with a hazmat suit. Guy chasing a demo-lizard thing in the snowy forest.While the creature jumps through the air while farting spores.

Yep, I think, right off the bat.You can tell what kind of show this is gonna be.

This time, the threat is plant-based. Upside Down material starts infecting plant life around Hawkins, creating these new demo-creatures, demo-plants, demo-lizards, pumpkin monsters, centipede things, sewer creatures, and eventually one giant kaiju-level plant monster. And yes, I know how ridiculous that sentence sounds. Trust me, I had to watch it happen.

The basic idea is actually kind of cool. A biological infection tied to the Upside Down? A hive mind spreading through Hawkins? People being swallowed alive and used as fuel? That could be creepy. That could be body horror. That could feel like The Thing mixed with Stranger Things.

But because this show is clearly aiming for a younger, safer, more cartoonish version of Stranger Things, it never fully goes there. It wants horror, but it also wants slapstick. It wants danger, but it doesn’t want to get too intense. It wants to feel like the old show, but it also feels like it’s being filtered through a corporate “please make this more kid-friendly” machine.

And that’s the main issue.

This show isn’t bad. I actually kind of enjoyed it. But it kept making me miss what Stranger Things used to be.


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Character Rundown 🎭

The original cast does not return for this animated show, so everyone is voiced by new actors. And honestly? They’re mostly decent. None of them are terrible. Nobody made me go, “please never speak again.” But you can still tell these are new voices trying to capture characters we already know.

Eleven still sounds enough like Eleven. Mike still has that overprotective “I must guard Eleven like she’s the last Capri Sun in the fridge” energy. Dustin is probably one of the better recasts, because his voice and personality come through the most naturally. Lucas is solid. Max feels pretty accurate, especially with her attitude. Will actually gets some decent material here, which is nice because poor Will spends most of the main show either kidnapped, possessed, sad, or emotionally abandoned in the corner.

But the show’s best character is easily Nikki Baxter.

Nikki is the new punk-rock girl with the pink mohawk, and honestly, she works. She’s guarded, sarcastic, creative, and has this tinkerer energy where she builds gadgets and repairs things. She doesn’t immediately trust people because she and her mom keep moving around, so she never really gets to settle down or make real friends. That part of her character actually works really well.

Her friendship with Will is one of the stronger parts of the show. She encourages him, she sees his bravery, and she tells him not to let “Zombie Boy” bother him because it actually sounds cool. That was sweet. That felt like a real character moment.

Mike not trusting her at first also makes sense on paper, because Mike is protective of the group and especially protective of Eleven. But sometimes it comes off less like caution and more like Mike only wants one girl in the party, and that girl is Eleven. Like calm down, Mike. It’s a D&D party, not a royal bloodline.

Anna Baxter, Nikki’s mom, is the new science teacher taking over for Mr. Clarke while he’s away. She is obsessed with plant research and trying to bring dead plant life back. She moves Nikki around constantly and acts like this is just life, but Nikki clearly hates it. Anna isn’t a bad character, but she does feel like one of those parents who thinks “new beginning” is a personality trait.

Then there is Daniel Fischer.

Oh boy.

Daniel is Nikki’s dad, the convenience store guy Dustin keeps buying snacks from, dont worry he’s clearly not important, oh wait.

Tanya (Dustin’s Rival)


This is the girl Dustin absolutely cannot stand at the start. And honestly? Their dynamic is actually pretty fun.

At first it’s very “we hate each other for no reason” energy. Like full-on petty rivalry. She thinks Dustin is annoying, Dustin thinks she’s insufferable, and they both just go at each other constantly. But then the show actually gives them a moment where they talk about why they hate each other, and it turns out it all goes back to some dumb misunderstanding where Dustin got shoved and spilled something on her.

So basically their entire beef is built on:

> middle school nonsense



Which is honestly realistic.

What makes her more important though is she becomes one of the infected/linked characters. After getting exposed, she starts having those headaches and visions, drawing the same tower with the vine-hands like everyone else. So she’s not just comic relief—she’s part of the hive mind setup.

And to the show’s credit, she doesn’t stay one-note. She softens a bit, works with Dustin, and becomes more involved in the mystery. She’s not Nikki-level good, but she’s definitely more than just “the annoying rival.”


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Andy (The Bully Who Gets Saved)

This is the bully who gets pulled into the demo-creature early on and then gets ripped out of its stomach by the group.

Yeah. That happens.

After that, he’s not the same. He starts acting weird, having visions, drawing the same stuff as Tanya. He’s basically one of the first clear examples of:

> “oh… this infection is messing with people’s heads”



He’s not super deep as a character, but he serves a purpose. He shows the mid-stage of infection—not fully gone, but clearly not normal either. He’s more plot device than character, but he works for what the show needs.


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Gabe (The Other Bully)

This is the one who just straight up gets taken.

No rescue. No return. Just:

> gone.



He’s basically there to show the stakes early on. Like, “yeah, these things don’t just scare people—they take them.” But the show doesn’t linger on it much because, again, it’s trying not to get too dark.

So Gabe ends up being more of:

> “example victim #1”




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Overall Take on This Group

This trio actually helps the show more than you’d think:

Tanya → character growth + hive mind connection

Andy → shows infection progression

Gabe → shows early danger


But like a lot of this show, they don’t get pushed as far as they could’ve. There’s potential there—especially with Tanya—but the show keeps things a little too safe to really dive into it.


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If you want, I can plug this cleanly into your full review so it flows naturally instead of feeling like an add-on.

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Animation Style 🎨

The animation is decent, but I’m conflicted.

At best I would say it looks like a mix between into the spiderverse and scooby doo.

The creatures look cool. I’ll give the show that. The demo-plants, the pumpkin monsters, the sewer infestation, and the final kaiju creature all have strong designs. The colors are nice, the action is readable, and there are shots where the animation does look stylish.

But the humans sometimes look stiff, and the overall style feels like it’s caught between two ideas. It wants to be retro and 80s-inspired, but it also uses modern CGI that makes it feel more like a newer kids’ animated show than a lost 80s cartoon.

And that’s disappointing, because if you’re making an animated Stranger Things show set in 1985, why not go all in? Make it look like a grimy 80s cartoon. Give it that hand-drawn horror-adventure energy. Make it feel like something you found on an old VHS tape in someone’s basement next to a broken Lite-Brite and emotional trauma.

Instead, it looks fine.

Not bad.

Just fine.


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Pacing / Episode Flow ⏱️

The episodes are short, mostly around 28 to 30 minutes, and because of that, the show moves fast. Sometimes that helps. Sometimes it hurts.

There are moments where the mystery actually builds well. The hive mind stuff, the visions, the drawings of the tower with vines around it, the realization that the infected people are being pulled toward the same place—all of that works. That feels like Stranger Things.

But then you get episodes that feel like filler, like the whole newsroom subplot where the arcade guy sells a picture of Eleven and a creature to a reporter, and the gang has to break in and steal it back. Nancy shows up and distracts security by pretending to be some tinfoil-hat alien conspiracy woman, the kids sneak in, chaos happens, Eleven uses her powers, they get the photo, tear it up, and then the episode is basically over.

And I’m sitting there like… what was the point of that?

You could cut that episode and the main story would barely change.

That’s the problem with the pacing. The show has a main plot, but it keeps stopping for side quests.


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Pros ✅

Nikki is genuinely good. She’s not just “new girl inserted into canon.” She actually has a personality, an arc, and a purpose. By the finale, she earns her place in the group.

The creature designs are cool, especially the pumpkin Demogorgons and the final plant kaiju. I don’t think they fit cleanly into Stranger Things continuity, but visually? Yeah, they’re fun.

The music is also solid. Opening with “Kids in America” was a good choice. That song immediately gives the show some energy, and overall, the soundtrack does help bring back some of that 80s vibe.

Some character moments really work too. Mike and Eleven having a conversation about him and Hopper always trying to decide things for her was actually good. Eleven telling him that he needs to ask what she wants, and Mike agreeing to do that, felt like real development.

Will and Nikki’s friendship works. Nikki getting accepted into the D&D group by the end works. The group making her a custom little figure for their campaign is genuinely sweet, even if my LEGO brain started going, “did 80s LEGO even have punk rock hair pieces?” But emotionally, it works.


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Cons ❌

This show is way too toned down.

And I know it’s animated, but that doesn’t automatically mean it needs to feel like a kids’ version of Stranger Things. The original show was never really for kids. It was about kids, but it wasn’t a kid show. That distinction matters.

Here, characters don’t really swear. Hopper spills jelly on himself and instead of saying “oh shit,” he says “oh shirt.”

Oh shirt.

That is not Hopper.

That is Hopper after being run through a family-friendly dialogue filter.

The horror is also softened. People get dragged away, swallowed, or attacked, but the show rarely lets things get nasty. Most of the violence is implied. The only blood you really see is Eleven’s nosebleed. Compare that to Season 3, where possessed people melted into flesh sludge to form the Mind Flayer’s body. That was disturbing. That was body horror. This is more like “spooky monster adventure.”

Also, the continuity is a mess. If this show is canon, then why does nobody mention Nikki later? Why does nobody mention demo-lizards, demo-plants, pumpkin creatures, or the time Hawkins almost got overtaken by a plant hive mind between Seasons 2 and 3? This is the same problem I have with the Broadway prequel. You can say something is canon all you want, but if it breaks the main timeline or leaves no footprint, then what are we doing?

And then there’s the corporate feeling.

This spin-off came out so soon after Season 5 ended that it feels less like “we had a story to tell” and more like “keep the brand alive.” And then there was a McDonald’s ad in this animation style where the kids are at McDonald’s and the monsters show up, and they basically have to save McDonald’s.

Great.

We went from cosmic horror and government conspiracy to saving the fries.

Lovely.

Also, if I haven’t made it clear yet, continuity is up the window with this franchise, order to be fair.They are already ruined continuity with the broadway prequel.So at this point, what more damage can be done.

Like, why was none of the events in this series ever brought up ever again, In the main series?

Also, remember how in season two lucas has a hard time.Telling max, what’s going on?Because he literally cannot he sworn to secrecy.And he says, I have to kill you, and it’s really a big eventful moment when he does.

But here in the spinoff show, they are just up front and blunt to the new kid, nikki about the whole upside down and will buyers being kidnapped in broad daylight.By the way, while they’re just walking around downtown, placing shoe boxes around.

Yeah, did these characters feel like they’re the same from season two? Or better yet, do these characters feel the same as they are written in the base show? Because they do not to me.


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Final Thoughts 💭

I did not hate this show. In fact, I liked more of it than I expected to.

But I also can’t ignore that this feels like a safer, cleaner, more corporate version of Stranger Things. It has the characters. It has the monsters. It has the music. It has the bikes and the D&D and the snowy Hawkins vibes. But the edge is missing.

This show made me miss old Stranger Things. It made me miss when the Upside Down felt mysterious and dangerous. It made me miss when the horror actually had bite. It made me miss when this franchise felt like a story instead of a brand that needs more branches growing out of it.

And that’s the weird part.

Tales From ’85 is not terrible. It’s actually pretty watchable. Nikki is great. The finale has some solid ideas. The creature designs are fun. But the whole time I kept thinking, “why does this exist?” Especially after Season 5 already left such a weird taste in my mouth.

And now they’re bringing the Broadway prequel to Netflix, and apparently making another prequel about the rock that possessed Henry.

A show about a rock.

No thanks.

I’m good.


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Rating ⭐

6 / 10

I can’t go higher than that.

It’s enjoyable, but it’s also unnecessary, inconsistent, too kid-friendly, and way too corporate-feeling.


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⚠️ Spoiler Warning ⚠️

Everything below this point contains full spoilers for Stranger Things: Tales From ’85.


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Spoilers 🩸

The show opens with one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in this franchise: a hazmat guy in the snowy woods chasing a demo-lizard thing with a flamethrower. The creature farts spores into the air, the spores land in the ground, and demo-plants start growing.

Yes.

That is the opening.

A farting demo-lizard plant thing.

Right away, I knew what kind of show this was going to be.

From there, the kids start dealing with different plant-based creatures around Hawkins. Dustin gets chased by bullies, the bullies get attacked by the creatures, and one of them later gets pulled out of a demo-centipede creature’s stomach. The show establishes that these monsters swallow people and use them like fuel, which is actually a creepy concept. The issue is that the show rarely lets that be as disturbing as it should be.

The kids eventually meet Nikki Baxter, the new punk girl with the pink mohawk. She gets dragged into the mystery after seeing Eleven use her powers to fight one of the creatures. The gang explains the Upside Down to her way too casually, which bothered me because in Season 2 Lucas was terrified to tell Max anything. Back then, the secret was treated like life-or-death government conspiracy information. Here, they’re practically talking about Demogorgons in broad daylight while walking around neighborhoods like it’s club gossip.

Dustin also starts the Hawkins Investigation Club, or H.I.C., which is basically his Ghostbusters idea. He wants the group to investigate supernatural activity and collect tips from people. Again, fun concept on paper, but in-universe this makes no sense. The Upside Down is supposed to be secret. The government covers this stuff up. But sure, let’s start a public monster-hunting tip line. What could go wrong?

The plot really kicks in when the plant creatures start spreading through Hawkins. There are pumpkin monsters at a farm, a creature attack at the carnival, sewer monsters, vine attacks, and eventually a whole underground hive. The show explains that the creatures are basically plant life infected by Upside Down material, adapting depending on the host. So pumpkins become pumpkin monsters. Plants become demo-plants. Vines become tendrils. It’s all one spreading organism.

That actually makes sense in the show’s logic.

But the presentation makes it feel like monster-of-the-week cartoon chaos.

One of the stronger threads is the hive mind. Tanya, Dustin’s rival, starts having visions after being exposed to the creatures. Andy, one of the bullies, also starts acting weird and drawing the same image. They all keep seeing this tower with vine-like hands around it. That turns out to be a real location connected to the source of the infestation.

This is where the show starts feeling more like actual Stranger Things. The visions, the shared drawings, the idea that affected people are being pulled toward one place—that works. That’s creepy. That’s the kind of mystery I wanted more of.

Then the show starts pointing suspicion toward Anna Baxter, Nikki’s mom.

This is the double plot twist, and honestly, this is one of the more interesting parts of the story.

At first, the evidence makes it look like Anna is behind everything. She’s the new science teacher. She’s obsessed with plants. She’s trying to revive dead plant life. She’s constantly in the lab. Nikki even starts connecting the dots and realizes her mom has the exact motive, knowledge, and equipment to be involved.

Dustin finds a note in the Baxters’ house that makes him believe Anna is “the Queen.” So the group starts thinking Anna is the Plant Queen, or at least the one controlling or creating the infestation. Nikki doesn’t want to believe it, which makes sense because it’s her mother. But even she has that moment where she says her mom is just a scientist obsessed with bringing plants back to life… and then she realizes how suspicious that sounds.

It’s one of those moments where the audience is already five steps ahead, but the characters are acting like they just discovered fire.

So the group investigates the house while Nikki gets her mom out of the way. They find a hidden lab, discover a contained plant creature, and realize the light pole and branches outside match the drawings perfectly. This confirms they’ve found the source location.

Then Anna reveals she has no idea what they’re talking about.

That’s the first twist.

She is not the Queen. She is not behind the outbreak. Her experiments failed. Her chemicals were stolen.

And then comes the second twist.

It was Daniel.

Nikki’s dad.

The convenience store guy.

The guy Dustin keeps buying snacks from.

Turns out Daniel used to work at Hawkins Lab. He was fired, felt ignored, and started stealing his wife’s failed plant research. He combined it with Upside Down tendrils and chemicals, trying to create something successful. In his mind, he wasn’t creating monsters. He was reviving his experiment. He thought it was safe.

Which is hilarious because literally everything around him is screaming, “this is not safe.”

Daniel isn’t evil. He’s not some genius villain with a master plan. He’s just dangerously stupid.

He keeps saying his experiment isn’t dangerous, even as it is very clearly dangerous. He thinks the plant creature is contained because it’s behind glass. Glass. Again, this man put a mutating Upside Down organism in a glass case and was shocked when it broke containment.

I’m starting to understand why Hawkins Lab fired him.

At one point, the floor collapses, and the characters fall into the underground hive area. Daniel is shocked and says he had no idea this was beneath them. He literally says there’s no way the Queen plant could have expanded down there because he had her contained.

Sir.

The evidence is under your feet.

Actually, now the evidence is under where your feet used to be because the floor collapsed.

The man is a walking OSHA violation.

Things get worse when they go deeper underground. Daniel suggests splitting up because it will be more efficient. Yes, let’s split up in an unknown underground monster hive where people are getting dragged away by tendrils. Amazing plan. Brilliant. Someone get this man another lab coat and a warning label.

Eventually, Daniel finds Will trapped under a rock. A giant kaiju-sized demo-creature appears, and Daniel tries to lure it away with a flare. Not the worst idea, to be fair. But then he makes noise, the creature notices him, and instead of focusing on helping Will, Daniel grabs vials of the green substance and runs.

That tells you everything about his character.

He cares more about his experiment than human life.

By the climax, Daniel’s obsession gets him killed. The group reaches the hive, the giant creature attacks, and Daniel’s backpack falls open. His vials break. And what does he do? Does he help the kids? Does he help his family? Does he try to escape?

No.

He starts panicking over the broken chemicals.

Then the giant creature picks him up and eats him whole.

And honestly?

That is the most fitting death this man could have gotten. And lets not forget, the man is not a villain. He is not a mastermind. He is not some brilliant dark scientist. He is a walking Darwin Award in human form.

This man used to work at Hawkins Lab, got fired, stole his wife’s failed research, mixed it with Upside Down material, created dangerous plant monsters, and still somehow kept insisting everything was safe. He put a mutating interdimensional creature in a glass container and acted surprised when it broke out.

Sir.

It’s a Demogorgon plant monster.

Not a goldfish.

He dies because he cares more about the chemicals than the people around him. That’s not tragic. That’s natural selection with dramatic lighting.

After Daniel gets eaten, the green ooze powers up the creature. The monster shoots tendrils into the wall and starts reopening the gate to the Upside Down. The group tries to stop it, but they’re completely outmatched. Eleven struggles to close the gate because it’s too strong. The creature is too powerful. For once, Eleven can’t just use the Force and solve everything immediately.

Nikki’s zappatron weapon becomes the key. She built this gun earlier, but it overheats and needs to be repaired. Her mom helps motivate her, telling her that Nikki doesn’t run from things—she builds. That actually works as a character payoff. Nikki has spent the season feeling like she has no control over her life because her mom keeps moving her around, but here she takes control by building the thing that can save everyone.

The creature grabs Eleven and starts dragging her toward the gate. You can see Demogorgons on the other side, which is a genuinely cool visual. It feels like if the creature crosses over or opens the gate fully, everything is done.

Anna finds the battery pack, Nikki gets the weapon working, and she blasts the creature, severing its arm and freeing Eleven. The creature is badly injured but still crawling toward the Upside Down.

Then Eleven notices the tendrils connecting it to the gate. She uses her powers to target those weak points, closes the gate, and the creature gets cut in half as the portal shuts.

That’s actually a decent way to beat it. Instead of overpowering the creature directly, they cut its connection to the Upside Down.

It’s clever enough.

A little convenient, sure, but it works.

After that, Daniel is dead, the monster is dead, and the gate is closed again.

Then we get the ending.

Hopper is fixing the roof of the cabin, and Eleven joins him. “Time After Time” plays, which is obviously meant to remind us of the Season 2 Snow Ball ending. Hopper tells Eleven he feels bad about working late and leaving her alone, so he extends her curfew and lets her go play D&D with her friends. She hugs him, Mike shows up, she kisses Hopper on the cheek, and Hopper gives Mike a little nod.

Cute scene.

But also… Hopper was barely in this show. So it feels less like payoff and more like the show suddenly remembered it needed a Hopper and Eleven moment before the credits.

Then we go to Nikki’s new house. She and her mom didn’t move far, just to a smaller house in the woods. Nikki already has the garage set up for D&D, with snacks and the group ready to play. Max refuses to play because they have cable and she wants to watch WWF, which honestly fits her. The group gives Nikki a custom figure they made for her campaign character, a little punk-rock version of herself.

That was genuinely sweet.

Then the camera flips upside down.

We see the Upside Down version of Nikki’s old house. We see the dead half-body of the giant creature.

And then a blue plant grows out of it, with Demogorgon teeth.

So yeah.

The threat isn’t actually gone.

It’s just paused.

And that’s where the show ends.

Which means this spin-off wraps up with a happy friendship ending, then immediately undercuts it with “actually, the plant horror is still alive.” And I don’t know how I feel about that. Part of me thinks it’s a decent spooky ending. Another part of me is like, “great, more sequel bait.”

Because that’s what this franchise feels like now.

Not endings.

Setups.

Not closure.

More content.

And that’s the biggest problem with Tales From ’85. It’s enjoyable, but it also feels like another branch on the Stranger Things content tree. A tree that apparently now grows demo-plants, McDonald’s ads, Broadway prequels, and soon probably an eight-episode origin story about a rock.

Ohh, yeah. And if nikki sticks around, why was she never brought up before in the main timeline? Oh, I can tell you why? Because this was not planned. And this came out of nowhere. It’s just a desperate move to franchise. This series and i’m not for it.

Like if she’s this close of a friend to the group, you would think they would bring her up again in the future seasons. But nope guess she ain’t that important to them, Nikki who?

So yeah.

I liked this more than I expected.

But I also miss when Stranger Things felt like Stranger Things.

And not whatever this is. Anyways hope y’all enjoy today’s review.