Netflix can’t seem to follow-up its biggest shows

It hasn’t been that long since Stranger Things ended, but even still fans are clearly clamoring for more. The finale was overshadowed by a conspiracy about a secret episode, and an otherwise standard behind-the-scenes documentary became a hotbed for theorizing. Of course, given the scale of Stranger Things, Netflix was never going to let the franchise die completely, but its first attempt at expanding the franchise largely falls flat. Tales From ’85 is a stakes-free return to Hawkins that’s missing most of what made the original series such a phenomenon. And it’s another example of Netflix struggling to turn its biggest shows into ongoing franchises.

Tales From ‘85 is a spinoff that shows what the main cast of kids were up to in between seasons 2 and 3. It’s an animated series with a Saturday morning cartoon vibe, with bright colors and much less violence than the main show. The story has the crew dealing with yet another collection of monsters. Instead of the standard Demogorgons, Hawkins is being overrun with plant-like creatures that have become dangerous thanks to a combination of the influence of the Upside Down and a mysterious green goo.

Like the rest of Stranger Things, Tales From ’85 is saturated with nostalgia. Characters use She-Ra: Princess of Power to explain key plot points, there are scenes that feel ripped out of It, the goo is very Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and there’s even a Ghostbusters-style weapon toward the end. But it’s also nostalgic in a different way. While the later seasons of Stranger Things dealt with the young cast growing up, here they’re frozen in time, unburdened by their impending adulthood. It’s a throwback to simpler times in more ways than one.

The problem with the show is that there are zero stakes. With the exception of a new character — a tinkerer named Nikki who outfits the team with handmade weapons — it’s always clear that nothing too bad can happen to anyone, because we’ve already seen them survive in later seasons. Telling a story like this is a tricky proposition. It needs to be interesting, obviously, but not too interesting because otherwise viewers will wonder why these moments never came up in the main show. There are a few situations like that in Tales From ’85 — I have no idea why Nikki is never discussed in the later seasons given what close friends they all become — but mostly very little of any significance happens, because it can’t.

That’ll likely be disappointing for fans who are hungering for more Stranger Things, but it shouldn’t be too surprising given Netflix’s history. The streamer is good at making hits, but much less successful at expanding them into bigger franchises through spinoffs. Tales From ’85 is just the latest example. While an American version of Squid Game has been rumored for some time, Netflix has so far only followed it up with a reality series and a mobile game, both of which felt completely incongruous with the show’s nihilistic tone. The Witcher, meanwhile, started out as one of Netflix’s premiere shows, but its prequel Blood Origin was forgettable fantasy that somehow made Michelle Yeoh as a sword-wielding elf seem boring. (One outlier is Queen Charlotte, a well-received Bridgerton prequel.)

It’s not like every hit show needs to become an ongoing franchise, of course, and many of these titles — Squid Game in particular — would’ve probably been better off as one-offs. But Netflix wants franchises, and the problem with each of these spinoffs is that the streamer seems to have misunderstood what made the stories so popular in the first place. Tales From ’85 looks and sounds like Stranger Things, but it’s missing the stakes and the drama that made the original so beloved. Without that, it’s just another cartoon inspired by the ’80s.

The idea behind Netflix’s franchise ambitions makes sense from a business perspective. Making a hit show is hard, and trying to capitalize on that sounds a lot easier than starting from scratch. But as Netflix’s track record has shown, making a hit is hard no matter where you start from. Spinoffs and expansions run the risk of simply being watered-down versions of the original, and that’s largely what has happened to Netflix so far.