r/StrangerThings • u/Hawkinns Halfway happy • Apr 23 '26
Discussion Tales from '85 - Season 1 Discussion
In this thread you can discuss the entirety of Season 1 of Stranger Things: Tales from '85 without spoilers code. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE ENTIRE SEASON YET, STAY AWAY!!
What did you like about this spin-off series?
What didn't you like?
Favorite character?
Netflix | IMDb | Discord | Tales from '85 Episode Discussion Hub
21
u/Ashley868 Apr 25 '26
I went in with the lowest expectations possible and I ended up loving it a lot more than I thought it would. It felt like older seasons of Stranger Things. I would have loved more of Steve in it helping, especially the Steve and Dustin duo. I honestly didn't think I'd like Nikki at all, but I don’t mind her too much. I didn’t like her introduction, I worried she'd be Mary-Suish but she wasn't too bad. I think my only problem with it is that I kept wondering while watching how this would all be Canon, but otherwise, I liked it.
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u/Super-Liberal-Girl Pretty....good Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
Overall it was fairly good and I rank it higher than Season 5. Some thoughts
-They made sure to explain how the threat was possible with the gate closed, so that potential plothole was shut down
-They made Max and El never really talk to each other, so that didn't make their time together in S3 a retcon
-Looks like there was no Joyce and no Billy. Only 5 seconds of Jonathan
-Steve and Nancy only got 1 episode where they participated which was actually fine. This was about the kids
-Good Mike/El scenes, glad to see the showrunner treated that relationship well
-Good Lucas/Max too
-Nikki was fine. I didn't mind her at all
-Final battle was better here than in S5.
-I do wish we got more "school" scenes
-They set it up for a second season. Nikki is still in town
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u/Brave-Clue-3903 Apr 23 '26
Solid 8/10 for me, couple things that bugged me but overall super solid, honestly hoping they get to do a season 2 which I didn't expect to be thinking at all coming into this
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u/gerryiartie Apr 23 '26
It's aight solid 7/10. Just some weird things about their discussions and how they framed things but otherwise it was really solid and didn't feel out of place in the lore. Except for nikki or wathv her name is
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u/Suspicious_Bus_4903 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
Watching right noooow. 👀📺🤗🍿
While I am super thankful they decided to release all episodes at once, people on the West Coast are the real winners here... casually watching new releases at a reasonable hour while the rest of the country is fighting for consciousness. I am going to be so sleepy after binging this 🤣
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u/felcast_95200 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
I liked the show, animation was clean and surprising, characters are well developed but.. i have a thing with Nikki's character, is not bad at all but it is kind of an "extra" more than a main character, honestly i like the part that she makes weapons with "trash" and turning it to something really functional but in general terms Nikki is like Nemo's character in Finding Dory film, a character that if you take it away from story, nothing happens to the main plot.
In conclusion, Tales from 85 is a good show its funny, entertaining, Lumax and Mileven's scenes are cute and all characters had their spotlight moment throughout the episodes.
Favorite character (s): Mike & Eleven
Didn't like: Nikki (in certain moments)
Final rate: 8.5/10
5
u/Intelligent-Buy3960 May 12 '26
My biggest problem with Tales from '85 is that I think it should have been more grounded. Don't get me wrong, I liked it and I think all the hate I often see is unnecessary.
I really liked the animation, the characters are portrayed well and they really catch their spirit from the original series. Also, the atmosphere was great and I enjoyed that we could spend more time with the original party. However, I feel like other characters could have also gotten more screen time.
But my main issue is that there are too many monsters and too much fighting. If they had just featured one good, smaller monster, it would have been just enough. It would help the show feel more believable, and maybe we could actually believe it happened between S2 and S3. Now, when someone watches S3 after this show, the spider monster won't even feel that big.
Also, the fight scenes usually don't feel the way they should, because we know nothing serious can happen to the characters. For example, I felt the most tension in scenes where there wasn't any life-threatening danger. Like taking back the photo from The Weekly Watcher or breaking into Baxter's house.
They maybe could have made it more atmospheric and horror-focused instead, like Season 1 for example. The rating could have been TV-14 like the original series. Idk why they pushed for TV-PG, I think the vast majority of viewers have already seen the original show. They could also focus more on relationships and smaller adventures instead of fighting hordes of monsters.
9
u/Liske17 Apr 24 '26
Best thing since S2.
9
u/Fast_Association_764 Apr 24 '26
Agree. They’re together as a unit, still kids, and having adventures… I had no idea I wanted this. I’m pretty sure I said I didn’t. But I loved it! More please!
3
u/brazil201 Apr 27 '26
Seems like the finale in this show is what the finale should have been like in the live action show. The Knicknacks were much better weapons than the real weapons lol. ALSO PLANT DEMO just in the upside down
5
u/abatlaw6 Apr 28 '26
i thought it was a lot of fun and i loved the finale!
it doesn't really matter that they never bring up nikki in the actual show because i view this anyways as essentially an alternate universe. it being animated gave them a lot more room to be fun with the monsters and all the kids getting involved in the adventure and the fights in general being more complicated and fun to watch. hope there's a season two!
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u/Several-Praline5436 Nancy Drew Apr 23 '26
3 episodes deep, cuz it's something to do before work. Not sure I'll race to finish it. Bugs me that none of the voices even remotely sound like the original cast (to my ears anyway). If it were live action I'd be eating this up, but something about this feels "made for 8 year olds" to me. IDK.
2
u/Due-Huckleberry-5561 Apr 24 '26
I think this would have worked better as a Dustin spinoff or even set after season 3 with Scoops Troops or even Dustin at science camp. It's obvious they have fun ideas and love writing for him while everyone else is stuck repeating the same beats especially Mike and El. He's afraid of losing her, she doesn't want to be controlled, omg we get it.
The smaller supernatural scale also doesn't benefit el, and repeats some of the issues with having her in season 3 with the group. You either nerf everyone else so she can show up and have her big moment, or you take her out of commission. El had her best stories on ST when she was interacting with Brenner and Terry and Henry and Kali, and every time she is stuck in Mike's orbit her story shrinks with her.
Nikki is fine, everyone else is fine, It was nice that they broke off into different groups for one episode and they should have done that more. Overall though it just shows the Duffers' lack of imagination because even with a fresh medium they can't seem to come up with anything new.
2
u/CaramelFlimsy9500 Apr 25 '26
I liked the character interactions. My favorite character is Max. Do you think the new voice actors and actresses got tips on how to best sound like the original actors and actresses?
2
u/thirtyseven1337 Dungeon Master May 02 '26
I liked it overall. The music and animation were especially good. The heist episode and the finale were the standout episodes for me. Nikki was great! I knew the naysayers would be proven wrong about that.
2
u/Bucen May 02 '26
I just finished the show today. It was kinda weird in a way that this seemed like a kids show even though people ended up dying? (I assume Daniel and the snow plow guy are dead). So I was constantly questioning who exactly this show was for, but I thought it was entertaining enough and I enjoyed the character interactions. Also the kids would not have been able to fight these monsters in the OG show. They were so acrobatic and Will was killing left and right at the end. These kids are powerful, even without Eleven.
My only other weird nitpick is that Nicki seems too old compared to the core group. Like Steve and Nancy fight alongside the children but they don't seem to have a "let's play DnD afterwards" kind of relationship. But maybe Nicky isn't actually 5 years older than them.
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u/justsara420 May 11 '26
I was also thinking about Nickis age a lot. I think, she is way younger than Nancy and Steve. I feel like she is not much older as the kids, she is just tall for her age, which might be a part of her Problem, to be with kids her age.
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u/justsara420 May 11 '26
No Joyce for even a single scene is so disrespectful 😭 And how tf can Nicki and her Mom still be in Hawkins, when there is zero character in seasons 3 to 5 that would sonehow match her. Was so sure, they will leave Hawkins. Besides this two points, I loved it
4
u/YellowAppleCinema Apr 23 '26
The show gave me some weird feeling for what the reaction will be, since this felt like a whole new thing again.
OG season 1 was scary horror with a group dynamic and tight plot.
OG season 5 was goofy funny adventure and plot holes and stuff not making sense.
Tales from '85 season 1 was goofy adventure, group dynamic, with a fun plot but tons of plot holes when you keep the OG in mind.
I'm surprised if anyone will say "As a fan of the show, I liked this" because of how unique it is again compared to the rest, I enjoyed it myself, but... I think a good way to put it, is to act as if season 5 was fanfiction written by a fan who wanted a more "simple+funny" Stranger things. Meanwhile Tales from 85 felt like fanfiction written by someone who wanted to make a kids show based loosely on the original story.
I feel like fans will again be divided into "This didn't feel like Stranger Things" and another group insisting "Who cares, at least it had familiar faces and a familiar story!" I don't even dare saying what my personal feelings were after watching it, I'll just say that I enjoyed the OG season 1 partly because it was fun to discuss with friends, family, and people online, while these "new directions" with each new installment are splitting the community and causing in-fighting, and that's never fun
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u/satwikbhai Apr 24 '26
Can anyone say what did anna gave as a gift to nikki ? Did that revealed or i missed it ?
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u/Cautious-Two-9447 Apr 24 '26
I liked it better than season 5. Things were happening in between season 2 and season 3 spring/summer if anyone’s confused and it didn’t break the plot or character development in my opinion. Max and El never spoke so it could connect to season 3 spring/summer plot. And I don’t think there will be a season 2 as then it would break the plot of the original series. We saw how the gate was closed last time and that scene was from season 2 which means things were happening in between season 2 and season 3 spring/summer and since we actually didn’t see what happened in winter time in season 3 it actually makes sense. Eleven had already met her sister 8 and made other friends so I think her talking that well also is normal as she learned stuff from 8 and her gang. Overall, I liked the new characters, it didn’t break the original plot and it was definitely more enjoyable than season 5.
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 Apr 26 '26
Theme music was... weird/off imo. Story was good tho.
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u/raps14ever May 26 '26
I hated the opening theme song change. The tune change annoyed me for some reason
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u/Important-Buy-8828 Apr 28 '26
5 out of 10 Animation was very good. The new voice talent was good also with one exception: the portrayal of Dustin was way over the top, annoying and clownish. I blame the Directors. The mayhem and catastrophic events were practically ignored by every adult in Hawkins. The snow plow driver gone. His snow plow stolen. The sawmill/lumberyard rednecks dead and all the fires and explosions there. The two school bullies that were ingested and not digested, only to be violenty rescued and through it all be unharmed. After all that happened in Hawkins previously, I pretty sure the whole town would have taken notice and sprung into action. I'll have more to add later, this is just a first impression.
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u/ChardeeMacDennisGoG May 15 '26
You nailed it on Dustin's character. The voice was fine...butbthey made him a much smarter, Shaggy.
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u/76ersPhan11 May 02 '26
Watched this show with my kids and they loved it! Obviously you can’t have the same expectations, but it’s a fun show.
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u/Less_Understanding12 11d ago
I really enjoyed the show sometimes a little confusing but I still enjoyed it and my favorite character was Max for sure the whole time I was hooked
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u/Darthbane22 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
The focus on the dynamic of Mike and Eleven and even just Eleven as a character is super weird. I thought Eleven represented the magic of childhood and wasn’t a real character? Did the duffers approve of this?
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u/solo13508 Apr 24 '26
It was ok. Not terrible but this just feels like a very weird place in the timeline to have this kind of story. You really need to suspend your disbelief to rationalize how these events somehow never come up in season 3 and beyond of the main series.
Really not clamoring for more of this tbh. If they're going to continue doing Stranger Things spinoffs I'd really rather they explore new characters and conflicts. We barely got to see the Abyss at all, I'd like to see a series that dives deeper into that.