The new Prime Video series “Night Sky” tells the story of an elderly couple who hide a secret gateway to other worlds in their shed. What’s special: It’s finally about life from an older perspective.
Irene (Sissy Spacek) and Franklin York (J.K. Simmons) are like a nice elderly couple next door. They remind each other of the advice their family doctor gave them and joke about the many pills they now have to take for all sorts of ailments. On good days, they turn the music on loud and dance together in the living room like they used to. But the two also have a secret: in their shed there is a portal to another world. A wooden sign attached to it reads “To the Stars”.
New on Prime Video: “Night Sky”
“Night Sky” is the name of the new science fiction series on Amazon Prime Video. And finally, it’s about the world (and space) from the perspective of older people who can look back on an eventful life and carry their smaller and larger problems with them. Irene is confined to a wheelchair to recover from a fall and Franklin struggles with his memory. Desperate to keep the secret of her space shed to herself, Irene resists Franklin’s attempts to tell anyone. “It was meant for us,” she says. “It is our mystery that we must solve.”
After a rather quiet start, “Night Sky” becomes more and more complicated and intertwined. There’s a strange man who lives with the Yorks. A curious neighbor who wants to find out what’s going on in the shed. Cults and secret societies associated with the portal. A mother and daughter in Argentina guarding an ancient temple. And other types of seemingly alien technology.
It’s a pity that none of these side threads are anywhere near as interesting as Irene, Franklin and their space shed. Instead, they feel like detours. Sometimes these forays offer interesting new connections – especially when it comes to their temporary roommate Jude (Chai Hansen), who is closely linked to the Yorks. But almost as often, those in between episodes focus on characters and storylines that really go nowhere — at least not in this first season.
Especially the sequences with Franklin and Irene make this series worth watching. Simmons and Spacek work really well together, letting the viewer feel a natural warmth in their relationship. Unfortunately, “Night Sky” is a story in which the characters make choices and keep secrets for reasons that seem to serve only to advance the plot. Unfortunately, many lies and excuses seem constructed and not like a decision that someone would really make in the situation.
