\n\tMost spinoffs expand their flagship shows in a direction. That direction could be forward, following a beloved character past the events of the original story, \u00e1 la \u201cFrasier\u201d; it could be backward, fleshing out the origins of a person or place with pre-established significance, the approach taken by both current \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d offshoots. It could even be lateral, simply transferring a concept to a different setting within the same universe in the time-honored tradition of procedurals like \u201cCSI\u201d or \u201cLaw & Order.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFor its first official TV extension, \u201cStranger Things<\/a>\u201d opts for none of the above. (A theatrical production, \u201cThe First Shadow,\u201d took place in the 1950s.) \u201cStranger Things: Tales From \u201885<\/a>\u201d is animated rather than live action, an obvious visual cue we\u2019re no longer watching the show that wrapped its blockbuster run on Netflix<\/a> earlier this year. It turns out such a signal is sorely needed, because \u201cTales From \u201885\u201d winds back the clock to tell the exact same story as \u201cStranger Things\u201d proper, with the exact same characters, in the exact same archetypal small town of Hawkins, Indiana.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe primary distinction is that this version of the Hellfire Club, now voiced by a fresh set of actors, will never face the main constraint on a serialized story about young children: They don\u2019t age. \u201cTales From \u201885\u201d is a transparent attempt to preserve \u201cStranger Things\u201d in pixels rather than amber, allowing Netflix to keep capitalizing on the phenomenon long after its original faces have moved on to other projects.<\/p>\n \n\tPer the title, \u201cTales From \u201885\u201d takes place between the events of \u201cStranger Things\u201d Seasons 2 and 3 \u2014 before the Battle of Starcourt Mall, the introduction of fan-favorite character Robin (Maya Hawke) or, most crucially, the main protagonists started to visibly transition from adorable tweens to post-puberty adolescents to, eventually, young adults. Exactly what occurred between those two chapters has never been a subject of great suspense. \u201cTales From \u201885\u201d is quite literally doodling in the margins of \u201cStranger Things\u201d mythology, or would be if the creative team (led by showrunner Eric Robles, with the Duffer Brothers executive producing) had opted for a hand-drawn look inspired by the kind of \u201880s cartoons its heroes watch between interdimensional adventures. But instead of \u201cTransformers\u201d or \u201cHe-Man,\u201d \u201cTales From \u201885\u201d as produced by animation studio Flying Bark looks like any number of contemporary, computer-generated shows, just with flashes of neon and other period details.<\/p>\n \n\tTo summarize the plot of \u201cTales From \u201885\u201d is redundant, because it\u2019s the same plot as any other season of \u201cStranger Things\u201d: besties Will (Ben Plessala, subbing in for Noah Schnapp), Mike (Luca Diaz, for Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (EJ Williams, for Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Braxton Quinney, for Gaten Matarazzo), Max (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, for Sadie Sink) and their superpowered friend Eleven (Brookly Davey Norstedt, for Millie Bobby Brown) team up to fight an interdimensional threat from the Upside Down as local adults remain oblivious. That the gate between our world and the Upside Down in the Hawkins Laboratory basement is technically shut at this point in the master narrative is a mere technicality that\u2019s easily handwaved.<\/p>\n \n\tThe group\u2019s internal dynamics and story beats are just as identical as the overall mission. Mike is protective of Eleven; Lucas and Max have sweet (then-platonic) chemistry; Dustin hangs out with reformed bully Steve Harrington (Jeremy Jordan, stepping in for Joe Keery). Dustin even re-christens the group the Hawkins Investigators Club, a particularly groanworthy development since there\u2019s already a fictional member\u2019s group that unites the ragtag gang. (Did the Hellfire Club not survive the digital transition?) If \u201cStranger Things\u201d was already a nostalgia exercise, then \u201cTales \u2018from \u201885\u201d caters to nostalgia for nostalgia, a recursive loop with a predictably diminished impact.<\/p>\n \n\tThe ensemble\u2019s main new addition is Nikki (Odessa A\u2019Zion), a pink-mohawked punk whose individuality is encouraged by her mother Anna (Janeane Garofalo), a substitute science teacher. Why haven\u2019t we heard any mention of Nikki in subsequent seasons? Perhaps because she serves as a kind of proto-Robin, a queer-coded role model to encourage Will\u2019s individuality before he even understands what makes him different. Once the real Robin shows up down the line, Nikki could be safely memory-wiped. As engaging an aural presence as A\u2019Zion, a rising star, may be, it\u2019s hard to fall in love with someone you know won\u2019t be around in just a few months of in-universe time, never to come up again.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMore than the presence of such technically new faces that slot neatly into pre-established tropes, what distinguishes \u201cTales From \u201885\u201d is that the characters are no longer tethered to flesh-and-blood humans. Without the liability of actors whose voices will deepen and heights will shoot up over time, Netflix can continue to exploit this IP as long as its audience desires, looking ever-more-solipsistically inward rather than branching out. I\u2019ll give \u201cTales From \u201885\u201d this much credit: it\u2019s as creepy and unsettling an idea as this horror-adjacent franchise has produced in years.<\/p>\n \n\tAll eight episodes of \u201cStranger Things: Tales From \u201885\u201d are now streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most spinoffs expand their flagship shows in a direction. 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