"I get it, it's a heck of a view..."
—Franklin
Night Sky is an American science fiction drama television series created by Holden Miller and Daniel C. Connolly for Amazon Studios and Legendary Television.
It stars J. K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek as Franklin and Irene York, an elderly couple who find a chamber under their shed leading to a viewing room on another planet facing an Alien Sky. They use it for 20 years to simply sit in and relax, until one day they find an injured man inside it.
Night Sky was released on May 20, 2022, on Amazon Prime Video.
A second season was cancelled on July 5, 2022, citing a lack of viewership to justify its cost.
Watch the trailer here
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Tropes:
- Alien Sky: the view through the window.
- Ancient Conspiracy: A group has been using the network for over 300 years.
- Brick Joke: Irene puts the glowing ball on her coffee table and the table disappears. It shows up behind a rock on the planet.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Irene feels driven to this in the first episode, and discovers Jude right before attempting it.
- Michael, the cause alluded to be a mental illness he struggled with despite medication.
- Grumpy Old Man: Franklin is this to his neighbors.
- Sticky Fingers: Chandra is a former student of Irene's who is fired from her job because of this.
- Likes Older Women: Franklin thinks this is going on with Jude and Irene.
- Magical Realism: The show's two main overarching plotlines - Irene and Michael searching for meaning in the aftermath of the death of their son, Jude escaping from a fundamentalist Cult - would work as a story even without the presence of an alien teleportation device. The chamber mostly functions as a metaphor for life's unanswerable questions and as a device to bring the American and Argentinian characters together.
- Mundane Utility: The Yorks have a portal that takes them to another planet. Do they tell astronomers or the science community? Nope, they just sit in it and relax.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Their son Michael died before the beginning of the series. It was later revealed to be suicide.
- Precursors: Someone or something made the portals. As of the end of season one we still don't know who or why.
- Poor Communication Kills: This has it as much as any series, often can be chalked up to the older characters being senile - but even younger adults don't ask the right questions or give the right answers when pressed.
- Portal Network: Franklin and Irene have discovered one under their shed.
- Scatterbrained Senior: The first episode plays this up for the Rule of Drama.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The cancellation at the end of season one leaves Byron's whereabouts a mystery.
