Night Sky

  

Created by: Holden Miller and Daniel C. Connolly 

Directed by: Juan José Campanella

Executive producers: Daniel C. Connolly, Holden Miller, Jimmy Miller, Sam Hansen, Juan José Campanella

Starring: Sissy Spacek (Irene), J. K. Simmons (Franklin), Chai Hansen (Jude), Adam Bartley (Byron), Julieta Zylberberg (Stella), Rocío Hernández (Toni), Kiah McKirnan (Denise), Stephen Louis Grush (Nick)

As I described this show elsewhere, this was a really interesting concept with a really slow execution. 

Ironically, it's very comparable to another space-themed sci-fi series that also premiered on Amazon Prime just months ago! (Outer Range) Which.... was also slow on the sci-fi, though the drama was a bit more exciting. 

Technically, I'd say Night Sky didn't do anything wrong. It's character driven, purposeful, it sprinkled tidbits of its sci-fi belly into every episode, and all those tidbits served to push plot and character development forward. It also gave great motivations and rich, sad history to most characters, and led several very different characters together in logical ways. 

Irene and Franklin in their alien observatory

The titular night sky they got to observe

But it was just so slow. In the first six of its hour-long episodes, I felt like I got about 45 collective minutes of sci-fi. The rest was character drama and so many secrets. Honestly, I felt like that was my single biggest gripe of the whole series, and it's the exact same as Outer Range, Amazon's other sci-fi I referenced before. Every single main character kept everything important thing they discovered a secret and, when questioned, actively lied to keep the secret. What was more infuriating is that the three main characters (Irene, Franklin, and Jude) all knew about the secret portal, knew each other knew, but still refused to talk about it. All three of them felt they were keeping the other two "safer" by not talking about it--how so is beyond me. But anyway, that's just my own irritation. 

Jude about to bury the teleporter's power source and then, you know, keep it a secret 

If I disregard that whole thing, then the story is actually quite endearing and nice. Irene and Franklin are a sweet elderly couple peacefully living out the rest of their days in their little house in the suburbs. Decades before the start of the series, they discover a teleporter buried near their house that leads to an observatory on a distant planet with breathtaking views of its alien landscape and fantastical night sky. When Irene ventures through the teleporter alone one sleepless night, she encounters an unconscious person on the alien planet side, and brings him back to their house. 

Over the course of the series, Irene and Franklin allow this person (Jude) to recover at their house. The series is filled with Franklin's stubborn distrust of Jude contrasting Irene's eagerness to help and learn more about him, and Jude's very stubborn secrecy as to where he came from. Also introduced very early on are Stella and Toni, and Argentinian mother and daughter duo who, as we learn, are guarding their own teleporter. Stella has kept her daughter ignorant of anything to do with the teleporter until they're called on a mission by a secret organization--a mission, we learn, to apprehend Jude. We learn through Toni's eyes what the teleporter means and that there's quite a larger and seemingly nefarious organization keeping control of the teleporters. What this organization wants is kept mysterious, and they're willing to kill to keep it that way. 

Irene finally admits the truth about the teleporter to her granddaughter, Denise

Toni begins to learn the unpleasant truths surrounding the organization the guards the teleporters

In the end, Irene and Franklin learn to trust Jude. He leaves accompanied by their granddaughter Denise, also a major player in the show, on a still-mysterious mission back through the teleporter. Stella and Toni end up defying the wishes of the organization and are apprehended by them; Franklin and Irene finally gather the nerve to go through the teleporter and really explore the world on its other side. 

After quite a long wait (more like 'wade') through drama that only might be deemed as important for sake of character development, that finale was exciting enough to feel worth it. I'm really interested in each of those plot points and I hope Amazon renews it for a second season so we can find out what Jude is up to and what Irene and Franklin discover!