NIGHT SKY, PRIME VIDEO

IT’S rare for a science fiction story to be centred around older characters, so this eight-parter starring Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons (pictured) is refreshing. The two Oscar-winners (her for Coal Miner’s Daughter, him for Whiplash) play Franklin and Irene York, an apparently unremarkable, small-town Illinois couple, who have been keeping an astonishing secret — they happen to have discovered a portal to an alien world in their back garden. This magical chamber has become an everyday part of Frank and

Irene’s lives — taking a moment to go and ‘see the stars’ of the beautiful, desolate planet increasingly helps Irene to take her mind off her fading health — but the true meaning of this puzzling phenomenon is as much a mystery to the couple as it is to the viewer. Until, that is, an enigmatic young man, Jude (Chai Hanson), arrives on the scene, and the Yorks find their peaceful existence thrown into turmoil. Their ensuing journey is enjoyable for its gentle mystery and, chiefly, the warm relationship at its heart.