J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek make space travel look easy in Prime Video’s Night Sky
It's no big deal, just find a portal to another planet in your backyard!
Aux News Night Sky
Space travel: what if it wasn’t all about making complex calculations and being on the cutting edge of technology? In the new Prime Video show Night Sky, a means to get off-world could be right in your backyard.
Starring J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek, the eight-part series follows a Midwestern couple in their 70s who have a portal to another planet hidden in a shed on their property. Franklin and Irene York have been enjoying their retirement with regular jaunts into space, where they passively take in the extraterrestrial landscape from an observation chamber–until the mysterious Jude (Chai Hansen) ends up in their Illinois home.
The portal is a secret that the Yorks have been hiding for 20 years, and the chemistry between the veteran actors became a crucial element to the story.
“One of the most important things was going to be selling the length of that relationship on screen,” writer Holden Miller says in an interview with Town & Country. “Unsurprisingly, they were both able to do that right away. The sense of shared history between those two characters really sings, and the feeling that they’ve been in this marriage for that long–all credit to Sissy and J.K. It’s really the beating heart of the series and they were both incredible to work with.”
Love stories featuring older couples have been at the heart of some of the top sci-fi projects already released this year. Burt (Christopher Walken) and Irving (John Turturro)’s forbidden workplace romance brings warmth to the emotionally detached world of Severance, while Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) pursue each other across the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
“Aging is a completely universal experience that hopefully we will all be lucky enough to experience and think about,” Miller says. “It was a way to access a lot of the themes that we were interested in: mortality, love, family dynamics.”
All eight episodes of Night Sky will be released on Prime Video on May 20.
16 Comments
J.K. Simmons. Sissy Spacek. Sci-fi. I don’t even need to know anything else about this. I’ll be watching the minute it goes live.
Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how much range Simmons has (the roles I’ve seen him in tend toward a bit of typecasting, albeit with either a dramatic or a comedic spin on it) but Spacek could sell a dramatic reading of the Yellow Pages.
it’ll be interesting to see how much range Simmons has I know what you mean, he’s often type-cast but… his final scene in Palm Springs had a nice, touching quality. Unexpected (by me), but a natural character evolution and fun to watch. I know he plays a lot of dads, cops and other authority figures, but he is so good at what he does….
I’d say he’s got as much range as anyone in Hollywood. Yeah he has three varieties of hardass (Spider Man, Whiplash, Oz) but also spent 15 years as the soothing Dr. Skoda on SVU and is straight-up hilarious as a CIA bigwig in Burn After Reading. I’ve never seen him make a wrong step.
Simmons actually has some range, but doesn’t really get to display it very often. I suspect since his career didn’t really hit until middle-age that a large number of the projects that come his way that have a serious paycheck attached to them are from casting directors looking for a “J.K. Simmons type.” Still, I do enjoy the various angry, shouty, intense versions of Vern Schillinger.100% agree on Spacek.
Did you see Counterpart? It was on Epix originally and now is on Amazon Prime. Its a 2 season series and it is fantastic. He played dual roles in it. The cast is fantastic, it’s a spy/light sci fi thriller.
No, but thanks for the tip — very timely, as we’ve actually been casting about for what series to try next.
I would if it was a movie (bonus points if it was a short ass movie), way too many TV series unfortunately.
He’d better be makin’ some motherfuckin’ mantis men, repulsion gel, or some combustible lemons that WILL BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN.
Check out the underseen and too soon cancelled Counterpart, your mind will be changed.
As an aside – what’s up with Amazon Prime lighting for their originals? It feels so bright and glowy, is that just me?
This is what TV used to look like. You have been mired in the Intangible Sludge. https://www.vox.com/culture/22840526/colors-movies-tv-gray-digital-color-sludge
If Spacek has a quarter of the chemistry with JK as she had with Robert Redford in The Old Man and the Gun, we’re in for a treat.
This sounds like a Clifford Simak novel.
Waystation? I had read that Waystation was optioned a few years ago but do not know if this is it.
I guess that space travel’s going to have a pair of guns packed.