As the new Stranger Things TV show debuts, the first reviews for Netflix‘s animated spin-off are finally starting to arrive online. Surprisingly, some critics aren’t too happy with Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 as they felt that it didn’t live up to the original series.
What are the critics saying about the new Stranger Things TV show?
So far, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 has garnered an approval rating of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 12 reviews. Even though this is a fairly good score, it is still far from the Season 1 performance of the main show, which debuted with a nearly perfect Tomatometer score in 2016. Early reviews are divided, with some critics even praising the show’s animation and nostalgic charm.
However, many critics also failed to see the spin-off’s necessity to the show’s canon, with Charles Hartford of But Why Tho? describing it as “a mixed bag of elements that struggles to reconcile its medium with its source material.” Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com also called out the lack of inventiveness and “slack plotting” with Tales of ’85’s story and characters, while Kara Hedash of Screen Rant believed that the creative team was “struggling to figure out who the spinoff is actually for.”
Several critics also felt that the show might have overused the element of nostalgia for the sake of replicating what the fans loved about the original Stranger Things series. /Film‘s Bill Bria questions if “a show famous for indulgent nostalgia, get away with having nostalgia for itself?” Despite the negative criticisms, some critics also believed the new animated show will still be an “enjoyable watch” and “a sigh of relief” for Stranger Things fans, who are still reeling from its divisive series finale.
The animated spin-off is executive-produced by showrunner Eric Robles. The voice cast includes Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Elisha “EJ” Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Ben Plessala as Will, Brett Gipson as Hopper, Jeremy Jordan as Steve, and Odessa A’zion as Nikki, along with Janeane Garofalo and Lou Diamond Phillips.