Review of "Night Sky" an aging drama disguised as science fiction
A tiresome series in which it is very difficult to wait for interesting events.
An elderly couple lead a quiet and seemingly unremarkable life. Irene (Sissy Spacek) taught English at school, Franklin (J.K. Simmons) worked as a carpenter. Both are retired. Somewhere in Chicago lives a granddaughter, but she visits her grandparents rarely. The old folks have a secret they've been hiding for decades. Under their barn is a portal that allows them to travel to another planet. In the evenings, the couple like to look up at the starry sky from the safe room as from the observation deck. They have never set foot on alien ground. One day Irene discovers a young man (Chai Hansen) in the room. He appears to be an alien.
The showrunner is Daniel S. Connolly ("Longmire" and "In the Desert of Death"), the script is by debutant Holden Miller, and "Night Sky" has an impressive cast of directors. Most of the directors are from independent cinema. Argentina's Juan Jose Campanella won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for the thriller Mystery in His Eyes. Sara Colangelo has twice appeared at the Sundance Film Festival with the dramas "The Caretaker" and "How Much Is Life Worth?" And Victoria Mahoney competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale with "A Cry to Heaven." But despite the impressive cohort of filmmakers involved, it's not even the intriguing plot that makes "Night Sky" draw attention in the first place, but a couple of the actors on the poster. The duo of Simmons and Spacek is impossible to miss.
Now we have to get to the sad news. "Night Sky" only pretends to be sci-fi, hooking viewers with possible encounters with aliens or even time and space travel. After all, we so wanted to see Spacek and Simmons conquer other worlds. Like Rick and Morty, for example. Dreams of Dreams.
Instead of exciting journeys into the unknown, the series progresses exceptionally leisurely. A hidden room with a gorgeous cosmic landscape is introduced in the first episode. But who built it, when, and for what purpose? Even though Irene and Franklin go there purely for tourist purposes, the elderly woman is sure that everything is for a reason. Their secret must be important, because for some reason it was the retired couple who found the portal to the other planet. Franklin is afraid to cross his wife on anything. Especially since a year earlier Irene had fallen and now finds it difficult to move on her own. More often than not, her husband drives her around in a wheelchair.
One would expect the mystery of the room to be solved quickly, but no. The filmmakers keep this trump card somewhere deep up their sleeve, forcing viewers to watch the elderly couple's unhurried life: trips to the supermarket, slow dialogues in the car, and even a visit to the nursing home where a longtime friend lives. Franklin touchingly cares for his spouse, to whom the mystery of the room gives her vitality.
To keep the fantasy twists and turns so close, the authors suggest looking at Franklin and Irene's neighbors. The bearded and overweight Byron (Adam Bartley) tries to run for the city council. When that doesn't work out, the man pounces on Franklin as a friend - the seasoned family man can share a few helpful tips. Characters multiply, but it's almost impossible to understand their function in the story. Nor do they work to create the entourage of a rural and tranquil one-story America about to be swallowed up by evil. This is not "Very Stranger Things."
The pace of "Night Sky" is so leisurely, as if the showrunner and screenwriters have confidence that there are three more seasons, if not more, to come. It's a pretty risky move for streaming in general. M. Night Shyamalan stated right off the bat that there would be five seasons of "A House with a Servant," and so he confidently piles on the damn thing without worrying about the consequences. In "Night Sky," each hour-long episode devotes half of its running time to nostalgia for youth and memories of tragic moments from the past - not for nothing does Irene see a son in a possible alien from another planet.
Surprisingly, if we forget about the promised mystery from outer space altogether, the series is less annoying. Why would a PR campaign only deceive the audience? Minus the other universe, it turns out to be a classic American independent drama about aging, love, caring, and the sorrows of a past that, of course, can no longer be fixed. We have to look hopefully into the barn, in case there is a portal to the other world, since things don't turn out so smoothly in this one.
This article was sponsored by Aleh Paryzh
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