'Stranger Things: Tales From '85' Is Officially Losing Its Edge in Season 2 | Review

Published Sep 17, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Greer Riddell is a London-based culture journalist and critic writing on film, television, audience behaviour, and the wider media industry. She is a Writer and Social Media Coordinator at Collider and TV Editor at FILMHOUNDS.

Her recent collaborations include Netflix, Warner Bros., DC Studios, Hulu, and Disney+, producing features on titles including Saturday Night Live UK, Severance, Sitcoms, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Stranger Things. Her recent reviews include Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85’, Scrubs Season 10, and The Boroughs. Her work has also included coverage of UK film festivals and features published in Film Stories Magazine.

It may be 1985, but Flower Power has hit Stranger Things — and, in true Hawkins style, all is not as it seems. These “flowers” actually glow in the dark and mutate into large demo-wasps. After the festive season hunting “goblins” but only finding raccoons or “Mrs Kingsley’s Pekingese,” Dustin (Braxton Quinney) and the rest of the Hawkins Investigators Club are back to solve an active case in Season 2 of Tales From ‘85, complete with skeletons, seances, and yet more spores.

Season 1 of Stranger Things: Tales From '85 debuted back in April, when fans were still reeling from the main series finale, which saw Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) meet her fate and the rest of the gang move on with their lives. Most fans couldn't do that themselves, and the first season, Tales From '85, served as a smooth transition between the ultimate final battle and going cold turkey. While the first installment had nostalgic charm, Season 2 struggles to stand on its own. Eric Robles and his team continue to impress with the animation—the character designs, the 1980s neon hues, and the monstrously bright lights—yet the overarching story leaves us feeling bittersweet. It may be time to consider whether we have outgrown Hawkins.

What is ‘Stranger Things: Tales From 85’ Season 2 About?

Following the foolproof Stranger Things format, we meet the Party in the middle of the holiday season — Valentine’s Day — which creates complicated feelings for Max (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) but truly fascinates Eleven (Brooklyn Davey Norstedt). Mike (Luca Diaz) gifts her a flower but runs away before being able to pop the question — “Be mine?” Lucas (Elisha Williams) resents Max for seemingly being hardened to romance, unable to understand why she would rather watch WWE than spend time with him. So she dumps him (again), allowing the story to focus on Galentine's Day instead.

The girls of the group join Odessa A’Zion’s Nikki Baxter in her second outing in the world of Stranger Things. She continues to fit in well with the others and is now close to the original tomboy Max, and takes Eleven under her wing, offering advice on Mike’s inability to say his true feelings. “People don't say what they mean, and they don't mean what they say.” She’s got a different outlook from Nancy (Alessandra Antonelli) but is a big sister all the same. Nikki also isn’t as proper as Nancy, encouraging the duo to monetize the rest of the luminescent flowers from which Eleven’s was picked. After selling them to lonesome middle schoolers, Max comes up against a glowing blue wasp and manages to fry it in the cafeteria’s microwave in self-defense. Turns out Mike actually chose a “Murder flower,” which has a Demogorgon-style mouth and a Wizard of Oz poppy effect on anyone nearby.

‘Tales From ‘85’ Season 2 Embraces the Supernatural Side of 'Stranger Things'

Image via. Netflix

Season 1 of Tales From ‘85 used Nikki as a way to help Will (Ben Plessala) feel better about his insecurities, but the youngest Byers really has nothing to do this season. The boys are on a wild goose chase, trying to both raise local murderer Bloodaxe Bill from the dead and avoid an F in history class by producing a film on the town’s founder, Samuel Hawkins. Their production leads them into an old mine, and it’s here that Mike discovers a floating apparition radiating the same blue hue as the girls’ flowers. As Dustin pontificates in the first episode, the H.I.C. are the “first line of defense to paranormal threats” in the town, so naturally the gang leans into solving the supernatural.

It's an interesting avenue for Stranger Things. We’ve had government cover-ups, humans with extraordinary abilities, and alternate dimensions, but we’ve never had ghosts. A haunting provides the type of fun, family-friendly storyline this animated series does best. Like most television shows for young audiences, Tales From ‘85 allows characters to share lessons perhaps adults in their lives are unable to phrase. Max shares her disappointment with Lucas about her father canceling his visit. Nancy teaches Mike how to do breathing exercises to conquer fear in the middle of a grocery store. And Mrs Baxter (Janeane Garofalo) reassures Nikki that providing financial stability for their family isn't her responsibility. It's a noble aim, but far from what the original series gave fans, and Tales From ‘85 starts to show some holes when watched through the eyes of a more mature viewer.

‘Tales From 85’ Season 2 Hits the High Notes but Fails To Raise the Stakes

While Tales From ‘85 retains the adventurous heart of Stranger Things as the Party works together to save the town, it lacks convincing monster lore. There are only so many times you can suspend your disbelief and accept that yet another creature from the Upside Down has manifested itself in Hawkins without the adults noticing. Even Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest) might have realized by this point! While the original series had clearly defined foes each season, Tales From ‘85 keeps things plant-based but with little explanation of what they are or how they got there. This season’s antagonists are a translucent dementor and a carpet of Venus Flytraps that has the group asking one familiar question: “Do you think they’re from the Upside Down?” You can’t help but respond with a side eye.

With the preceding demogorgons and the Mind Flayer, we were able to learn about their origin and vulnerabilities — think “he likes it cold” — but with these “Hate Sprites,” it’s hard to get invested in the Party defeating them, partly because we know nothing about them and partly because there are no stakes. We get satisfying scenes of the gang exploring like The Goonies, but it’s hard to root for their success when the monsters are only attacking peripheral bullies.

Perhaps this is another result of the series' family-friendly tone. The monsters don't need to be truly threatening, but instead act as a mechanism through which the gang can explore their personal relationships and feelings and share that with viewers experiencing similar things. It’s unclear whether the series will continue beyond its first two seasons — especially considering they were made at the same time, just with this second installment postponed to later in the year. But if the aim going forward is to leverage Stranger Things’ IP to entertain and educate younger viewers, then maybe older fans need to bow out gracefully.

The monsters in Season 2 of Tales From ‘85 may not be fully developed or threatening, but that doesn’t stop the series from leaning into some elements of suspense. The team have perfected employing loud screeches and ending on hair-raising cliffhangers — there are some genuine jump scares. Yet it stops short of horror and chooses to max out on human fear instead by introducing bullies in blue denim with baseball bats. This lack of bite isn’t helped by the fact that it takes until the final third of Tales From ‘85 Season 2 to hear the first theory about what the “hate sprites” may be doing and why. It also takes this long to reference anything from the previous story released in April, which proves significant.

Maybe Stranger Things fever has dwindled since April’s debut, making Tales From ‘85’s shortcomings harder to ignore, or maybe the series has settled into its didactic intent. One thing is for certain: the Hayfever hauntings in Tales From ‘85 Season 2 highlight a spring-to-winter romance between the franchise's original fans and where Stranger Things now sits — but that doesn’t mean you can't enjoy it if you are willing to be a kid again for a few hours.

Stranger Things: Tales From '85 Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

• 

  Brooklyn Davey Norstedt

  Eleven (voice)

• Jolie Hoang-Rappaport

  Max (voice)

Pros & Cons

• Max and Eleven's new friendship with Odessa A'zion's Nikki Baxter is a welcome dynamic shift.
• Tales From '85 continues to impress with its bright, neon animation style.

• Stranger Things: Tales From '85 family-friendly tone makes the franchise feel disconnected from its original intended audience.
• Season 2 of Tales From '85 takes a long time to get to Stranger Things' famous planning and action sequences.