Here's Why the Town in Amazon's New Show 'Night Sky' Looks So Familar
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Night Sky, the sci-fi drama series that debuted in May on Prime Video, draws us in with a mysterious portal located, inexplicably, in the backyard of Irene (Sissy Spacek) and Franklin York (J.K. Simmons) in rural Illinois. While the show asks us to wrap our heads around the unfathomable (think Outer Range, but with teleportation instead of time travel), it’s the onscreen chemistry between Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Badlands) and Simmons (Juno, Whiplash) that keeps us watching.
Spacek drew on her 50-year relationship with husband Jack Fisk for the role, which explains why, as Irene and Franklin’s decades-long love story unfolds, it is with a realism that we can 100% relate to.
“I recognized in Irene that when you've been married that long, sometimes you want to bop them on the head,” Spacek told Esquire about her character. “That's just part of the long-term relationship. You go through so many things that it just deepens and deepens and deepens.”
As the backdrop to Frank and Irene's life, the fictional town of Farnsworth, Illinois, becomes an essential character in Night Sky too. From the couple’s sleepy, shingled farmhouse to the sweeping countryside to the picturesque town square, a sense of place grounds this far-out tale. So, we wondered, where in small town U.S.A. was this sci-fi series actually filmed?
Where Was Night Sky Filmed?
Although Farnsworth is not a real place, the series was indeed filmed in the state of Illinois. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that filming for Night Sky took place in Woodstock, Frankfort, Wauconda, and Island Lake, in addition to Cinespace Film Studios in Chicago.
Scenes shot in Woodstock might feel particularly familiar—the town was also the filming location for Groundhog Day, the 1993 cult classic starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.
We get a clear view of historic Woodstock Square in Episode 1 of Night Sky at about 19 minutes and 30 seconds in, when Franklin drives Irene into town for a doctor’s appointment. The iconic Woodstock Opera House, which opened in 1890, gets a cameo in that shot, as does local bookshop Read Between the Lynes (the punny moniker is a nod to its owner's last name). Perhaps we need to add Woodstock to our bucket list of small towns to visit!
So, now that you know where Night Sky was filmed, the next big question is, will there be a Season 2? There's been no word yet, but Season 1 certainly left us with enough cliffhangers, like what happened to Bryon? And, why didn't the mice survive? Prime Video, if you're listening, we need answers.
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