Stranger Things: Chronicles of 1985, season 2: one season too many?

Critics are not kind to the sequel to the animated series in Hawkins. Is the franchise going in circles? Press review.

Stranger Things running out of steam?

After a first season which allowed the universe to be extended, season 2 of the animated series Stranger Things: Chronicles of 1985 arrived yesterday on Netflix… discreetly. Less than six months after a nice and amusing first chapter, we leave again for Hawkins, to find the gang of Duffer brothers facing monsters from the Upside Down, in a very tight timeline, since it is stuck between the events of season 2 and season 3 of the original series. Redundant ? Critics today seem tired of Eleven and her friends and point out a lack of issues, speaking of a series constrained by its premise and which, in fact, struggles to justify its existence today…

For IGN, the problem comes from there. The site believes that the animated spin-off “suffers from uncompelling stories and a lack of sufficiently high stakes.” Visually, the series remains successful, but the main plot is “neither complex nor interesting enough to merit eight episodes”. Even if the season answers certain questions left unanswered by the first, “it suffers from genuine interest”.

Same observation on the side of Ready Steady Cut, which recognizes a “more exciting mystery” in this season 2, but it remains “desperately prisoner of its own concept”. Critics are beginning to think that the series “exists solely to showcase the animation. Flying Bark Productions has once again done a remarkable job: everything, from the character and creature design to the staging of the action sequences, is highly effective. There is no denying that this series benefits from a strong creative signature (…) But it is blocked by the limitations of the concept, a status quo that ends up stifling much of the energy and liveliness of the The series’ most die-hard fans may find what they’re looking for, but the creative audacity and emotional charge that characterized the original series in its heyday are simply absent here.

Collider wonders for its part if “the Stranger Things fever has not simply died down” since the broadcast of the first season of the Chronicles of 1985 in April. “What may have seemed acceptable before is now becoming difficult to ignore. Or perhaps the series has finally fully embraced its didactic aim?”

Finally, Screen Rant is more categorical. For the site, “the franchise would now need to take a break, both to create anticipation and to find a new direction.” The main problem with the 1985 Chronicles is “the way in which the series clings to the original characters without developing them in a truly meaningful or exciting way,” says the site. Even the arrival of new characters, like Nikki and Charlie Dandridge, is not enough to make the spin-off evolve. For the specialized site, the solution may already be found in the next live-action spin-off announced by the Duffer brothers, which should tell a new story with new characters and in a new environment. “This seems like the best path forward for the franchise to avoid the pitfalls of this animated series. Because the universe must look beyond its city and its historical heroes.”

Stranger Things: Chronicles of 1985, season 2, watch on Netflix.