''Night Sky'' (formerly known as ''Lightyears'') is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...

series created by Holden Miller for

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

and

Legendary Television Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC (doing business as Legendary Entertainment or simply Legendary) is an American film production and mass media company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull in 2000. The company has collaborated ...

. It stars

Sissy Spacek Mary Elizabeth Spacek (; born December 25, 1949) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for four Britis ...

and

J. K. Simmons Jonathan Kimble Simmons (born January 9, 1955) is an American actor, considered one of the most prolific and well-established character actors of his generation. He has appeared in over 200 films and television roles since his debut in 1986. He i ...

as a couple who possess a chamber leading to another planet. Chai Hansen, Adam Bartley,

Julieta Zylberberg Julieta Zylberberg (born March 4, 1983) is an Argentine actress. Career Julieta Zylberberg began her career in the children's television program ''Magazine For Fai'', hosted by Mex Urtizberea. In that year she was also in the first chapter of ...

, Rocío Hernández, Kiah McKirnan, Beth Lacke, Stephen Louis Grush, and Cass Buggé co-star. The series was shot in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and

Jujuy Province Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south. Geography There are three main areas in Jujuy: ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. ''Night Sky'' was released on May 20, 2022, on Amazon Prime Video. In July 2022, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise

Married couple Franklin and Irene York discover a portal in their backyard that leads to a deserted planet.

Cast

as Irene York, a retired English teacher in Farnsworth, Illinois, who is Franklin's wife and Denise's paternal grandmother *

as Franklin York, a former woodworker, who is Irene's husband of over 50 years and Denise's paternal grandfather * Chai Hansen as Jude, an enigmatic young man who appears suddenly by the portal and becomes a "caretaker" for the Yorks. It is revealed that he has escaped from the Cult of Caerul. * Adam Bartley as Byron, the Yorks' new nosy and socially awkward neighbor *

as Stella, a mother in Argentina on a secretive mission to find an elusive man. She is a member of the Cult of Caerul. * Rocío Hernández as Toni, Stella's isolated and impulsive daughter *

Piotr Adamczyk Piotr Aleksander Adamczyk (; born March 21, 1972) is a Polish film, television, voice and theatre actor. He is known for portraying pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin in the biographical film ''Chopin: Desire for love'' (2002), Pope John Pau ...

as Cornelius, the mysterious man in charge of sending Stella and Nick on missions in Night Sky. He is a high-ranking member of the Cult of Caerul. * Kiah McKirnan as Denise, an MBA student, who is the Yorks' granddaughter * Beth Lacke as Chandra, a former student of Irene, who works as a caretaker despite her kleptomania *

Sonya Walger Sonya Walger (born 6 June 1974) is a British actress who also holds American citizenship. She had starring roles in the short-lived sitcoms ''The Mind of the Married Man'' (2001–2002) and ''Coupling'' (2003) before landing her role as Penny W ...

as Hannah, a former member of the cult who now heads the Fallen World, an organization fighting it * Stephen Louis Grush as Nick, a pugnacious member of the Cult of Caerul who at first aids Stella in her mission * Angus O'Brien as Michael, the Yorks' deceased son and Denise's father, who killed himself when Denise was five years old. * Cass Buggé as Jeanine, Byron's wife

Episodes

Production

''Night Sky'' is an American co-production between

and

, created by Holden Miller and Daniel C. Connolly. The project was given a series order on October 21, 2020.

and

Ed O'Neill Edward Leonard O'Neill (born April 12, 1946) is an American actor and comedian. His roles include Al Bundy on the Fox Network sitcom '' Married... with Children'', for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes, and Jay Pritchett on the a ...

joined the cast in March 2021. O'Neill left the show the following month and was replaced by

. Chai Hansen, Adam Bartley,

, Rocío Hernández, and Kiah McKirnan were added to the cast as series regulars in May 2021. Principal photography began in June 2021 in the state of

. Notable filming locations include the city of

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

Cinespace Film Studios Cinespace Film Studios is a series of film studio facilities founded in 1988, by Greek-Canadian Nick Mirkopoulos. It includes a facility in Vaughan, that has been in operation since the 1960s. In 2007 Mirkopoulos helped his Greek-American nepheA ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and the villages of Frankfort, Wauconda, and Island Lake. In August 2021, it was reported Beth Lacke, Stephen Louis Grush, and Cass Buggé would star in recurring roles. Filming was scheduled to conclude in October 2021. On July 5, 2022, Amazon Prime Video canceled the series after one season. Preproduction on a prospective second season was set to begin in September 2022.

Release

The series was released on May 20, 2022, on Amazon Prime Video.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an 73% approval rating with an average rating of 6.4/10, based on 45 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Night Sky'' reaches for the stars when it really should have settled on a feature length finish, but the combined supernova of J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek shines bright."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 66 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* *
Official pilot screenplay
{{Amazon Video original series English-language television shows 2020s American drama television series 2020s American science fiction television series 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings Amazon Prime Video original programming Television shows filmed in Illinois Television series by Amazon Studios Television series by Legendary Television