Prime Video’s Most Underrated Sci-Fi Show Has a Time Travel Twist

Prime Video isn’t necessarily known for its original science fiction television shows just yet, but in the last few years, the streamer has made a concerted effort to rectify that. The Expanse is available on Prime Video and is the most well-known of the genre, having a much-celebrated run of six seasons,but it originally aired on SyFy; Battlestar Galactica was also picked up by the streamer with great success. However, more recent noteworthy in-house efforts like Outer Range, starring Josh Brolin and Imogene Poots, and Philip K. Dick‘s anthology series, Electric Dreams, have shown that Prime Video is getting more serious about developing their own smart and mind-bending sci-fi originals.

Arguably the best sci-fi show they have produced to date, though, is an underrated gem featuring two of the most decorated and accomplished actors of the last 50 years. Night Sky stars J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek; the Holden Miller-created show debuted in 2022 and delivers eight episodes of science-fiction goodness, including fan-favorite elements like teleportation and time travel. The exceptional chemistry between the talented leads and the compelling premise make Night Sky Prime Video’s most underrated science fiction original.

What Is ‘Night Sky’ About?

Franklin and Irene York (J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek, respectively) spend their golden years together on their farm just outside the small Illinois hamlet of Farnsworth. Their existence appears sleepy and uneventful, but they hide a secret that will eventually turn their quiet little corner of the world into a dangerous place sought out by teleporters and time travelers with malevolent intentions. In the pilot episode, when Irene asks Franklin if they can “go see the stars,” she isn’t talking about sitting on the porch and looking at the sky or lying down on a blanket and gazing out into the Milky Way.

Instead, we see Franklin take her by wheelchair across the yard and into a small wooden tool shed. Heading down a dark tunnel lit only by a single bulb, they eventually reach a vault door, and inside is a teleportation portal to another world. They walk into a room with a beautiful panoramic vista of an alien sun and moon across craggy extraterrestrial terrain. It’s a phenomenon that they have kept to themselves and used just as a viewing room for years, but when a mysterious man named Jude (Chai Hansen) shows up, their life is turned upside down.

Franklin and Irene’s Chemistry Is Thrown a Curveball in ‘Night Sky’

Simmons and Spacek share the effortless chemistry and charm that only two screen veterans can pull off; it’s supposed to feel like they know each other like the backs of their own hands, and it does. The perfect give-and-take between the two draws you into the slow burn in the first couple of episodes, but then the science-fiction and drama elements kick in with a bang.

Their hum-drum existence gets upended by a few different things: their nosy neighbor, Byron (Adam Bartley), Irene’s thirst for knowing what lies beyond the pane of glass beneath the shed, as well as an enigmatic stranger who appears randomly inside the chamber covered in someone else’s blood. Franklin and Irene bring the wounded man into their house and put him up in the room of their late son, Michael, who died by suicide 20 years prior. Afterwards, Irene convinces Frank that this man must’ve come from “the other side” of the glass.

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When they rifle through the man’s bag, they find all kinds of anachronistic goodies that could only have come from a time traveler, like 17th-century Spanish doubloons and a small brick of an extraterrestrial element. Once he is nursed back to health, we discover that the stranger’s name is Jude. Spacek shines as a headstrong elderly woman who finds new life in the arrival of their mercurial new house guest, while Simmons deftly plays the old and skeptical curmudgeon.

Thoroughly Developed Characters Set ‘Night Sky’ Apart From Other Sci-Fi Shows

In Episode 2, we’re introduced to a mother and daughter who are simple alpaca farmers on a sprawling Argentinian farm. Toni (Rocio Hernandez) is the precocious daughter of the doting Stella (Julieta Zylberberg). We quickly discover that they, too, have a chamber like the one beneath Franklin and Irene’s shed. Stella tells Toni that they are guardians of the time-traveling chamber, and it’s the most important job that they could have. Another mysterious and intimidating man named Cornelius (Piotr Adamczyk) shows up at their farm, giving them an important assignment that will test their resolve and loyalty to a long line of gatekeepers. Eventually, Stella, Toni, and Cornelius find their way to York’s Farnsworth farm looking for Jude, and the true meaning of the chambers and their occupants become clear.

Night Sky is a special kind of science fiction series because it takes its time. Many will call that a “slow burn” or deliberate pacing, but for this particular Prime Video show, it’s essential to peel back all the layers of the richly contoured cast of characters. There aren’t a ton of visual effects or otherworldly spacescapes to be found in Night Sky, but it’s a rare science fiction offering that delivers nuanced and rich characters with carefully-crafted backstories, along with love and loss being explored from the perspective of both parents and children. The time-travel and teleportation element will soothe your sci-fi itch, but caring for the outcome of the storylines and multi-generational character arcs makes this a worthy series. There won’t be a second season of Night Sky, so go ahead and take in the terrific eight-episode season that we did get from Prime Video.

Night Sky is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

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