By Joshua Tyler and Jonathan Klotz | Published
In the late 1990s, the Sci-Fi Channel was a realm of strange, unfamiliar shows that you could only read about in TV Guide. Of all the weirdness that was on the channel at the time, nothing was stranger than Lexx.
The show aired late at night on the channel for a very good reason. Lexx was the strangest, most confusing, most sex-obsessed series in television history.
This is not a hyperbolic statement. Lexx lives up to every word, and mmaybe now is the time to step back and appreciate this very strange series that broke all the rules of science fiction and polite society.
The origins of Lexx and her total madness
Lexx was a joint German and Canadian production. It’s the brainchild of series creator Paul Donovan, who did virtually nothing in entertainment after Lexx. Before Lexxhe produced mostly normal, very small and unreleased independent films. There was no indication of the kind of madness he had bottled up in his head.
Trying to explain the plot of Lexx is impossible, and it could involve you, as you will have to explain how the universe is under the control of its divine shadow, a seemingly immortal evil being. He wants to subjugate the neighboring universe, the Dark Universe as well.
If there is a plot, it revolves around an attempt by the show’s main cast to stop His Divine Shadow. However, they don’t always try very hard. Sometimes they are just too excited. Seriously, it’s part of the plot.
It started with four very strange TV movies, then got even stranger
by Lexx the first season is made up of four TV films. In the first, we are introduced to a motley crew of misfits and the strong, courageous and heroic revolutionary heretic leader, Thorin, played by Barry Bostwick. Then the typical sci-fi hero, Thodin, is killed, and we realize that somehow the lazy, treacherous courier named Stanley and an escaped and recently turned attractive love slave named Zev are our main characters.
Stanley H Tweedle is played by Brian Downey and Zev is initially played by Eva Habermann. It will get even weirder when, in the show’s second season, Zev will suddenly be played by a totally different actress named Xenia Seeberg, with a vague sci-fi reason attached. They also start calling him “Xev”, which is pronounced the same as Zev.
Who is your favorite? Zev or Xev? Let us know in the comments.
Lexx is a series without real heroes, but it has a corpse
Stanley and Zev are not typical sci-fi heroes. In fact, calling them “heroes” is a bit of an exaggeration. They aren’t capable of accomplishing much on their own, so the series provides them with help in the form of a corpse.
The dead man’s name is Kai and he is played by Michael McManus. Kai is an undead assassin. Correction, no actually, he’s completely dead,
Kai betrays the series’ villain, His Divine Shadow, when his memories are restored. He ends up on Lexx, the superweapon spacecraft the show is named after.
The ugliest, stupidest spaceship in science fiction history and it’s awesome?
If Lexx isn’t the ugliest, stupidest spaceship in science fiction history, then I don’t know what is. It’s not ugly in an endearing way like Firefly’s Serenity. Or in a fun way, like the awkwardly shaped Millennium Falcon.
No, that’s just stupid.
Bad.
Not good.
Also, I want one.
Lexx is one of the central points of the series since it is where most of the episodes take place and he has the power to destroy everything.
It’s all about the Lusticon
There’s also a sex-obsessed robot leader, voiced by Jeffrey Hirschfield. Oh, and let’s not forget the cannibal Gigerota, played by Ellen Dubin. Others come in and out of the cast over the course of the show’s four seasons, and they’re just as weird, stupid, bizarre, and sex-obsessed as the main cast.
If it looks like Guardians of the Galaxy Or Distant landscapeThat’s true, but it’s much, much weirder.
Lexx is filled with fan service and innuendo that turns a device called the Lusticon into a plot point. That’s right, I said the Lusticonn. To return to 90s cable, let’s take the series Dream and put it in a blender with Distant landscapeAnd Lexx would be the result.
Stanley Tweedle has no dance moves and Xev has no standards
The best and one of the longest working gags in this concept revolves around Stanley trying to get along with Zev, and then later with Xev as well. Xev doesn’t seem to have any standards, so she’s normally pretty up for this sort of thing, except Stanley is the only person in the universe who actively pushes her away.
So Stanley deludes himself into thinking that he is playing for the long term. Meanwhile, he follows Zev aboard the ship, drooling over her, like in that scene from The mask where Jim Carrey sees Cameron Diaz in a red dress, his eyes pop out of his head and he turns into a lady crazy cartoon wolf. Imagine this scene repeated over and over again, but without the special effects or the part where he shows off his cool dance moves and wins the girl.
Stanley doesn’t have any cool dance moves. In fact, as far as we can tell, Stanley has no positive qualities at all. Stanley is like the player character in some kind of soft, text-based video game from the 90s, animated and launched into space. And that’s your main character, folks. The guy you’re supposed to support and relate to.
Lexx is the David Hasselhoff of sci-fi shows
As Lexx progresses, the entire tone of the series changes, and I have to give a lot of credit to the production team here. Seasons 1 and 2 of the series are wild and filled with basic brotherly humor, but season 3 is much darker and becomes a dark experience.
Season 4 takes place on a contemporary Earth, and it’s probably safe to assume that this was due to budgetary issues making the show’s elaborate green-screen sets unaffordable. It’s true, even the green screen has become unaffordable. That’s the kind of budget, Lexx was working on.
Budget cuts have taken place despite the fact that Lexx enjoyed enormous success in Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe. We could say that Lexx is the David Hasselhoff science fiction programs.
To hell with the budget, Lexx runs through every possible scenario you could think of over the course of season four, about a dozen episodes.
How does it compare to respectable sci-fi shows
If you watch legit shows like Distant landscape, Babylon 5And The extent, Lexx I can’t compare. Compared to these great pillars of television science fiction, Lexx This is crazy trash. This is probably why we forgot about it today.
To be honest, this was also forgotten at the time.
I can’t make excuses for this. Lexx is very close to being a complete disaster. And sometimes it’s a disaster.
But there is usually something. A joke that lands, a wild sci-fi concept, or even a heartfelt moment with a character. Something that makes the show not the worst thing you’ve ever seen.
It’s insane and it’s either horrible or great. Or maybe it’s both.
But Lexx is unique.
It’s definitely unique.
What is certain is that the size of His Divine Shadow’s ultimate weapon, the Megashadow, is exactly the type of silly humor we need more of in our science fiction.
The One Thing About Lexx Everyone Loves: Yo, Yo way
If there’s one thing about Lexxit’s undeniably good, without any apology, caveat or hesitation: it’s the theme song of the series. It was added in season 3 and it’s one of the best decisions of the series.
THE Lexx The theme started as a fight song from Kai’s past, the Brunnen G’s fight song. It was used in the very first episode of the series. For by Lexx During the opening credits, the associated visuals still aren’t great, but the sound of those voices singing in battle is so good that it almost doesn’t matter.
If you hear it once, you’ll find yourself humming it in the car. Listen to Lexx’s theme song in the video below.
Check out Lexx’s crazy lust, but don’t blame us if it breaks your head
If you want to experience the pure madness and unbridled vivacity of Lexxmake sure you are not easily offended. Because breaking all the sensible rules of behavior, television and life in general is what Lexx does his best. Don’t blame us, when it breaks your head too.
You have been warned.
There has never been and there will never be anything like Lexx. This is probably why streaming is basically free, on services like Amazon. I mean, who would actually pay for that?
Except us, of course. We will see him again.
