We are certainly living in a new golden age of television – and even a golden age of character-driven dramas tinged with sci-fi elements. Prime Video has started to dip their toe into these proverbial waters with shows like the brilliant “Outer Range” and now their latest series, “Night Sky.” The show follows Franklin and Irene York, played by the incomparable J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek, a couple who years ago discovered a chamber buried in their backyard which inexplicably leads to a strange, seemingly deserted planet.
Writer/Creator Holden Miller and Writer/Executive Producer Daniel C. Connolly visit the Bingeworthy Podcast to discuss the series, which started as a passion project for Holden Miller.
“I wrote the pilot script about five and a half years ago now, and it was something I was writing in my space-time and on weekends and what have you, because I just felt like I needed to get it out.” Miller said of the initial idea of Night Sky. “At the time I was writing it, I was really spending a lot of time with my grandparents. I think that where a lot of the idea started – they were in their eighties at that point and passing sixty years of marriage. The seeds of the story came from observing their experience with aging and their relationship and that’s really what made me want to tell this story…The central idea of following this relationship and watching these people as they grapple with the bigger questions of life like ‘Why are we here?’ or ‘What does it all add up to?’ or ‘What does it mean to share your life with another person and how do you approach the end of life in a relationship with someone else?”
And then there’s the sci-fi element which gives the show a propulsive feeling towards the end of the first season, which, naturally, ends on a significant cliffhanger. Miller was quick to share if they have more plans for the future of the series.
“We’ve been working on the show for a long time and we’ve loved making it and love our team.” Miller said. “So, naturally, we talk about what’s to come. I don’t know whether we view it as a seasonal format in such a way, but we certainly have a lot more ‘Night Sky’ that we would love to tell and we really hope we get the opportunity to do so.”
“Night Sky” Season 1 is streaming now in its entirety on Prime Video. You can listen to the full conversation below:
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