Amazon Prime Video’s Night Sky is mystery-box sci-fi at breakneck speed

polygon.com:

Are we in a golden age of post-Lost puzzle-box shows? Spoiler alert: No, certainly not, and the proof is Lost still being the standard reference point for elaborate, weird-fiction soap operas nearly two decades after its debut. But we’re closer than ever to a puzzle-box bubble, with multiple sci-fi soap operas appearing ready to survive outside the first-season incubator.

On Showtime, the dull girls are being literally ripped to shreds following a spooky plane crash in Yellowjackets. NBC’s goofy time-travel adventureLa Brea became an instant ratings hit not long after Manifest, its prior goofy time-travel adventure, was canceled only to be resurrected by Netflix following a rabid fan response. Factor in Prime Video’s metaphysical cowboy drama, Outer Range, and it’s hard not to conclude that temporal maws are sooo hot right now. Coming just on the heels of Outer Range — arguably too close for comfort — is Prime Video’s Night Sky, which is more charming and versatile than its peers, but is ever threatening to topple over thanks to its chaotic pacing and strenuous world-building.

Co-headliners Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons star as Irene and Franklin York, a lovely couple living out their twilight years in fictional small-town Indiana. The Yorks have built an effortless intimacy, which at first suggests they’re merely reaping the benefits of over a half-century of partnership. Frank still tinkers with carpentry projects after a woodworking career as long as his marriage, but his biggest responsibility now is Irene, whose declining health may soon extend past Frank’s capacity as a caretaker. But as it turns out, their close bond is based just as much on a clandestine ritual as their love for each other.

In the Yorks’