Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 Season 2 Review: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 Season 2 looks stunning and gives its young cast real chemistry, but the eight-episode mystery struggles to justify its length, leaving the season entertaining without ever feeling truly essential.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Platform: Netflix
Genre: Animation, Supernatural Adventure
Episodes: 8
Animation Studio: Flying Bark Productions
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 has always had one built-in advantage going for it, Hawkins is simply a fantastic place to return to. Flickering arcade machines, kids hunting monsters after dark, and something deeply unpleasant crawling out of the supernatural woodwork, that combination alone is usually enough to pull viewers in.
Season 2 of Netflix’s animated spinoff clearly understands that appeal, returning to early 1985 for another eight-episode mystery centered on Dustin’s Hawkins Investigators Club chasing increasingly strange phenomena. Unfortunately, it also exposes a real limitation in building new adventures around characters whose larger fates in the franchise are already well known.
This time around, Hawkins is approaching Valentine’s Day, and Nikki Baxter has properly joined Dustin and the rest of the Hawkins Investigators Club. After a stretch of uneventful investigations, an arcade robbery, a missing local troublemaker, and some suspiciously glowing vegetation suggest the town has once again failed to avoid attracting nightmare creatures.
These clues eventually lead the group toward bizarre entities, a larger spectral threat, and secrets tied to Hawkins’ own history. It is a solid Stranger Things setup on paper, small-town weirdness gradually revealing something far nastier underneath, but the season stretches that premise well beyond what it can comfortably sustain across eight full episodes.
That thinness becomes especially noticeable during action sequences and confrontations. Animation should theoretically free the show from the physical limitations of live action, letting Tales From ’85 go full nightmare mode whenever it wants, and visually, Season 2 absolutely takes advantage of that freedom.
But bigger action alone does not automatically create bigger stakes. Since this story occupies a very specific, safe corner of the established Stranger Things timeline, there is an unavoidable safety net hanging under most of the familiar characters, and the season needed stronger emotional consequences or genuinely surprising discoveries to compensate. It rarely finds them consistently.
Where the season genuinely succeeds is in simply letting its young ensemble bounce off each other. Nikki feels increasingly comfortable within the group, and narrowing the focus to just the kids gives the animated series a clearer identity separate from the sprawling live-action show.
Dustin remains exactly the kind of enthusiastic paranormal investigator you want leading the charge, while Valentine’s Day gives the writers a nice excuse to explore the complicated relationships surrounding Max and Lucas, as well as Eleven and Mike.
These budding romances end up being some of the season’s most rewarding material, handled with genuine sweetness without ever tipping into excessive sappiness.
Nikki’s personal arc also stands out, centered on her fear of having to leave Hawkins if her mother cannot get their finances in order following her father’s absence. It is a genuinely grounded, relatable struggle for a kid to carry, and the show handles that emotional weight well, while conveniently also explaining why Nikki’s arsenal of homemade gadgets does not keep expanding indefinitely this season.
Visually, this is where Tales From ’85 truly shines. Flying Bark Productions gives Hawkins’ supernatural side real personality, particularly through glowing creatures and inventive monster designs that would be difficult to pull off in live action.
The show’s color work in particular is genuinely gorgeous, leaning into bold turquoise and purple lighting contrasts that make the visuals pop far beyond simple functionality. The voice cast also deserves real credit, especially Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max and Braxton Quinney as Dustin, both bringing real energy and emotional texture to characters audiences already know well from the live-action series.
Where the season stumbles is in maintaining real tension. The monsters, while creatively designed, rarely feel like a genuine threat, and a subplot involving a trio of bullies who keep picking fights even as the town falls under supernatural siege stretches believability a bit too far.
Ultimately, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 Season 2 is a clear step up from its first season, offering gorgeous visuals and stronger character work even if the central mystery does not fully justify its eight-episode length. Fans who simply enjoy spending more time with these characters will find plenty of Hawkins-flavored comfort here.
If psychological thrillers with real emotional stakes are more your speed this week, our review of Not a Stranger is worth checking out too.