Im sorry that you dont watched all the episodes, maybe you would liked some of them. Season 3 also quite unique or season 4 with satire and dark humor, you should check them out. :)
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I always explain Lexx like this: "Imagine the people who made Farscape had only half the budget - and half of that was used for some really good drugs."
The visual style (aka: budget shortfalls) is what I would call bizarre. Or maybe surreal. But I honestly always thought it was part of the charm of the show. 🤷♂️
When I watched this show originally, it was on Sy-Fy (then Sci-Fi) and they ended each commercial with, "want some strange? Have some Lexx." I think a lot of its overall bizarreness is the fact that it was a collaboration between Canada and Germany mixed with a little British funding to boot. It's the extreme bizarreness and the horribly shoe-string effects that, to me, made it endearing. Yeah, it's freakishly strange, but that's what I liked about it.
Yeah man. As a fan of Heavy Metal magazine this show was the only sci-fi to ever hit the airwaves that went for an absurdly weird universe with plenty of sex thrown in for fun.
Regarding the point of sex. Lexx is the sci fi that went off in a different direction, it was exploring biology, mortality and evolution and less physics, politics and morality
I remember how relatively chaste and sex-less other sci-fi shows of that era were. Whether it was for world building, thematic elements, or just trying to attract viewers, I'm glad at least one show was trying to incorporate those elements.
Yeah, and I thought it was less about sex than about beauty. First episode women are derided and even considered criminal for being ugly, but men who KNOW they will never have sex with a beautiful woman immediately die for her because “beauty such as yours must live on.”
But season 3 has a really good antagonist, and location. And the absurd universe and realistic nihilism that in the worst dystopia there will always he sex, horny people and search for meaning (and stan is a realistic survivors having learned to survive by not being heroic, he still cares and does fight against that sometimes. , he grew up in an absolute dictatorship, cut him some slack) Thats why its probably not only having theatric improvised possily coioperation with a porn studio, but fulfills to show, yeah nothing matters , but still friendships still exist, and hoeniness to get us through that depressing times. Its really going with the philosophy of enoying life regardless o the bleak universe, and sex if a bit trashy, and maybe overplayed, is a good way to show even there there is life and feelings and wants. Be it getting laid.
@@marocat4749 I liked the first 2 seasons, but even I have to admit season 3 was bad. Enough story for maybe 4 episodes stretched to 13, lots of shots of xev just walking, no dialogue. I remember shouting at the TV for something interesting to happen.
I wrote part of my dissertation on Lexx (yep), and this is some of what I argued. I agree that the direction is not great and the sex is annoying, but here's a thematic reason for its being there: Lexx is about life and death, specifically from an eco-centric standpoint that focuses on food webs. The constant references to sex and mixing of imagery of food and sex (ex. Lyekka) is its representation of life energy, while Kai is its main representation of death, and Mantrid is in an odd zone of being an epic destroyer but convinced he is "alive," despite having died as a human. Lexx is also about a cosmic cycle of time in which the which Lexx itself occupies a period of degeneration that will culminate in the end of the multiverse and its beginning again. In this era, everything is degenerate; this is why everything looks and feels so ugly and trivial, including the sex stuff. Kai comes from a slightly earlier (less degenerate era, about 2000 years prior to the start the show), which explain why he and his people seem somewhat less degenerate. It is often ugly and annoying to look at, but it's also philosophically challenging, and very, very different from the dominant cultural assumptions (ex. anthropocentric, progressive) of virtually all other TV science fiction I know of.
I thought it bears a lot of similarities with the Grimdarkness of warhammer 40k. A future without hope, where progress and enlightenment have died out. Petty vices and selfish wants dominate and anyone who aspires to be better usually dies quickly. Lexx is the mirror opposite of Star Trek.
Lexx was the best take on us as people outside of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Along with being a perfect love letter to the media we did grow up watching from the wizards of oz to Soylent Green.
I think Lexx is an "acquired" taste like finding a used porno mag with a Star Trek parody lying in a ditch behind the train station. You know you shouldn't take it home, and yet it ends up on your shelf anyway.
Early Who was done on the truly cheap. The cheesy special effects are part of the charm! Some of the sock-puppet monsters in the Pertwee episodes are great cheese! Like instant macaroni and cheese! Ya know it's awful, but you enjoy it anyway!
I watched this series a long time ago. Yes it's weird and stupid but I found it oddly hilarious. The Fire & Water seasons was easily the best while the last seasons was basically "this is the last season so let's go fucking nuts (even more so than usual)".
I LOVE this show. It's just perfect demented sci-fi. You rarely see it anymore, but back in the day you'd see it here and there with shows like this, comic/magazines like Heavy Metal Magazine, Tripping The Rift and a few others. Just shit that was cool and awesome but also a total mindfuck at the same time.
I enjoyed the show, embraced it for its oddness. I know I am not the first to observe this, but I appreciate how the group, despite the idea being we are following Stanley, is actually The Wizard of Oz. Xev is Dorothy, Kai is the Tin Man, Stanly is the cowardly Lion and Robot Head is the Scarecrow.
This is one of those shows that you don't watch because you like it, or because it's entertaining,... you watch it out of sheer bewilderment that something like this exists. It's the uncanny valley between a soft porn parody and terribly executed genuine sci-fi.
I enjoy Lexx as a guilty pleasure, so I know I come across as an apologist; it's low budget so I forgive a lot. As a young Canadian, I liked that the network took a risk on something so weird and the sex aspect made it feel a bit taboo, since it had to be on late at night. So you're right that a lot of the humor was generally very dark and raunchy. First, I think that most of the sex aspect comes from the German influence. Canadians are generally as squeamish about sex as Americans and Germans generally more open about it, at least in terms of what's censored on TV and when they're broadcast. Second, while I agree that their stories could be a bit sexist at times, I think they still got away with bringing up a lot of topics that were not widely accepted in the 90s, without being explicitly pornographic. Things like homosexuality, transgender, BDSM, etc. So in terms of their influences, I think half of it was just trying to see what they could get past the censor and half trying to mimic the completely batshit pulp scifi adventure magazines they read as teens mixed with a love of the more recent biomechanical surrealism of H.R. Giger and Alien. Third, I think that if the series creators were trying to say anything about sex, it was that our sex drive is a natural part of human biology but it can, unfortunately, lead to one making bad or unusual choices that a purely sexless person (that is, Kai), would never make. We can agree that the extent characters concern themselves with sex even during stressful situations is exaggerated, but it's part of their characters intentionally. Stanley is a selfish, spineless coward so it's only natural that he's also a horny sleazeball trying to awkwardly seduce / coerce a woman (who is also designed to be super-attractive). He seeks out pleasure as a way of relieving stress (and they are in a stressful situation). Stan is just a guy, a widely hated (perhaps unfairly) loser, who has to learn how to be a hero or die. Zev was being forced into sexual slavery and was forced into having a hyperactive sex drive that also has the negative side-effect of influencing her decision-making. Even as a self-motivated female character, she still has to fight with her libido, a part of her biology that was maliciously tweaked, so she can make rational choices. Kai represents a joyless, sexless existence; he'd rather sleep silently than entertain Zev. I think we are meant to laugh at their sexual frustration, though. They are various shades of anti-heroes; they deserve to suffer a little bit. Stan wants Zev, but is painfully, transparently sleazy. Zev wants Kai, but mainly because her biology demands it, but she's too grossed out by Stan. 790 wants Zev but is endlessly frustrated because he has no body. Kai wants nothing at all. Fourth, from a slightly more meta point of view, the entire series is about reproduction. Besides the obsession with human sexuality, the crew oppose a parasitic insectoid civ that has been slowly dying and attempting to renew itself via the consumption of life, the crew live on a huge insect that requires mass murder to survive, and of course the Von Neumann machines that are 1000% about endless replication. Also, the crew, in their own way, want to solve the problem of their own mortality and continuation. Stan wants to be known as a good person and loving partner (at least, he thinks of himself that way). Zev wants to find a way to have a normal life with a partner, without the constant need to seek sex. 790... well he's a single-minded robot that only wants one thing and it's disgusting lol. Kai struggles with being motivated to do anything at all; anything he does is for a good reason. Sorry this is so long, but thanks for reading it if you read it.
"Joyless, sexless existance" Ive not seen the show, so maybe im wrong, but this sounds super acephobic to me. Not being sexual does not make your existence joyless.
I am not sure about the German influence. Some directors and producers were German, because the show was mostly shot in Germany, but the writers were not. The show was produced for a Canadian and American audience. It did air on German television, but because of the low interest, it aired late at night in free tv and was cancelled after season 2. years after the show ended, finally a pay tv channel aired season 3, while season 4 was never released in Germany. So, even though there was German talent involved, I don’t think the sexual content, story and characters can be traced back to the German background as the main influence. And there was no German drama show with such a sexual content on German television at that time.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 Kai is dead. He has been resurrected as an unstoppable terminator like assassin. Although he remembers much of his life, he doesn't have emotions or desires, needs or wants. So for him it really is a joyless, sexless existence.
#1 Criticism of your critique of the show. In my opinion, what you point out as flaws, I point out as "They meant to do that". I always felt the visual effects is what made LEXX a great show. It's the "Eating Raoul" of Sci-Fi. In closing, it is not a FLAW, it is an ASSET.
Lexx is my favorite show. Every season is different and we follow an amazing main cast of misfits through zany adventures all while they just want to find a home. So charming and campy. I wish more people find it
You like Lexx better than Firefly? I'd say Lexx is my favorite low budget sci-fi show, though I don't know how many of those type of shows exist. But really I think at least 60% of it is trash. I like Season 1, except Eating Pattern, which is terrible and serves no purpose in the story arc of Season 1. And I really like Season 2 and think this season is the best of the show, except for White Trash, which is a terrible episode. But I didn't like how they had the Mantrid arms destroying planets as I just couldn't buy those things destroying a planet in 5 seconds. And I didn't like how the battle thing with Mantrid at the end. I would have preferred it have had a more sophisticated ending instead of mindless bad CGI arms. And Season 3 is pretty bad. They wrote one episode, and then decided to stretch if for 13 hours. And you can tell the budget was reduced as you got lots of bad green screen and the effects were pretty bad and I think the acting was worse. And then I've always hated Season 4. I didn't like Lexx going to Earth, and then they took a bizzare sci-fi show and turned it into a farce. I would have preferred a Lexx where the entire show was more like Season 2, except that it went a little further into the direction of Farscape as being a little more serious.
Did you watch "Lafftrak"? Because that pretty much explains all you need to know. The main characters wander through a parade of robots acting out television cliches and bumble and bungle all of them. Xenia Seeberg has a raunchy musical number with a bunch of shirtless hunks but it ends in tears due to genuine pathos about her awful life. Lexx does whatever it wants and goes wherever it wants, convention be damned. Lexx is the anti-Star Trek. Xev is McCoy, she's warm and full of passion...because she wants to nail everything that isn't nailed down. Kai is Spock, logical and rational...because he's a walking corpse that has no passion for anything. And Stan is the hapless, horny captain who has to choose between them and always chooses whatever's easiest and most convenient for himself. They wander the universe for purely selfish, hedonistic reasons and always take the cowardly, morally deficient way out of trouble. It's a morality play that always ends with the characters choosing vice. It wears its sleaze on its sleeve. It mixes schlock with operatic fatalism about death and the end of all things. "We've going to die, so we might as well get some sex before the end." There's quite literally nothing else like it. At least, until it becomes a completely different show when season three starts.
Aren't they stuck between two planets that are some sort of afterlife ruled by by a man named Prince (who I can only assume is supposed to be the devil)? Planets that we find out happen to orbit on the opposite side of the sun from modern day earth in the last season. It's been quite a while since I've seen it I'm just wondering if I remember it correctly.
It's a low-budget science fantasy live-action pulp comicbook soft-core-porno fever-dream comedy space opera. You have to at least give it this: There's nothing else like it.
@@opalaa5874 Yes, a commentary by someone with insufficient intelligence to understand the point, and hooked up on the low quality effects, its weirdness is the point, it makes a a refreshing change from the the big budget shows which wow you with stunning effects, then degrade into a cowboy shoot out.
I concur, this hurt to watch. He only watches the episodes Google said were important!? Muppet. Of course he's confused and doesn't know what's going on half the time
I was fascinated by Lexx when I first encountered it in the mid-late 90s. Its unique style was perfect to stop you in your tracks when channel hopping late at night. Can't say I ever really followed what was going on, but it was fun to watch at the time. I've tried to rewatch since and it just doesn't engage me in the same way, so I can totally understand why you're not impressed. I think it was very of its time, both in conception and execution, and in appealing to a teen/20-something audience who at the time didn't have many other options and just wanted something to watch while drunk/stoned. Lexx is both absurd and epic, it's like it was made for that purpose... It doesn't really translate well to the modern environment where choices are less limited, nor to an older and more experienced viewer with, dare I say, a more refined taste of what constitutes good television than we had back then. There'll always be people who love it but I think they're mostly watching it through nostalgia specs.
I'm addressing 2 things. First, ones imagination plays an important part of The Lexx. Who cares about computer images being not perfect. Those that love the show do not need everything shown to us. We just need the story. Second, The issue of SEX. The more you fantasize and want sex, the reality is you will probably not get it. I bought the DVD set when it came out. NOW! Every time it's hurricane season here in Florida, out comes the generator and the viewing of THE LEXX. YO WAY YO
@@davidconner-shover51 Still one of my favorites. I have the DVD. and have watched this over a dozen times. Some of the sketches make you think of our future. If you can dream it there is a possibility it will come true.
Ok, have just finished season two in its entirety and have launched into season 3. Gotta say, it is an acquired taste and I have acquired it. I'm only three episodes into season 3 and already really like it. This is a very odd show, even stranger than Farscape. But as you say, underneath the odd surface of Farscape, it is a conventional science fiction adventure series in many ways. Lexx most definitely is not. And it is a show that either you will vibe with or won't. It took me multiple tries and years to develop a taste but I did.
I was kind of with you about how annoying Tweedle and Mantrid were... then the video was interrupted by a Jamie Oliver advert. By comparison, Tweedle is very likeable ;)
This aired in what I call sci-fi’s golden era, actually helping to kick it off. Used to watch this with Farscape and Stargate with good Trek shows running parallel. Loved the cast and being a teen at the time liked the more sexual themes it presented. Some of the premises put forth while not well fleshed out was still highly entertaining and thought provoking. Mantrid is still one of my all time favorite baddies. “I concede the game to you” awesomely spoken by Dieter Laser RIP.
“What’s with all the sex? Is it comedy?” It helps to realize Lexx is a German show that just happens to be made in English. And Brigadoom might be the series best episode. It’s at least the one that really sticks with you. The only other single episode in its league is the series finale. Xenia Seeberg gets better in later seasons as she becomes more aggressive and self reliant. Part of the enjoyment of Lexx is that they are by and large fairly awful people, leaving a swath of intergalactic destruction in their wake. Nothing the Lexx crew comes in contact with survives. Which is okay, because they are all even worse. Lexx is about as far from Star Trek as you can get. And it dives into the cheesiness in a way that only 90’s genre programming could. Yeah the effects don’t hold up to Babylon V, Farscape etc. but they are on par with contemporaries Hercules and Xena, or stuff like Cleopatra 2525 or Mutant X. Other syndicated shows of the period.
it's a testimony to how weird this show is that I didn't realise at first that you'd meant to type "front to back" and I was just like "hmm, yes I guess it _would_ be pretty interesting to watch it backwards"
I love how valid your arguments are and how i agree with everything you say, but I still looove Lexx while you dont :D My reccomendation - watch season 3. It has an amazing huge idea developed in all 13 episodes and a great finale. But then you can safely skip season 4.
Blake's 7 is one of the best ever. Just imagine it with a budget! Of course, part of me laments our imaginations have atrophied to the point that effects have become more important than story.
@@ericjohnson709 no just get an animated studio not from the UK or America maybe Japan and do a reboot. I suggest Japan because they would treat it better than western studios.
The show is ABOUT sexual frustration and more specifically the kind that it’s nerdy audience experiences. That is the essential premise. Stanley Tweedle is a relatable "nice guy" given all the power in the universe and is trapped with a hyper sexual beautiful woman genetically engineered to be horny and subservient. It’s basically every single nerd’s fantasy come true, yet he still never gets any sexual gratification. It’s pure torture. It’s kind of like While E. Coyote chasing the road runner. Also season 2 sets the actual tone of the show. Season 3 is slow, but you start to see real character development and how the it is actually an ensemble cast show. Season 4 is the real payout. After suffering these characters and cheesy plots for 4 seasons, they finally come to earth and then the social commentary becomes MUCH more apparent. The end is a brilliant commentary on the state of quantum physics at the time the show was actually airing. This all said, it’s far more difficult to watch now then when it was airing. The CGI actually looked more impressive than Babylon 5 at the time, but that’s only because they tried for more complex motion animations DS9 and Babylon 5 better understood their limitations, so they age better as your eye gets more discerning. Kind of like how Toy Story and Monsters inc don’t really hold up now aesthetically, but Jurassic Park STILL does. Even though Pixar understood their limitations fairly well, with 100% CG, you are allotted 0 cheats.
Lexx is just not everyone’s cup of tea. It would not have been improved by better CGI. The second actress played Zev perfectly. More alien. The awkward sexuality was part of the corruption. It was good to see a series of clips from this masterpiece, but this review was like watching a vegetarian comment on where to get the best steaks.
I saw this show as kid in the 90s so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. The quirkyness, bad CGI, overt sexuality and bizarre concepts are what makes the show great in my opinion. It's like an Ed Wood movie, the low budget quirkyness is part of the charm.
I think you have to watch it at the right time in one's life, between 13 to 20, for it to 'work.' I have a lot of good memories watching this late at night on channel 5.
"...this culminated in one of the most bizarre images that I've ever seen in a TV show..." -- and that folks is one the best reasons to praise Lexx and not let it be forgotten. It was mind-expandingly bonkers at times -- and that is SUPER rare from any TV show, film, book, song, or other cultural artifact. More respect for Lexx please!
Series 3 loses the episodic nature and goes for a continuous story thread. so you would have to watch every episode of that series. it's centred around 2 planets. a water planet and a desert planet. i ain't spoiling anything by saying that, but the whole of series 3 takes place on those 2 planets. and yes it's still pretty weird. but if you like weird its quite enjoyable.
3:00 - "Which left me thinking, perhaps it's just sex for the sake of sex" - Pretty much, the creators explicitly stated they were going to embrace the seedy underside of humanity that loftier sci-fi tries to avoid. Not just sex, but also think of how often they had a scene in the bathroom.
Feels like you missed a lot of what made this series great to the people that loved it. Nice that you gave it a chance but you got everything backwards and it seems you failed to suspend your disbelief. They accomplished much more than anyone else could have on much less of a budget. That being said, you were not mean about your criticism and it is definitely not for everyone. I hope you come back to this one day and see all the humor and creativity that eluded you when you skimmed through the episodes. Not for a video, but for your own enjoyment and entertainment.
I highly recommend season 3. The vfx are much better (for Lexx), Nigel Bennett is a great new cast member and the attempt at a more connected, serialised story is interesting
I think Lexx is a horror series where the audience doesn't know it's horror. It's not just that everything is weird - for which I give the writers credit for creativity - but that it's confusing without being a traditional mystery. It's not making sense but that seems to be nature of the world they live in. Also, I found the low-quality special effects really worked for Lexx, because everything had a bit of an unnatural feel to it.
You really should've watched Stan's Trial. It gives all of Stanley's back story and gives him and Kai some nice development. And watch season 3, and make sure to include Girltown. The whole season is one long story, so you'd have to watch the whole thing to get what's going on.
If he didn't like season 2, then no way he'd watch season 3. As it's really boring and repetitive and the budget dropped making everything look worse with bad green screen and worse CGI. I just got done rewatching the first 3 seasons, and season 3 felt like it was 30 episodes long.
Oh...I thought B-grade Sexploitation was what they were going for, and I thought they pretty much nailed it. (Don't you wish I intended that as a pun?) You're right to hate Stanley Tweedle, he's not exactly Arthur Dent. Arthur is a nice man, but incredibly boring. Stanley has maybe one or two carefully hidden saving graces, but he isn't remotely likable. I love LEXX, also Blake's 7, early Dr. Who and Thunderbirds. Hang on...LEXX had a PLOT?!? WHY WASN'T I TOLD!?!
The way I explain the writing, performances, CGI, sets, etc. is that it’s meant to be campy like Xena, Hercules, and 1960s Batman. It’s meant to be silly… just with more sex appeal for teenagers and adults. As for the repetitiveness of The Web and The Net, it’s a typical “submarine episode” to save the budget for other stuff. Plenty of other shows for this from time to time in various seasons with lots of scene reshoots or flashbacks. TNG did it with the time loop episode in which Data finally breaks the loop by realizing Riker’s plan will work because the 3s constantly popping up around the ship signifies the Riker’s 3 rank pips. SG-1 did it repeatedly over the years like the episode in which the USAF reveals the Stargate program to other nations’ ambassadors with high level clearance. Farscape did it with the episode in which the spirits of Crichton and Crais are trapped in another realm by an alien who feeds off their hate for each other. The list goes on.
its really just a show about two people desperate to have sex, a detached robot head also desperate to have sex and a dead guy. its a parody of sci fi's seriousness. Potatohoe is a perfect example of that, its a planet of humans who farm potatos and talk about the crops all the time. they manage to invent space travel and find the lexx. they walk on the bridge with their space suit and breather unit holding up a dialogue sign. stan is completely obviously to why they would have all on that stuff. its a joke on first contract, and instead of humans getting killed by some alien monster. its the visitors getting killed by a plant.
Watch the entire season. Honestly season 2 story was the best one. And to mention your complaint about all the sex talk... The sex has to do with Zev, a horny female from genetic modification who just can't catch a break. It's supposed to be awkward. Stan always getting denied or crazy looking women, and Zev getting nothing because guys get all mushy and in love when they see her. It pretty much makes fun of how emo men can get for a girl who just wants a fling. The symbolism behind Zev is it the fact that if you make it to the episode where a guy is trying to turn her back into her former self, she gets completely distraught over it, symbolizing how insecure women who achieve the beauty are so afraid to lose it. Lexx is pretty much a dark comedy, and was labeled Star Trek's evil twin. The show really does have a cult following, I may seem pretty nerdy about this but I did end up spending $300 just to get the entire box set sent from different parts of the world. Honestly the entirety of season 2 made me cry in the end, RIP Lyekka.. 😭
I liked the second Xev a lot more. She was more animated and felt like she was having fun with the role. Eva Haberman seemed to be there to look pretty and aloof. Season two is the favorite for a lot of people. It focused on the B movie elements of the show. This is when it was with the Sci Fi channel, and they were emphasizing the cheesy aspects of it. Next season is where they get strange and metaphorical and European. What's your accent again? Boston, I don't get out much. Season four is the only one I would skip. Either Sci Fi channel decided to kill the show for whatever reason, one of the key production staff left, or they just ran out of material and ended it early. A few good episodes, but it mostly seemed that they were killing time.
I now see why I was not allowed to watch this show as a kid. If you are looking for another show from this time period I would recommend a show a called Earth 2. It is about a Colony ship that crash lands on a planet. It part survival story, part mystery, and a little bit of alien weirdness.
I second the choice for Earth 2. An interesting mid 90s show that explores the theme of colonial expansion. The writers often talked about how they tried to mirror the planet to the new worlds of Australia/North America and how the indigenous peoples reacted to the European colonists and vice versa. And also early Debrah Farantino, Clancy Brown, Jessica Steen!😊
I got into Earth 2 for maybe 1 or 2 seasons, but lost it due to, um, idk, high school drama. I would like to give it another try if I could find it anywhere.
Hey Rowan! I really appreciate you doing the first two seasons of Lexx! I wanted to know if you would be able to do reviews on both seasons 3&4. This was my favorite show as a teenager/young adult, and everything that you mentioned is what made it awesome for me. I felt like each season helped the characters to grow, and yes, it gets crazier😂!
Lexx is a show I watched years ago on late-night tv and I still remember it years later. The same cant be said for a great many other shows. I feel in this age that is a true rarity.
I feel Lexx is a show that massively deserves an attempt at a remake. The concepts and ambitions underneath it could make for some truly brilliant sci-fi, it just needed better writing, casting, direction and special effects. A bit like the 70s Battlestar Galactica (I know it has its fans, but my God that's hard to watch). Modern TV can deliver all of those, though I'm not sure if modern TV would be willing to let Lexx be as weird as it needs to be. If all that comes out of it is an updated, full-length version of the Brunnen-G song, I'd be more than satisfied.
I only remember Lexx because it came out at the dawn of the Scifi channel as one of the headline franchises (aside from TNG reruns). They had a special preview show thingy that highlighted how special and amazing everything was going to be, with Farscape being the obvious darling child. Someone came on, I think one of the showrunners, and said Lexx was "trying to do to science fiction what South Park had done to comedy." So basically, yes, the only theme behind it wall was to be as weird as possible and all the sex was indeed gratuitous, and it's main purpose was to exist gratuitously and thereby annoy the starched collar type. Ummm. Yeah, ok. Have fun with that. Thanks for the TNG reruns though.
Seasons 3 and 4 really come together for Lexx. But season four is the best. Seasons 3 is fun and a good set up for Seasons 4. I believe the best episode of Seasons four would be episode 18, The game. I do believe the subject of sex is a way to show the characters confusing sexual physical contact with the emotion of love, validation and family. Three things in short supply when four strangers find themselves in control of a massively powerful starship escaping interplanetary tyranny. All 4 seek out love, validation and family across the series. That’s just the way I see it.
It's disappointing that you didn't like Lexx, but this was pretty fair overall. Lexx is one of those shows where you love it, hate it, or are jusr really confused by it.
Really? I thought season 3 of Lexx was really boring taking an episode and stretching it for 13 hours. And the budget dropped making the green screen look bad and worse effects and I think the acting isn't as good as Season 2. Season 2 I think is the best season of Lexx, except White Trash is a terrible episode. And I didn't like the terrible CGI battle with Mantrid at the end. Just felt like they dumbed it down for a bad CGI fest.
Making my way into season two. I think your criticisms are fair, but I think whether the show is for you, is whether the unique nature of the show and the offbeat characters engage you. I find they are doing so with me. It is very much an acquired taste, but I seem to have acquired it.
Lexx is essentially "Lost in Space" with Boobs. In a way. I think you're being a bit critical but I appreciate your sympathy for the show. It alternates between deep ideas and utterly juvenile double entendres, and it's written and delivered 100% tongue in cheek. Lexx is its own unique thing. The mediocrity of the sfx, the constant sex, the unique plot setups, the weird world building... they're all part of the charm of Lexx. The first time I saw a family member watching it, I thought it was brain damage causing cringe drivel. I gave one random episode a chance and I was utterly hooked.
It's funny that the one thing you liked "the Broonun Ji" song, is the one thing I hate. It is repeated ad nauseam throughout the series. And Kai is my least favorite character. He is the sterotypical hero. The things you hate about the show however, are the things I love about it. The bad special effects, the gratuitous sexuality, the weirdness, and the annoyance of Stanley Tweedle. It all rolls together to be far more compelling to me than the standard sanitized versions of Sci-Fi in other shows. It's disgusting, and weird, and flawed, and that is what I like about it. The cowardice and and annoyance of Stanley makes the moments where he actually stands up and do the right thing more satisfying. I love how annoying and flawed he is. So much of SCi-Fi revolves around Hero and Villain Arche Types. Everyone knows someone sleazy and cowardly like Stanley, but we rarely see them represented in Sci-Fi, and when we do, they are the villain of the week and not a main character of the show. Most of all, I love that it is just something different. It rarely falls into the same old SCi-Fi tropes, and when it does, it has a unique spin on them, that makes them feel fresh and new. Watching Lexx is like watching B movies. It's so bad that it's good. If you enjoyed the Sharknado Movies, or Tromaville Movies, or grew up watching USA up all night, or MST3K, odds are that you will like Lexx.
vaiyo a-o: fighters of the fight a home va ya ray: for their home and their heart vaiyo a-rah, jehrume brunnen g: we fighters win or die, forever we are brunnen g
Season 3 of Lexx is a contentious one. Not as insane as season 2, but much better in terms of having a consistent and engaging plot. Season 4 however. Oh man, that one just went way off the rails and careened right through crazy town...
Lexx is a glorious medley of weirdness, both highbrow and lowbrow sci-fi at the strange time. Grimdark and hopeless yet with characters you rooted for. And as a teenage boy at the time the sexual innuendos were appealing. Lexx is the kind of show your parents did not want you watching.
I do quite enjoy Lexx for its overall plot but yeah sometimes the heavy Metal esque obsession with sex gets a little annoying. That being said i love the whole concept of his divine shadow, the brunnen-g and the insect civilization.
"Lexx (1997-2002) is a lot of things at once, and its elaborateness is one of the traits that made it unique: Filthy, goofy, satirical, unsettling, baffling, batshit crazy, sadistic, and often surprising. Its insanely weird sensibilities make it unusually cliche-free, which can be a bit disconcerting, but creates a much more unique set of experiences. Beneath it all is this incredibly disturbing existentialist emptiness that makes it totally unsatisfying as escapism, or even painful, and yet all the more profound as something bizarre to discover. The total insignificance of life in the vastness of the cosmos is thrown in your face, and the characters are brutally confronted by it on a regular basis. They careen through a universe devoid of inherent meaning, ugly and chaotic, and yet they find or create their own here and there. It's often compared to Farscape due to superficial similarities in premise, but Farscape is much more structured and familiar, and its rewards are not as bizarre and existentially disturbing as Lexx. Farscape is to Lexx as Star Trek: The Next Generation is to the Aeon Flux animated series - it's that weird. In fact, even weirder because it runs for several years. Sometimes it's grim techno-dystopia, sometimes magical sci-fantasy, sometimes misanthropic farce that's mean-spirited to the characters, and sometimes filthy comedic biopunk where everything is deliberately disgusting and the joke is on the audience. But it must be seen at least once through by any devotee of imaginative television. It is essential." www.reddit.com/.../lexx_the_darkest_and_most.../
Season 2 is like 90% filler. Its fun but you can skip alot and not miss much. The best is the season final. Such a cool idea never hit on by other scifi that i can remember. Season 3 is my favourite. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.
Yes I agree the plot driven episodes are best and much of season 2 is filler episodes. However best to watch it all, some may grab one more than others. Definitely for me the memorable stuff was Mantrid related
Season 2 is my favorite as I like how weird things happen every episode and Mandrid is my favorite LEXX villain. I wish Season 3 was more like Season 2 instead of one giant episode. And I hated Season 4.
Season 2 was intriguing, but later seasons degenerated into “Stan and Kai look for Xev; Kai and Xev look for Stan; Xev and Stan look for Kai.” With some editing, Kai’s story arc would be compelling.
I love it. I have very fond memories of watching it in 2000. It was a special year for me and always when I came back home late I watched it in the night. What a great time it was back then.
The early 2000’s were prime time for sci fi shows!!! Bro we had Sliders, Farscape, First Wave, Good vs. Evil, Voyager, Lexx, Firestarter, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis. Lexx season 2 was my favorite of them all. I love the bizarreness and the planet to planet adventures. We lose that in season 3 and 4. I wish we got to know more about the Light Universe or explore more of the Dark one. Brigadoom and Luvliner are my all time favorite eps.
each season of Lexx is like a whole new show. season 3 was a weird parody/homage to early 2000's "epicness" with a 13 episode LotR inspired plot that feels like a Piers Anthony fever dream. Season 4 was a parody of modern (early 2000's) times and the new "reality show" craze. season 2 is my favorite though, but i do wish there was more Mantrid! S2 is a parody of the story of the week Trek-tropes of scifi, and i love it.. Leikka turns "Alien" on it's head by making the "threat" into something attractive, and qbviously Stanly would side with the hottie. plus who cares about Potato-Ho?
I love cheesy bad sci-fi so this show ended up being one of my favourites. I don't think it's possible to make a better worse show. It's that good... or bad depending on your pov.
the third season does a lot more character stuff. Stanley is still an asshole, but ultimately gets his just reward for it. the 4th season is pure insanity as we see that universes version of Earth, which is just as insane and broken as all the other societies we've seen in the show so far combined.
Lexx's attraction lies in the fact that it doesn't follow the same formula used by so many other sci-fi series but it does enough to be interesting and quirky so it is a breath of fresh air amongst Star Wars, and Star Trek and so many other wanna be's. The uniqueness of the show can be likened to the culture shock you sometimes suffer when you travel to another country and the influences of other cultures outside the US on this series is why I believe we have something so different to the usual sci-fi experience.
I can explain the focus on sex. Lexx is about life. It is not necessarily a philosophically deep show, but the theme of life permeates everything. The whole aesthetic is one of slime and tissue and organs. The existential struggle takes the shape of survival, food, sex, war and death. The main villain is the shadow, who is an essence that lives on through successive host bodies. The shadow is really just the agent of the gigashadow, which is a giant bug-like life-form secretly controlling everyone in the universe through the order of the shadow. The essence manages to survive the fall of the order and merges with Mantrid and a machine to form a new hybrid but even that eventually dies. Even the universe itself comes to an end as if that too had a finite lifespan, but they manage to survive by escaping to the dark zone. The entire third season is an analogy for coming to heaven or hell after death, with an abundance of food on the one hand and dying from thirst or torture on the other, only to be reincarnated and do it again. Kai is a dead assassin, the last of the Brunnen-G. His home planet Brunnis-2 and its precursor Brunnis-1 are both destroyed. Kai's body still works thanks to proto-blood, but only as a machine. His memories are intact, but his essence is dead so his choices are more like the automatic reflexes of his dead body. Xev is part woman and part predator lizard and programmed for sex, another weird life-form. Similarly, Lexx is both a spaceship and a living being (and the most deadly weapon ever). Stan and Xev and even Lexx are either hungry or horny, this is their motivation for everything they do. Lexx needs to eat and then chew that into food that Stan and Xev can eat. 790 is a machine, but programmed to love and wants to acquire a body to be able to please Xev, and interestingly has a tiny bit of an organic brain. Guest characters are usually aspects of life, death, sex, food etc, like the carnivorous plant/smooth lady Lyekka, the all-male planet of Nook, a virus that causes gender swapping, the drug addict who prefers to live in a fantasy than in reality, the gardeners in the garden, the vampire in Transylvania, the last two soldiers in Laff Trakk, the people from Potataho growing in the fields as potatoes themselves etc.
Lexx Season 3 is by far the best season. It's budget improves, the characters are more fleshed out, there's more actual set filming, and it introduces cosmology themes into the story. The struggle of Planet Fire and Water is analogous to Heaven and Hell.
It's generally accepted Yo Way Yo (the title song) is the best thing Lexx ever did. That's not to say I don't like the rest they did (it's delightfully weird) but that song is just amazing. During the fourth season the writers even gave in and used it as a name for an episode in which a different version of the song is played.
A part of great Canadian history! Love this show. So many Canadians actors appear on here like John Dunsworth, Mary Walsh. I am pretty sure some filming took place in Halifax.
Here's some helpful advice when watching the episodes, The Web & The Net. When you get to the shower scene in the first episode, stop there and skip to the second episode. Fast forward to the shower scene and away you go. You will see everything the two episodes have to offer this way.
I remember watching a few episodes of this show when it was new, but I'm finally getting around to watching the whole thing. However, I'm about to ruin it with a fridge logic moment that I thought of, based on having just watched the season 2 finale. You know how time in this show is a cycle? So the Time Prophet knows the future by seeing into the past, since it's exactly the same every time. The problem is that there are characters who go back and forth between two universes, so the cycle can only be perfectly predictable that way if both universes start and end at the same time. Which based on the season 2 finale, they don't.
same concept in Stargate Atlantis.....SO MANY episodes, Rodney has alot of growth...but, by the next episode, he is once again a whiny scared scientist character......5 seasons of that shit....let the man grow
![Лекс / Лексс / Lexx. Обзор сериала (Это фантастика) [RocketMan]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rTC6t7G-ijI/mqdefault.jpg)
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Im sorry that you dont watched all the episodes, maybe you would liked some of them. Season 3 also quite unique or season 4 with satire and dark humor, you should check them out. :)
No link to previous Lexx video?
im partial to the NX Enterprise personally..but then... i have always liked the akira class ;)
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Season 3 is best , Season 4 that never did happen are so i like to think.
I always explain Lexx like this: "Imagine the people who made Farscape had only half the budget - and half of that was used for some really good drugs."
The visual style (aka: budget shortfalls) is what I would call bizarre. Or maybe surreal. But I honestly always thought it was part of the charm of the show. 🤷♂️
Perfect description.
"Some newfies and germans got together to make a porn, but ran out of budget and turned it into sci-fi at the last minute"
Yes! The low budget quality is charming hahaha
Just started watching it again on prime brilliant stuff
Lexx in a nutshell: The universe is absurd, but you can't stop watching.
When I watched this show originally, it was on Sy-Fy (then Sci-Fi) and they ended each commercial with, "want some strange? Have some Lexx." I think a lot of its overall bizarreness is the fact that it was a collaboration between Canada and Germany mixed with a little British funding to boot. It's the extreme bizarreness and the horribly shoe-string effects that, to me, made it endearing. Yeah, it's freakishly strange, but that's what I liked about it.
I still love this show.
Lol they were like "Hey want to chip in on a sci-fi show?"
Yeah man. As a fan of Heavy Metal magazine this show was the only sci-fi to ever hit the airwaves that went for an absurdly weird universe with plenty of sex thrown in for fun.
Regarding the point of sex. Lexx is the sci fi that went off in a different direction, it was exploring biology, mortality and evolution and less physics, politics and morality
Nice to read a comment from someone who did get it. and appreciates a show which broke the standard sci-fi formulas
It was also produced, in part, by Germans, so some of that European Kink is bound to bleed in to the production.
I remember how relatively chaste and sex-less other sci-fi shows of that era were. Whether it was for world building, thematic elements, or just trying to attract viewers, I'm glad at least one show was trying to incorporate those elements.
Yeah, and I thought it was less about sex than about beauty. First episode women are derided and even considered criminal for being ugly, but men who KNOW they will never have sex with a beautiful woman immediately die for her because “beauty such as yours must live on.”
If you think S2 is weird.... you have no idea. Just wait till the later ones. This is only the beginning.... 😎
*Sweats nervously
@@RowanJColeman semi spoilers but they end up on earth
But season 3 has a really good antagonist, and location.
And the absurd universe and realistic nihilism that in the worst dystopia there will always he sex, horny people and search for meaning
(and stan is a realistic survivors having learned to survive by not being heroic, he still cares and does fight against that sometimes. , he grew up in an absolute dictatorship, cut him some slack)
Thats why its probably not only having theatric improvised possily coioperation with a porn studio, but fulfills to show, yeah nothing matters , but still friendships still exist, and hoeniness to get us through that depressing times.
Its really going with the philosophy of enoying life regardless o the bleak universe, and sex if a bit trashy, and maybe overplayed, is a good way to show even there there is life and feelings and wants. Be it getting laid.
@@marocat4749 I liked the first 2 seasons, but even I have to admit season 3 was bad. Enough story for maybe 4 episodes stretched to 13, lots of shots of xev just walking, no dialogue. I remember shouting at the TV for something interesting to happen.
@@michaellewis1545 isn't it heaven and hell planets or something?
I wrote part of my dissertation on Lexx (yep), and this is some of what I argued. I agree that the direction is not great and the sex is annoying, but here's a thematic reason for its being there: Lexx is about life and death, specifically from an eco-centric standpoint that focuses on food webs. The constant references to sex and mixing of imagery of food and sex (ex. Lyekka) is its representation of life energy, while Kai is its main representation of death, and Mantrid is in an odd zone of being an epic destroyer but convinced he is "alive," despite having died as a human. Lexx is also about a cosmic cycle of time in which the which Lexx itself occupies a period of degeneration that will culminate in the end of the multiverse and its beginning again. In this era, everything is degenerate; this is why everything looks and feels so ugly and trivial, including the sex stuff. Kai comes from a slightly earlier (less degenerate era, about 2000 years prior to the start the show), which explain why he and his people seem somewhat less degenerate. It is often ugly and annoying to look at, but it's also philosophically challenging, and very, very different from the dominant cultural assumptions (ex. anthropocentric, progressive) of virtually all other TV science fiction I know of.
Interesting take.
I thought it bears a lot of similarities with the Grimdarkness of warhammer 40k. A future without hope, where progress and enlightenment have died out. Petty vices and selfish wants dominate and anyone who aspires to be better usually dies quickly. Lexx is the mirror opposite of Star Trek.
Your analysis is utter trash. Must have been a horrible paper to read.
Lexx was the best take on us as people outside of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Along with being a perfect love letter to the media we did grow up watching from the wizards of oz to Soylent Green.
Wow... you nailed it.
The absolute bonkers level of creativity is what really hooked me in, along with characters that I really fell in love with as a lonely weird teen.
Same here. Plus it got me interested in physics and astronomy and I started to perform better at school.
I feel like Lexx is an acquired taste, like licorice or early Who.
I think Lexx is an "acquired" taste like finding a used porno mag with a Star Trek parody lying in a ditch behind the train station.
You know you shouldn't take it home, and yet it ends up on your shelf anyway.
@Kaagh178 It does, but a lot of the rough edges and low production values makes it difficult to get into to realize that sometimes.
Early Who was done on the truly cheap. The cheesy special effects are part of the charm! Some of the sock-puppet monsters in the Pertwee episodes are great cheese! Like instant macaroni and cheese! Ya know it's awful, but you enjoy it anyway!
early Who is either just shit or flat out amazing and timeless depending on the episode.
TBH I think it's more like Stockholm Syndrome. And I'm saying that as someone who kind of likes the show... :)
I watched this series a long time ago. Yes it's weird and stupid but I found it oddly hilarious. The Fire & Water seasons was easily the best while the last seasons was basically "this is the last season so let's go fucking nuts (even more so than usual)".
The carrots, man. The carrots.
I LOVE this show. It's just perfect demented sci-fi. You rarely see it anymore, but back in the day you'd see it here and there with shows like this, comic/magazines like Heavy Metal Magazine, Tripping The Rift and a few others. Just shit that was cool and awesome but also a total mindfuck at the same time.
I watched lexx as a 13 yo boy, for Eva Habermann. Soooo that's that. Good Times lol
I still watch the first episode every other night just for her 😂
Eva Haberman's thighs in particular.
Same!!
The carpet matches the drapes
The shower scene
I enjoyed the show, embraced it for its oddness. I know I am not the first to observe this, but I appreciate how the group, despite the idea being we are following Stanley, is actually The Wizard of Oz. Xev is Dorothy, Kai is the Tin Man, Stanly is the cowardly Lion and Robot Head is the Scarecrow.
This is one of those shows that you don't watch because you like it, or because it's entertaining,... you watch it out of sheer bewilderment that something like this exists. It's the uncanny valley between a soft porn parody and terribly executed genuine sci-fi.
This might be one if my favorite takes 😂
I enjoy Lexx as a guilty pleasure, so I know I come across as an apologist; it's low budget so I forgive a lot. As a young Canadian, I liked that the network took a risk on something so weird and the sex aspect made it feel a bit taboo, since it had to be on late at night. So you're right that a lot of the humor was generally very dark and raunchy.
First, I think that most of the sex aspect comes from the German influence. Canadians are generally as squeamish about sex as Americans and Germans generally more open about it, at least in terms of what's censored on TV and when they're broadcast.
Second, while I agree that their stories could be a bit sexist at times, I think they still got away with bringing up a lot of topics that were not widely accepted in the 90s, without being explicitly pornographic. Things like homosexuality, transgender, BDSM, etc. So in terms of their influences, I think half of it was just trying to see what they could get past the censor and half trying to mimic the completely batshit pulp scifi adventure magazines they read as teens mixed with a love of the more recent biomechanical surrealism of H.R. Giger and Alien.
Third, I think that if the series creators were trying to say anything about sex, it was that our sex drive is a natural part of human biology but it can, unfortunately, lead to one making bad or unusual choices that a purely sexless person (that is, Kai), would never make. We can agree that the extent characters concern themselves with sex even during stressful situations is exaggerated, but it's part of their characters intentionally. Stanley is a selfish, spineless coward so it's only natural that he's also a horny sleazeball trying to awkwardly seduce / coerce a woman (who is also designed to be super-attractive). He seeks out pleasure as a way of relieving stress (and they are in a stressful situation). Stan is just a guy, a widely hated (perhaps unfairly) loser, who has to learn how to be a hero or die. Zev was being forced into sexual slavery and was forced into having a hyperactive sex drive that also has the negative side-effect of influencing her decision-making. Even as a self-motivated female character, she still has to fight with her libido, a part of her biology that was maliciously tweaked, so she can make rational choices. Kai represents a joyless, sexless existence; he'd rather sleep silently than entertain Zev.
I think we are meant to laugh at their sexual frustration, though. They are various shades of anti-heroes; they deserve to suffer a little bit. Stan wants Zev, but is painfully, transparently sleazy. Zev wants Kai, but mainly because her biology demands it, but she's too grossed out by Stan. 790 wants Zev but is endlessly frustrated because he has no body. Kai wants nothing at all.
Fourth, from a slightly more meta point of view, the entire series is about reproduction. Besides the obsession with human sexuality, the crew oppose a parasitic insectoid civ that has been slowly dying and attempting to renew itself via the consumption of life, the crew live on a huge insect that requires mass murder to survive, and of course the Von Neumann machines that are 1000% about endless replication. Also, the crew, in their own way, want to solve the problem of their own mortality and continuation. Stan wants to be known as a good person and loving partner (at least, he thinks of himself that way). Zev wants to find a way to have a normal life with a partner, without the constant need to seek sex. 790... well he's a single-minded robot that only wants one thing and it's disgusting lol. Kai struggles with being motivated to do anything at all; anything he does is for a good reason.
Sorry this is so long, but thanks for reading it if you read it.
"Joyless, sexless existance"
Ive not seen the show, so maybe im wrong, but this sounds super acephobic to me. Not being sexual does not make your existence joyless.
I am not sure about the German influence. Some directors and producers were German, because the show was mostly shot in Germany, but the writers were not. The show was produced for a Canadian and American audience. It did air on German television, but because of the low interest, it aired late at night in free tv and was cancelled after season 2. years after the show ended, finally a pay tv channel aired season 3, while season 4 was never released in Germany.
So, even though there was German talent involved, I don’t think the sexual content, story and characters can be traced back to the German background as the main influence. And there was no German drama show with such a sexual content on German television at that time.
@@roaditr Fair enough on that point.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 Kai is dead. He has been resurrected as an unstoppable terminator like assassin. Although he remembers much of his life, he doesn't have emotions or desires, needs or wants. So for him it really is a joyless, sexless existence.
#1 Criticism of your critique of the show. In my opinion, what you point out as flaws, I point out as "They meant to do that". I always felt the visual effects is what made LEXX a great show. It's the "Eating Raoul" of Sci-Fi. In closing, it is not a FLAW, it is an ASSET.
The Expanse and Farscape and Babylon 5 and ofc Star Trek were all great SciFi. That said Lexx = my favorite SciFi show of all time.
Lexx is my favorite show. Every season is different and we follow an amazing main cast of misfits through zany adventures all while they just want to find a home. So charming and campy. I wish more people find it
Wholly agreed. It's a wildly underrated and under appreciated show. I wish more people "got it."
You like Lexx better than Firefly? I'd say Lexx is my favorite low budget sci-fi show, though I don't know how many of those type of shows exist. But really I think at least 60% of it is trash. I like Season 1, except Eating Pattern, which is terrible and serves no purpose in the story arc of Season 1.
And I really like Season 2 and think this season is the best of the show, except for White Trash, which is a terrible episode. But I didn't like how they had the Mantrid arms destroying planets as I just couldn't buy those things destroying a planet in 5 seconds. And I didn't like how the battle thing with Mantrid at the end. I would have preferred it have had a more sophisticated ending instead of mindless bad CGI arms.
And Season 3 is pretty bad. They wrote one episode, and then decided to stretch if for 13 hours. And you can tell the budget was reduced as you got lots of bad green screen and the effects were pretty bad and I think the acting was worse.
And then I've always hated Season 4. I didn't like Lexx going to Earth, and then they took a bizzare sci-fi show and turned it into a farce.
I would have preferred a Lexx where the entire show was more like Season 2, except that it went a little further into the direction of Farscape as being a little more serious.
I thought Lexx was the weirdest but also one of the most original sci-fi show I ever saw.
Did you watch "Lafftrak"? Because that pretty much explains all you need to know. The main characters wander through a parade of robots acting out television cliches and bumble and bungle all of them. Xenia Seeberg has a raunchy musical number with a bunch of shirtless hunks but it ends in tears due to genuine pathos about her awful life. Lexx does whatever it wants and goes wherever it wants, convention be damned.
Lexx is the anti-Star Trek. Xev is McCoy, she's warm and full of passion...because she wants to nail everything that isn't nailed down. Kai is Spock, logical and rational...because he's a walking corpse that has no passion for anything. And Stan is the hapless, horny captain who has to choose between them and always chooses whatever's easiest and most convenient for himself. They wander the universe for purely selfish, hedonistic reasons and always take the cowardly, morally deficient way out of trouble. It's a morality play that always ends with the characters choosing vice. It wears its sleaze on its sleeve. It mixes schlock with operatic fatalism about death and the end of all things. "We've going to die, so we might as well get some sex before the end." There's quite literally nothing else like it.
At least, until it becomes a completely different show when season three starts.
A lot of this is thoroughly German, as it was one of the two major producers for the show.
Aren't they stuck between two planets that are some sort of afterlife ruled by by a man named Prince (who I can only assume is supposed to be the devil)? Planets that we find out happen to orbit on the opposite side of the sun from modern day earth in the last season. It's been quite a while since I've seen it I'm just wondering if I remember it correctly.
@@DeathBYDesign666 Yep, got it in one.
@@DeathBYDesign666 yes and Prince is LaCroix from Forever Knight. Good casting choice he does creepy evil very well.
@@DeathBYDesign666 That's season three.
"Lafftrak" is from season two.
It's a low-budget science fantasy live-action pulp comicbook soft-core-porno fever-dream comedy space opera.
You have to at least give it this: There's nothing else like it.
"I'm sure for some 13 year olds who watched the show at the time this blew their minds"
Heh, guilty.
Same
This is the kind of guy who watches Evil Dead and critiques the blood effects as unrealistic.
yeah he's really not getting it
@@opalaa5874 Yes, a commentary by someone with insufficient intelligence to understand the point, and hooked up on the low quality effects, its weirdness is the point, it makes a a refreshing change from the the big budget shows which wow you with stunning effects, then degrade into a cowboy shoot out.
@@opalaa5874
Not everyone has to be into everything.
I concur, this hurt to watch. He only watches the episodes Google said were important!? Muppet. Of course he's confused and doesn't know what's going on half the time
Geez, who knew this show had so many 'dedicated' fanboys?!
I was fascinated by Lexx when I first encountered it in the mid-late 90s. Its unique style was perfect to stop you in your tracks when channel hopping late at night. Can't say I ever really followed what was going on, but it was fun to watch at the time. I've tried to rewatch since and it just doesn't engage me in the same way, so I can totally understand why you're not impressed. I think it was very of its time, both in conception and execution, and in appealing to a teen/20-something audience who at the time didn't have many other options and just wanted something to watch while drunk/stoned. Lexx is both absurd and epic, it's like it was made for that purpose... It doesn't really translate well to the modern environment where choices are less limited, nor to an older and more experienced viewer with, dare I say, a more refined taste of what constitutes good television than we had back then. There'll always be people who love it but I think they're mostly watching it through nostalgia specs.
I'm addressing 2 things. First, ones imagination plays an important part of The Lexx. Who cares about computer images being not perfect. Those that love the show do not need everything shown to us. We just need the story. Second, The issue of SEX. The more you fantasize and want sex, the reality is you will probably not get it.
I bought the DVD set when it came out. NOW! Every time it's hurricane season here in Florida, out comes the generator and the viewing of THE LEXX. YO WAY YO
Yo Brunnen Gee
@@davidconner-shover51 Still one of my favorites. I have the DVD. and have watched this over a dozen times. Some of the sketches make you think of our future. If you can dream it there is a possibility it will come true.
@@davidconner-shover51 Yo Way Yo
Ok, have just finished season two in its entirety and have launched into season 3. Gotta say, it is an acquired taste and I have acquired it. I'm only three episodes into season 3 and already really like it. This is a very odd show, even stranger than Farscape. But as you say, underneath the odd surface of Farscape, it is a conventional science fiction adventure series in many ways. Lexx most definitely is not. And it is a show that either you will vibe with or won't. It took me multiple tries and years to develop a taste but I did.
Im just here to remind you of the toilet scene in S2E10 after 3 years
ruclips.net/video/w3HHn7knDS8/видео.htmlsi=4Fzg-czXIbhbigK2&t=689
I was kind of with you about how annoying Tweedle and Mantrid were... then the video was interrupted by a Jamie Oliver advert. By comparison, Tweedle is very likeable ;)
If Lexx had the visuals of Babylon 5 and Farscape, it wouldn't be Lexx.
It had a sort of nightmare fever dream feel to it. Like nothing but the characters were real.
This aired in what I call sci-fi’s golden era, actually helping to kick it off. Used to watch this with Farscape and Stargate with good Trek shows running parallel. Loved the cast and being a teen at the time liked the more sexual themes it presented. Some of the premises put forth while not well fleshed out was still highly entertaining and thought provoking.
Mantrid is still one of my all time favorite baddies. “I concede the game to you” awesomely spoken by Dieter Laser RIP.
Don’t forget The Invisible Man. Came on right before Farscape and Lexx.
@@masterhypnos6783 yeah my dad was a fan of that one for a time. Enjoyed watching old version of the sci-fi channel with him. Thanks for reminding me.
“What’s with all the sex? Is it comedy?” It helps to realize Lexx is a German show that just happens to be made in English. And Brigadoom might be the series best episode. It’s at least the one that really sticks with you. The only other single episode in its league is the series finale. Xenia Seeberg gets better in later seasons as she becomes more aggressive and self reliant. Part of the enjoyment of Lexx is that they are by and large fairly awful people, leaving a swath of intergalactic destruction in their wake. Nothing the Lexx crew comes in contact with survives. Which is okay, because they are all even worse. Lexx is about as far from Star Trek as you can get. And it dives into the cheesiness in a way that only 90’s genre programming could. Yeah the effects don’t hold up to Babylon V, Farscape etc. but they are on par with contemporaries Hercules and Xena, or stuff like Cleopatra 2525 or Mutant X. Other syndicated shows of the period.
Brigadoom still gets to me ngl.
You need to watch it back to front. There is a lot of plot development and if you only watch a few episodes, you're not going get it.
Exactly, he's complaining so much about the sex talk from season 1 and 2 and yet there is an absolute meaning behind all of that as well.
it's a testimony to how weird this show is that I didn't realise at first that you'd meant to type "front to back" and I was just like "hmm, yes I guess it _would_ be pretty interesting to watch it backwards"
@@WireMosasaur i have no clue how i wrote that wrong lmao
I love how valid your arguments are and how i agree with everything you say, but I still looove Lexx while you dont :D
My reccomendation - watch season 3. It has an amazing huge idea developed in all 13 episodes and a great finale. But then you can safely skip season 4.
Next is probably Blake's 7. An equally weird show of its time.
It's on the list for me to check out :)
This one does suffer from effects, and deserves a re shoot!
Blake's 7 is one of the best ever. Just imagine it with a budget!
Of course, part of me laments our imaginations have atrophied to the point that effects have become more important than story.
@@ericjohnson709 no just get an animated studio not from the UK or America maybe Japan and do a reboot. I suggest Japan because they would treat it better than western studios.
@@RowanJColeman Yes, please check out Blake's 7! It is sadly forgotten today.
The wheel it turns. It rolls around. It makes an ancient rrrummbling sound.
The show is ABOUT sexual frustration and more specifically the kind that it’s nerdy audience experiences. That is the essential premise. Stanley Tweedle is a relatable "nice guy" given all the power in the universe and is trapped with a hyper sexual beautiful woman genetically engineered to be horny and subservient. It’s basically every single nerd’s fantasy come true, yet he still never gets any sexual gratification. It’s pure torture. It’s kind of like While E. Coyote chasing the road runner.
Also season 2 sets the actual tone of the show. Season 3 is slow, but you start to see real character development and how the it is actually an ensemble cast show. Season 4 is the real payout. After suffering these characters and cheesy plots for 4 seasons, they finally come to earth and then the social commentary becomes MUCH more apparent. The end is a brilliant commentary on the state of quantum physics at the time the show was actually airing.
This all said, it’s far more difficult to watch now then when it was airing. The CGI actually looked more impressive than Babylon 5 at the time, but that’s only because they tried for more complex motion animations DS9 and Babylon 5 better understood their limitations, so they age better as your eye gets more discerning. Kind of like how Toy Story and Monsters inc don’t really hold up now aesthetically, but Jurassic Park STILL does. Even though Pixar understood their limitations fairly well, with 100% CG, you are allotted 0 cheats.
I cut the effects some slack. It's a low budget sci fi show. I love it for its sleazy vibe.
I kinda like the sleazy awkwardness...
Lexx is just not everyone’s cup of tea. It would not have been improved by better CGI. The second actress played Zev perfectly. More alien. The awkward sexuality was part of the corruption. It was good to see a series of clips from this masterpiece, but this review was like watching a vegetarian comment on where to get the best steaks.
I saw this show as kid in the 90s so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. The quirkyness, bad CGI, overt sexuality and bizarre concepts are what makes the show great in my opinion. It's like an Ed Wood movie, the low budget quirkyness is part of the charm.
Can't wait to hear how he feels about Earth: Final Conflict
I think you have to watch it at the right time in one's life, between 13 to 20, for it to 'work.' I have a lot of good memories watching this late at night on channel 5.
"...this culminated in one of the most bizarre images that I've ever seen in a TV show..." -- and that folks is one the best reasons to praise Lexx and not let it be forgotten. It was mind-expandingly bonkers at times -- and that is SUPER rare from any TV show, film, book, song, or other cultural artifact. More respect for Lexx please!
Series 3 loses the episodic nature and goes for a continuous story thread. so you would have to watch every episode of that series. it's centred around 2 planets. a water planet and a desert planet. i ain't spoiling anything by saying that, but the whole of series 3 takes place on those 2 planets. and yes it's still pretty weird. but if you like weird its quite enjoyable.
I remember being very impressed with the look of season 3.
The story is a little thin.
I plan on starting a religion based on His Shadow.. Lexx is the best sci fi series ever.
I actually did this in High School. We only wound up with a dozen members and it was centered around a Turtle...but hey, I did it
3:00 - "Which left me thinking, perhaps it's just sex for the sake of sex" - Pretty much, the creators explicitly stated they were going to embrace the seedy underside of humanity that loftier sci-fi tries to avoid. Not just sex, but also think of how often they had a scene in the bathroom.
Feels like you missed a lot of what made this series great to the people that loved it. Nice that you gave it a chance but you got everything backwards and it seems you failed to suspend your disbelief. They accomplished much more than anyone else could have on much less of a budget. That being said, you were not mean about your criticism and it is definitely not for everyone. I hope you come back to this one day and see all the humor and creativity that eluded you when you skimmed through the episodes. Not for a video, but for your own enjoyment and entertainment.
I highly recommend season 3. The vfx are much better (for Lexx), Nigel Bennett is a great new cast member and the attempt at a more connected, serialised story is interesting
I think Lexx is a horror series where the audience doesn't know it's horror. It's not just that everything is weird - for which I give the writers credit for creativity - but that it's confusing without being a traditional mystery. It's not making sense but that seems to be nature of the world they live in. Also, I found the low-quality special effects really worked for Lexx, because everything had a bit of an unnatural feel to it.
I think the cheesy miniatures and CGI are part of LEXX's charm. I like a show that dares to dream big. The reviewer is taking this too seriously.
You really should've watched Stan's Trial. It gives all of Stanley's back story and gives him and Kai some nice development. And watch season 3, and make sure to include Girltown. The whole season is one long story, so you'd have to watch the whole thing to get what's going on.
If he didn't like season 2, then no way he'd watch season 3. As it's really boring and repetitive and the budget dropped making everything look worse with bad green screen and worse CGI. I just got done rewatching the first 3 seasons, and season 3 felt like it was 30 episodes long.
Oh...I thought B-grade Sexploitation was what they were going for, and I thought they pretty much nailed it.
(Don't you wish I intended that as a pun?)
You're right to hate Stanley Tweedle, he's not exactly Arthur Dent. Arthur is a nice man, but incredibly boring.
Stanley has maybe one or two carefully hidden saving graces, but he isn't remotely likable.
I love LEXX, also Blake's 7, early Dr. Who and Thunderbirds.
Hang on...LEXX had a PLOT?!?
WHY WASN'T I TOLD!?!
Brunnen G song means: "Fighters fight the fight. For their home and their heart
. We fighters will win or die. Forever we are Brunnen G."
I have it as my ringtone...Yes I get weird looks.
@@v.sandrone4268 LOL
You have to appreciate the poetic prowess of the Brunnen-G. They truely are the ultimate poet warriors.
Brunnen G song justifies the existence of Lexx.
Wow, where did you find the translation?
The way I explain the writing, performances, CGI, sets, etc. is that it’s meant to be campy like Xena, Hercules, and 1960s Batman. It’s meant to be silly… just with more sex appeal for teenagers and adults.
As for the repetitiveness of The Web and The Net, it’s a typical “submarine episode” to save the budget for other stuff. Plenty of other shows for this from time to time in various seasons with lots of scene reshoots or flashbacks. TNG did it with the time loop episode in which Data finally breaks the loop by realizing Riker’s plan will work because the 3s constantly popping up around the ship signifies the Riker’s 3 rank pips. SG-1 did it repeatedly over the years like the episode in which the USAF reveals the Stargate program to other nations’ ambassadors with high level clearance. Farscape did it with the episode in which the spirits of Crichton and Crais are trapped in another realm by an alien who feeds off their hate for each other. The list goes on.
its really just a show about two people desperate to have sex, a detached robot head also desperate to have sex and a dead guy. its a parody of sci fi's seriousness. Potatohoe is a perfect example of that, its a planet of humans who farm potatos and talk about the crops all the time. they manage to invent space travel and find the lexx. they walk on the bridge with their space suit and breather unit holding up a dialogue sign. stan is completely obviously to why they would have all on that stuff. its a joke on first contract, and instead of humans getting killed by some alien monster. its the visitors getting killed by a plant.
Lexx is dope, zev is hot af, so is Lyyka. Also season 3 is even weirder and season 4 is absolutely hilarious 😎
I remember when this was out how cheap and bad everything looked even back then.
This guy doesn't get Lexx, but we do.
probably the best tv ever produced
Watch the entire season. Honestly season 2 story was the best one. And to mention your complaint about all the sex talk... The sex has to do with Zev, a horny female from genetic modification who just can't catch a break. It's supposed to be awkward. Stan always getting denied or crazy looking women, and Zev getting nothing because guys get all mushy and in love when they see her. It pretty much makes fun of how emo men can get for a girl who just wants a fling. The symbolism behind Zev is it the fact that if you make it to the episode where a guy is trying to turn her back into her former self, she gets completely distraught over it, symbolizing how insecure women who achieve the beauty are so afraid to lose it. Lexx is pretty much a dark comedy, and was labeled Star Trek's evil twin. The show really does have a cult following, I may seem pretty nerdy about this but I did end up spending $300 just to get the entire box set sent from different parts of the world. Honestly the entirety of season 2 made me cry in the end, RIP Lyekka.. 😭
I liked the second Xev a lot more. She was more animated and felt like she was having fun with the role. Eva Haberman seemed to be there to look pretty and aloof. Season two is the favorite for a lot of people. It focused on the B movie elements of the show. This is when it was with the Sci Fi channel, and they were emphasizing the cheesy aspects of it.
Next season is where they get strange and metaphorical and European. What's your accent again? Boston, I don't get out much.
Season four is the only one I would skip. Either Sci Fi channel decided to kill the show for whatever reason, one of the key production staff left, or they just ran out of material and ended it early. A few good episodes, but it mostly seemed that they were killing time.
Agreed regards the second Xev.
I think they ran out of money.
I now see why I was not allowed to watch this show as a kid.
If you are looking for another show from this time period I would recommend a show a called Earth 2. It is about a Colony ship that crash lands on a planet. It part survival story, part mystery, and a little bit of alien weirdness.
I second the choice for Earth 2. An interesting mid 90s show that explores the theme of colonial expansion. The writers often talked about how they tried to mirror the planet to the new worlds of Australia/North America and how the indigenous peoples reacted to the European colonists and vice versa. And also early Debrah Farantino, Clancy Brown, Jessica Steen!😊
I got into Earth 2 for maybe 1 or 2 seasons, but lost it due to, um, idk, high school drama. I would like to give it another try if I could find it anywhere.
@@kyleecats2255 if you pick it back up just a heads up Earth 2 is mostly a human drama show with a Scifi setting.
I watched Earth 2 when it aired and really liked it. And rewatched it years later. Too bad it ended on a cliffhanger.
Hey Rowan! I really appreciate you doing the first two seasons of Lexx! I wanted to know if you would be able to do reviews on both seasons 3&4. This was my favorite show as a teenager/young adult, and everything that you mentioned is what made it awesome for me. I felt like each season helped the characters to grow, and yes, it gets crazier😂!
this^
Lexx is a show I watched years ago on late-night tv and I still remember it years later. The same cant be said for a great many other shows. I feel in this age that is a true rarity.
There's no doubt it had a very distinctive vibe.
Which makes it worth a watch.
@@alanpennie8013 💯
I feel Lexx is a show that massively deserves an attempt at a remake. The concepts and ambitions underneath it could make for some truly brilliant sci-fi, it just needed better writing, casting, direction and special effects. A bit like the 70s Battlestar Galactica (I know it has its fans, but my God that's hard to watch). Modern TV can deliver all of those, though I'm not sure if modern TV would be willing to let Lexx be as weird as it needs to be.
If all that comes out of it is an updated, full-length version of the Brunnen-G song, I'd be more than satisfied.
Yes Stanley Tweedle is unlikable but you seem to miss the entire point that he is supposed to be unlikable and cringey.
I only remember Lexx because it came out at the dawn of the Scifi channel as one of the headline franchises (aside from TNG reruns). They had a special preview show thingy that highlighted how special and amazing everything was going to be, with Farscape being the obvious darling child. Someone came on, I think one of the showrunners, and said Lexx was "trying to do to science fiction what South Park had done to comedy." So basically, yes, the only theme behind it wall was to be as weird as possible and all the sex was indeed gratuitous, and it's main purpose was to exist gratuitously and thereby annoy the starched collar type.
Ummm. Yeah, ok. Have fun with that. Thanks for the TNG reruns though.
Seasons 3 and 4 really come together for Lexx. But season four is the best. Seasons 3 is fun and a good set up for Seasons 4. I believe the best episode of Seasons four would be episode 18, The game.
I do believe the subject of sex is a way to show the characters confusing sexual physical contact with the emotion of love, validation and family. Three things in short supply when four strangers find themselves in control of a massively powerful starship escaping interplanetary tyranny. All 4 seek out love, validation and family across the series.
That’s just the way I see it.
Season 2 is when I was going through puberty so maybe that's why the sex thing is so dear to my heart
It's disappointing that you didn't like Lexx, but this was pretty fair overall. Lexx is one of those shows where you love it, hate it, or are jusr really confused by it.
Season 3 is the best that Lexx has to offer!
Really? I thought season 3 of Lexx was really boring taking an episode and stretching it for 13 hours. And the budget dropped making the green screen look bad and worse effects and I think the acting isn't as good as Season 2.
Season 2 I think is the best season of Lexx, except White Trash is a terrible episode. And I didn't like the terrible CGI battle with Mantrid at the end. Just felt like they dumbed it down for a bad CGI fest.
I found every thing wrong with Lexx is what made it so good. Your critique was entirely correct but I liked it. Just go with flow.
Season 2 Lexx best Lexx cos it has Lyekka my plantfu.
Making my way into season two. I think your criticisms are fair, but I think whether the show is for you, is whether the unique nature of the show and the offbeat characters engage you. I find they are doing so with me. It is very much an acquired taste, but I seem to have acquired it.
You are right about the sex focus, but I think it fits the Heavy Metal vibe they were seemingly going for.
Confusing but fascinating is the perfect description.
"i found it weird and confusing"
Gee, after a beer or two, and maybe a shot or two, seemed reasonable (runs away laughing)
Lexx is essentially "Lost in Space" with Boobs. In a way. I think you're being a bit critical but I appreciate your sympathy for the show. It alternates between deep ideas and utterly juvenile double entendres, and it's written and delivered 100% tongue in cheek. Lexx is its own unique thing. The mediocrity of the sfx, the constant sex, the unique plot setups, the weird world building... they're all part of the charm of Lexx. The first time I saw a family member watching it, I thought it was brain damage causing cringe drivel. I gave one random episode a chance and I was utterly hooked.
It's funny that the one thing you liked "the Broonun Ji" song, is the one thing I hate. It is repeated ad nauseam throughout the series. And Kai is my least favorite character. He is the sterotypical hero. The things you hate about the show however, are the things I love about it. The bad special effects, the gratuitous sexuality, the weirdness, and the annoyance of Stanley Tweedle. It all rolls together to be far more compelling to me than the standard sanitized versions of Sci-Fi in other shows. It's disgusting, and weird, and flawed, and that is what I like about it. The cowardice and and annoyance of Stanley makes the moments where he actually stands up and do the right thing more satisfying. I love how annoying and flawed he is. So much of SCi-Fi revolves around Hero and Villain Arche Types. Everyone knows someone sleazy and cowardly like Stanley, but we rarely see them represented in Sci-Fi, and when we do, they are the villain of the week and not a main character of the show. Most of all, I love that it is just something different. It rarely falls into the same old SCi-Fi tropes, and when it does, it has a unique spin on them, that makes them feel fresh and new. Watching Lexx is like watching B movies. It's so bad that it's good. If you enjoyed the Sharknado Movies, or Tromaville Movies, or grew up watching USA up all night, or MST3K, odds are that you will like Lexx.
vaiyo a-o: fighters of the fight
a home va ya ray: for their home and their heart
vaiyo a-rah, jehrume brunnen g: we fighters win or die, forever we are brunnen g
Season 3 of Lexx is a contentious one. Not as insane as season 2, but much better in terms of having a consistent and engaging plot.
Season 4 however. Oh man, that one just went way off the rails and careened right through crazy town...
Lexx is a glorious medley of weirdness, both highbrow and lowbrow sci-fi at the strange time. Grimdark and hopeless yet with characters you rooted for. And as a teenage boy at the time the sexual innuendos were appealing.
Lexx is the kind of show your parents did not want you watching.
I do quite enjoy Lexx for its overall plot but yeah sometimes the heavy Metal esque obsession with sex gets a little annoying. That being said i love the whole concept of his divine shadow, the brunnen-g and the insect civilization.
"Lexx (1997-2002) is a lot of things at once, and its elaborateness is one of the traits that made it unique: Filthy, goofy, satirical, unsettling, baffling, batshit crazy, sadistic, and often surprising.
Its insanely weird sensibilities make it unusually cliche-free, which can be a bit disconcerting, but creates a much more unique set of experiences. Beneath it all is this incredibly disturbing existentialist emptiness that makes it totally unsatisfying as escapism, or even painful, and yet all the more profound as something bizarre to discover.
The total insignificance of life in the vastness of the cosmos is thrown in your face, and the characters are brutally confronted by it on a regular basis. They careen through a universe devoid of inherent meaning, ugly and chaotic, and yet they find or create their own here and there.
It's often compared to Farscape due to superficial similarities in premise, but Farscape is much more structured and familiar, and its rewards are not as bizarre and existentially disturbing as Lexx. Farscape is to Lexx as Star Trek: The Next Generation is to the Aeon Flux animated series - it's that weird. In fact, even weirder because it runs for several years.
Sometimes it's grim techno-dystopia, sometimes magical sci-fantasy, sometimes misanthropic farce that's mean-spirited to the characters, and sometimes filthy comedic biopunk where everything is deliberately disgusting and the joke is on the audience.
But it must be seen at least once through by any devotee of imaginative television. It is essential."
www.reddit.com/.../lexx_the_darkest_and_most.../
Season 2 is like 90% filler. Its fun but you can skip alot and not miss much. The best is the season final. Such a cool idea never hit on by other scifi that i can remember. Season 3 is my favourite. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.
Yes I agree the plot driven episodes are best and much of season 2 is filler episodes. However best to watch it all, some may grab one more than others. Definitely for me the memorable stuff was Mantrid related
Season 2 is my favorite as I like how weird things happen every episode and Mandrid is my favorite LEXX villain. I wish Season 3 was more like Season 2 instead of one giant episode. And I hated Season 4.
That German girl was beautiful. The original girl
Season 2 was intriguing, but later seasons degenerated into “Stan and Kai look for Xev; Kai and Xev look for Stan; Xev and Stan look for Kai.” With some editing, Kai’s story arc would be compelling.
Each episode of season 4 is like a pilot for some future franchise...
I love it. I have very fond memories of watching it in 2000. It was a special year for me and always when I came back home late I watched it in the night. What a great time it was back then.
The early 2000’s were prime time for sci fi shows!!! Bro we had Sliders, Farscape, First Wave, Good vs. Evil, Voyager, Lexx, Firestarter, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis. Lexx season 2 was my favorite of them all. I love the bizarreness and the planet to planet adventures. We lose that in season 3 and 4. I wish we got to know more about the Light Universe or explore more of the Dark one. Brigadoom and Luvliner are my all time favorite eps.
each season of Lexx is like a whole new show. season 3 was a weird parody/homage to early 2000's "epicness" with a 13 episode LotR inspired plot that feels like a Piers Anthony fever dream. Season 4 was a parody of modern (early 2000's) times and the new "reality show" craze. season 2 is my favorite though, but i do wish there was more Mantrid! S2 is a parody of the story of the week Trek-tropes of scifi, and i love it.. Leikka turns "Alien" on it's head by making the "threat" into something attractive, and qbviously Stanly would side with the hottie. plus who cares about Potato-Ho?
2 and 1 are my faves too. Didn't dig 4.
I love cheesy bad sci-fi so this show ended up being one of my favourites. I don't think it's possible to make a better worse show. It's that good... or bad depending on your pov.
the third season does a lot more character stuff. Stanley is still an asshole, but ultimately gets his just reward for it. the 4th season is pure insanity as we see that universes version of Earth, which is just as insane and broken as all the other societies we've seen in the show so far combined.
Lexx's attraction lies in the fact that it doesn't follow the same formula used by so many other sci-fi series but it does enough to be interesting and quirky so it is a breath of fresh air amongst Star Wars, and Star Trek and so many other wanna be's. The uniqueness of the show can be likened to the culture shock you sometimes suffer when you travel to another country and the influences of other cultures outside the US on this series is why I believe we have something so different to the usual sci-fi experience.
I can explain the focus on sex.
Lexx is about life. It is not necessarily a philosophically deep show, but the theme of life permeates everything. The whole aesthetic is one of slime and tissue and organs. The existential struggle takes the shape of survival, food, sex, war and death. The main villain is the shadow, who is an essence that lives on through successive host bodies. The shadow is really just the agent of the gigashadow, which is a giant bug-like life-form secretly controlling everyone in the universe through the order of the shadow. The essence manages to survive the fall of the order and merges with Mantrid and a machine to form a new hybrid but even that eventually dies. Even the universe itself comes to an end as if that too had a finite lifespan, but they manage to survive by escaping to the dark zone. The entire third season is an analogy for coming to heaven or hell after death, with an abundance of food on the one hand and dying from thirst or torture on the other, only to be reincarnated and do it again.
Kai is a dead assassin, the last of the Brunnen-G. His home planet Brunnis-2 and its precursor Brunnis-1 are both destroyed. Kai's body still works thanks to proto-blood, but only as a machine. His memories are intact, but his essence is dead so his choices are more like the automatic reflexes of his dead body. Xev is part woman and part predator lizard and programmed for sex, another weird life-form. Similarly, Lexx is both a spaceship and a living being (and the most deadly weapon ever). Stan and Xev and even Lexx are either hungry or horny, this is their motivation for everything they do. Lexx needs to eat and then chew that into food that Stan and Xev can eat. 790 is a machine, but programmed to love and wants to acquire a body to be able to please Xev, and interestingly has a tiny bit of an organic brain. Guest characters are usually aspects of life, death, sex, food etc, like the carnivorous plant/smooth lady Lyekka, the all-male planet of Nook, a virus that causes gender swapping, the drug addict who prefers to live in a fantasy than in reality, the gardeners in the garden, the vampire in Transylvania, the last two soldiers in Laff Trakk, the people from Potataho growing in the fields as potatoes themselves etc.
Lexx Season 3 is by far the best season. It's budget improves, the characters are more fleshed out, there's more actual set filming, and it introduces cosmology themes into the story. The struggle of Planet Fire and Water is analogous to Heaven and Hell.
For me, the weirdness is part of the appeal. I'd recommend watching season 3, then ending there. The last season kinda ruined the show.
It's generally accepted Yo Way Yo (the title song) is the best thing Lexx ever did. That's not to say I don't like the rest they did (it's delightfully weird) but that song is just amazing. During the fourth season the writers even gave in and used it as a name for an episode in which a different version of the song is played.
A part of great Canadian history!
Love this show. So many Canadians actors appear on here like John Dunsworth, Mary Walsh. I am pretty sure some filming took place in Halifax.
Half the shoot was in Halifax and then they'd go to Germany to shoot the other half
I think the sexuality in Lexx creates alltogether a dehumanized and cold atmosphere and I believe that was an intention...
Here's some helpful advice when watching the episodes, The Web & The Net.
When you get to the shower scene in the first episode, stop there and skip to the second episode. Fast forward to the shower scene and away you go.
You will see everything the two episodes have to offer this way.
I remember watching a few episodes of this show when it was new, but I'm finally getting around to watching the whole thing. However, I'm about to ruin it with a fridge logic moment that I thought of, based on having just watched the season 2 finale.
You know how time in this show is a cycle? So the Time Prophet knows the future by seeing into the past, since it's exactly the same every time. The problem is that there are characters who go back and forth between two universes, so the cycle can only be perfectly predictable that way if both universes start and end at the same time. Which based on the season 2 finale, they don't.
same concept in Stargate Atlantis.....SO MANY episodes, Rodney has alot of growth...but, by the next episode, he is once again a whiny scared scientist character......5 seasons of that shit....let the man grow
It took me many years to get over Eva Habermann leaving before I would continue watching. Still a great show.