Much to my surprise, Netflix’s Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 is pretty damn good. The animated spinoff of Stranger Things, which takes place between seasons 2 and 3 of the original series, manages to create convincing cartoon versions of the kids from Hawkins. Also, the shorter, more kid-focused episodes give the show a youthful energy which hearkens back to the original show’s earlier seasons.
That said, the series does create some pretty glaring plot holes in the overall Stranger Things timeline and they pretty much all revolve around the new characters introduced in the spinoff.
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 introduces a bunch of new characters, but only three of any real consequence. There’s Nikki Baxter (Odessa A’zion), a new student at Hawkins Middle School who quickly — and I mean very quickly — becomes a part of the core group. There’s her mom, Anna Baxter (Janeane Garofalo), who is a plant-obsessed substitute science teacher. Then there’s Daniel Fischer (Lou Diamond Phillips), Anna’s boyfriend and a former low-level scientist at Hawkins Lab before it was shut down at the end of Stranger Things season 2. These people enter the lives of the main kids as they’re investigating incidents all over town involving deadly, Demogorgon-like plant monsters.
The new character with the most screen time is Nikki, who bonds with the main kids after they rescue her from a monster attack. Nikki is bigger and tougher than the main kids, and she’s got a pink mohawk. But beyond looking different from them, it’s not really clear what she brings to the table, as she’s also a scientific tinkerer, like Dustin, and a social outcast, like literally every other member of the group. Regardless, by the end of the series (spoiler alert!), she’s so integrated into the party that they even make her a new piece to play Dungeons & Dragons with them.
Given the hurdles it took for Eleven and Max to enter into the group, I found it strange that Nikki became a part of it so quickly, but even accepting that, it makes me wonder why we never see or hear about the character ever again during the events of season 3, 4, and 5. Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 has yet to be renewed, but assuming it is, I am guessing Nikki will move away. But it’s still strange that such a close friend would never again be mentioned.
Another plot hole develops with Anna and Daniel, as Daniel was the creator of the plant monsters with the help of Anna’s formula (unbeknownst to her). Daniel dies at the end of the season, as he is devoured by one of the plant monsters he created. Then Eleven squishes that monster between the edges of a new gate to the Upside Down the monster was creating. Eleven then closes that new gate, just like she did at the end of season 2.
Again, it seems very strange that they’d never mentioned that other time Eleven closed a gate to the Upside Down, mere months after the first time she did it.
The last shot of the season shows the dead plant monster in the Upside Down with a new Demogorgon-like flower sprouting out of it. While this is merely a tease for a potential season 2, that means they’ll have to wipe out the entire plant species in the Upside Down before season 3, otherwise, why aren’t they there after that?
Maybe I’m being too hard on the show and perhaps there is some grand plan to sweep up all the inconsistencies it creates when the cartoon wraps up. But short of wiping everyone’s minds about Nikki and the plant monsters at the end of Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, I just don’t see how these events were never referenced again and why Nikki is seemingly blinked out of existence.
Why the new animated Stranger Things series could only fit between seasons 2 and 3
The Zoomer is a big part of it
About the Author
