I was quite critical of Hollywood’s handling of sci-fi but, who knows Sturgeon’s Law implying that 10% of the genre is at least worth everyone’s attention, I’m about to commend the movies and the movies that do it fairly.
First, I started watching Amazon Prime’s “Night Sky” to see how well Oscar winners Sissy Spacek and JK Simmons work together. I have been pleasantly rewarded with a most relevant sci-fi drama.
“Night Sky” is not an action show and it will disappoint those who love the fast-paced and elaborate visuals. It could also frustrate sci-fi fans who always need compelling elements front and center.
On the other hand, viewers can patiently watch a story unfold as long as it also offers engaging and empathetic characters that will find that writer/presenter Holden Miller had an impressive debut.
Irene and Franklin York (Spacek and Simmons) are a retired couple enjoying the sunset years at their hometown home, located in a village just outside of Chicago.
Irene said, “Let’s go stargazing tonight,” Irene said one evening, after reminiscing about the night they first met.
They don’t go out, but into their vault, where there’s a room that can teleport them to an observatory on another planet, somewhere beyond our solar system.
They looked out over the beautiful orange and purple landscape with a proper sense of surprise but not shock or amazement. This is a personal ritual that they have performed many times.
Although they briefly discussed whether they should tell anyone or try to find out what went through the door in this strange room, their deep love for each other quelled these arguments. .
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Franklin knows their secret that helps Irene survive the death of their son and an accident that affects her mobility. Spending the time they have left together is more important than anything else to him.
They don’t stay alone for long.
Their adult niece Denise (Kiah McKirnan), whom they have only seen occasionally since her father’s death, re-enters their lives. She tries to convince them to sell the house because of her grandmother’s health problems.
Franklin couldn’t give a straight answer as to why they wouldn’t allay her suspicions. Their neighbor Byron (Adam Bartley), who was trying to get to know everyone in his neighborhood when he was running for political office, has kept the same suspicion for years.
He becomes more aggressive in trying to find out what they might be hiding.
Then, one evening, Franklin finds a mysterious young man named Jude (Chai Hanson) in the cellar, unconscious and covered in blood despite not having any injuries. Initially suspicious of this stranger, the pair’s Midwestern nature prevailed and they adopted him as a lodger.
Meanwhile, a mother and daughter in Argentina embark on a trip to the United States. Their mysterious quest is somehow linked to the portal.
“Night Sky,” like other sci-fi shows, has a precursor to a concept in science fiction literature. Miller seems particularly influenced by Clifford Simakone of the best science fiction writers “Golden Age”.
The main premise is reminiscent of Simak’s classic short story “The Big Front Yard” and the novel “Way Station”. Plus, the Midwestern setting and dialogue of “Night Sky” captures the rhythm of Simak’s storytelling.
Simak is known to be the genre’s great pastoral writer, having been compared to not only Ray Bradbury but also Carl Sandburg and William Saroyan for how he translates middle-class American values into a sci-fi setting. . He developed a distinctive style of prose that reflected this overt attitude.
This approach may sound dull, even barren, but the program not only makes it work, but uses it to its advantage. Both the level of authenticity provided to the Midwestern dialect and setting as well as the intentional pacing of the individual episodes make the plot compelling.
There are long passages where we can forget we’re watching a sci-fi show, but rest assured, it’s essential to this particular story that we have them.
Another similarity to Simak is the way “Night Sky” approaches its sci-fi elements: instead of squeezing them into the story or using them to advance the plot, they are revealed to them. We gradually go through the characters themselves. How they affect them is ultimately more important than the ideas themselves.
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Simak is famous for his brilliant characters, his main characters are small town people who although ethnic people are also very smart and resourceful. Irene and Franklin will be right at home in one of his stories.
Of course, it’s easier to believe such characters with Spacek and Simmons, both perfectly cast. Spacek continues her nearly 50-year non-stop journey as the hottest actress and one of our biggest risk-takers.
She first startled us with her gift of finding dark and eccentric currents beneath a normal surface with her 1976 work “Carrie”.
With each successive performance there are new nuances to explore and new ways to make us fall in love with the women she plays.
Simmons, meanwhile, excels at any actor since Lee Marvin at portraying humanity beneath his gruff exterior.
Powerful performers of their own, they are ideally cast as a couple who hide an extraordinary secret in the way they alleviate physical and emotional pain – through their love for each other. for each other. Their downside is that despite their kind and trustworthy nature, they can’t love anyone else, not even their grandchildren, for fear of their secrets being tampered with.
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“Night Sky” received mostly mixed reviews, with most critics complaining about the pacing of both each episode and the story as a whole. The pacing is the whole point, though, and the story moves faster than another Amazon Prime sci-fi series, “Tales From the Loop.”
Others have blamed the supporting cast, and while I agree to some extent it’s hard to act against both Spacek and Simmons. It must have been a terrifying experience, even if no actors were in the same frame as you.
I’m less receptive to complaints that sci-fi elements are kept in the background or that there aren’t enough of them. Those making these arguments seem to be forgetting that when a TV show is layered on too many fictional devices, it runs the risk of becoming confusing and confusing.
For example, I would have preferred “Fringe” if it had kept its plot about parallel universes intact instead of piling up all this new sci-fi element to the new sci-fi element until it become too silly to care.
Hopefully Miller and his associates will avoid stumbling into such traps as their show enters its next season.
Science fiction readers have longed to see not only proper adaptations of their favorite stories, but original works that approach the best of written language with the ability to touch. to hearts and minds alike.
The “night sky” is proof that good things come to those who wait.
AA Kidd is a professional university lecturer in Canada who is a proud volunteer for the Windsor International Film Festival. He appreciates classic movies, gritty sci-fi and bad wordplay.
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