Episode Guide
To The Stars -| Review Score – 3.5/5 La Capilla -| Review Score – 3.5/5 The Caretaker -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Boilermakers -| Review Score – 3/5 Driving Lessons -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Dear Franklin -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Lake Diving -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Compensation -| Review Score – 2.5/5 At its worst, the show slips into eye-watering boredom, depicting everything from shopping and playing chess to a pointless campaign for a side character to become mayor. It’s perhaps more frustrating that Night Sky takes the route that it does because there’s definitely potential here. But like listening to your grandparents discuss an interesting story, layering that with tangents, diversions and distractions, Night Sky doesn’t seem to be in a particular hurry to get anything done. With 8 episodes clocking in at a little under an hour, most of Night Sky’s heavy lifting can be attributed to Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons who are both fantastic in their respective roles. There are some genuinely show-stopping moments, including one particular heartfelt moment late on with Franklin in tears. The point is, these characters are deep and they’re well written throughout the show, with depth and tinges of poignancy to show for it. Their chemistry is what ultimately keeps this slow burn ticking by. The story revolves around this couple, who happen to be living their lives, trying to weather the storm of old age and all the crippling frailty and inevitable senility that comes with it. However, they both have a secret. Under their shed happens to be a doorway holding a teleport pad that leads them up to a strange alien landscape. Irene (Sissy Spacek) is convinced that there’s a deeper meaning here while Franklin (J.K. Simmons) sees it as nothing more than an interesting little sideshow to a wasteland of nothingness. As the pair navigate their feelings toward this – and each other – their world is turned upside down when a stranger shows up in the observatory deck, clutching his stomach and in pain. As secrets begin to tumble out, Frank and Irene find their lives changed forever. as they try to make sense of what’s happening. Running parallel to this story is a road-trip featuring Stella and Toni, who go off in search of the truth themselves. They’re also joined by a stranger, who we don’t actually find out the name of until near the end of the final episode. Unless I missed something while watching of course. It’s Cornelius, by the way. This story ultimately amounts to about 10 minutes of crossover with Franklin and Irene in the finale but mostly stays separate to their narrative, making one wonder what the point of it all was. For those who remember Heroes Season 2, this is akin to the Maya and Dani storyline that went absolutely nowhere. While that show had the benefit of the writer’s strike to chalk off the creative decisions, Night Sky dos not. Honestly I cannot emphasize how much it pains me to write a negative review for this show. There are parts of this that I absolutely adore. The two leads are incredible, the ideas are interesting and there’s definitely scope for a deep lore to be explored if this is renewed. But this is soured by a host of uninteresting side characters, pointless tangents and side quests that go nowhere and a frustrating cliffhanger that fails to reward any of the patience one may have had leading up to this moment.
