Lexx - The Weirdest Sci-Fi Show I've Ever Seen
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- čas přidán 6. 07. 2024
- Among the numerous requests for Sci-Fi TV shows to cover, Lexx is one which consistently comes up so I decided to bite the bullet and after watching Lexx Season 1 I already have many thoughts.
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It was a fine show. The last few eps got a bit too odd though.
Lol Lexx was awesome glad sjw s hate it 🤣
Love ya brother, thank you
It's red dwarf had a baby with Dr. Who circa 1970. Loved it
Dude stop it with the "sex object" and other current day ideological BS. It doesn't make you look compassionate or good it just makes you look dumb and like a bigot most of the time because you are biased towards certain groups and against others.
Zev was obsessed with Kai because while she did not get the mind control aspects of her transformation she did get the enhanced libido, and when your choice is between Stanley Tweedle and a handsome zombie...
Yes; her sex slave transformation was incomplete. 790 got the obsession/obedience portion of Zev's transformation. The first person he saw and subsequently imprinted on was Zev. But yes: Zev's libido was zapped and SUPER enhanced. Plus, she got the DNA from a Cluster Lizzard mixed into her during the physical transformation... something that added even more animal instinct to her sex drive.
@@FAMUCHOLLY And then all of that gets thrown into a blender with a murderous man eating plant. lol. I know I've mentioned it in like two comments but it sticks out to me as the weirdest character in mainstream sci-fi to me.
@@BlazingOwnager Pretty sure the plant was a different character
@@jamesanthony5874 If I recall Zev died, but then was reborn at the plant. It was to explain a change of actress.
@@BlazingOwnager No, Zev died and is reborn as Xev. Different actress, but the same character with some modifications just to explain the change. Xev gets more cluster lizard "powers", since she in a a few episodes manages to roll like them to get to a place faster and the usual more strength and heat resistance (one eps in the third season that she and prince are lost in the desert of Fire and he dies, she is holding up quite fine).
The carnivorous plant it is Lyka or Lailka, a plant life form that probes Stanley mind and becomes her first love or girl of his dreams. She is normally in a stasis and pop up ocasualy to help or eat a bad guy of the week.
Lex had some of the most profound, and original sci-fi concepts come to life. Not all episodes are equal, but on a whole, Lex series should be on peoples watch list.
Yeah, but the initial 4 Showtime TV movies are not real good representatives of what the show became. You can watch the first for backstory, then largely skip the other three and go straight to the far better second season, without losing really anything.
The first season was my fave 😜
@@andrewtaylor940 but the second season didn’t have Eva.
@@tritisan Eva was great. But the writing got a little more interesting in season 2 with the whole Mandrid arc. Of the 4 season 1 TV movies, the 1st and 4th are enjoyable in that 90’s low budget straight to cable sort of way. #2 and 3 are generally awful.
@Andrew Taylor I half disagree. 1 and 4 of the movies are fantastic, very uinique and entertaining. Season 2 is the peak of the show in my opinion with a sharp drop off after, even with the bigger budget. Space adventure shows should be in space. They blew it taking the characters off the ship.
I worked on this show for roughly 2 years in Halifax Nova Scotia at Electropolis Studios in the background. I think I still have some old scripts kicking around.
it was good for the first two seasons. The Brunnen G Kai was a really good character
@@buckiemohawk3643The second season was all up and down in quality because they didn't know how to turn it into a full on series. The 3rd season is amazing, the 4th season is just fun.
Loved the show and tried to catch every episode.
Love this show. It feels like a really quirky old friend who's probably into experimental recreational substances but always there when you need them.
I've worked with a lot of the old Lexx CG crew at HalifaxFilms/DHX. I have the "Priest's Hole" bar sign prop in my basement. We probably know a lot of the same people!
To this day the theme song to Lexx will randomly get stuck in my head.
Late 90s Sci-fi just hit different. Remember spending lot of time watching Lexx and Farscape.
Tried Lexx and dropped it halfway. Might try again.
Love Farscape.
Did we watch the same show? So many fundamental misunderstandings in this review. Lexx is brilliant. The kitsch aesthetic and self-consciousness weirdness is part of the appeal. The civilisation is not insect but human, the insects lost the war. But the last surviving one used psychic powers to hide itself and rule from the shadows, seeking to destroy the humans by rotting their civilisation from within. A show best enjoyed at it's original showing time - far too late at night.
ganymede242 - Agreed. It really MUST be watched very late at night. The dreamlike, erotic and otherwordly qualities only make sense then. One of the reasons for the failure of season 4 was that it was set in daylight on a normal earth, which entirely broke the spell.
It seems like he only skimmed the show, judging from all the glaring mistakes he made in his review.
He definitely did not get the backstory right. I think he also doesn't realize the show is suppose to be low-budget and camp, and shouldn't be compared to sci-fi shows with bigger budgets. Although I agree that the first season could be sluggish, the second through fourth seasons were hilariously entertaining.
That's so accurate. It reminds of people who play horror games in the daytime with their friends.
@@anythinggoesguy Correct. He seems to think the show was competing to be Star Trek which I dearly love.
But it wasn't. The show actually advertised itself as ANTI TREK. And it was.
Plus he's looking at the worse season of Lexx. Lexx season 1 was kinda boring. Eva was nothing near Xenia. Eva didn't have a look. Xenia oh boy did she ever nail the love slave part.
And he's totally missing the point of Stanley. Stanley is supposed to be a loser! He's not suave Captain Kirk. He's not handsome and his pick up lines are atrocious. Basically he is the average guy. Who in the presence of a woman as drop dead WOW as Xenia says and acts even dumber than normal in an effort to impress her.
If he continues to watch the show you will see the 3 relationships evolve rather well. In particular Xev and Stan.
Lexx was criminally underrated and unapologetically weird.
And had some incredibly hot women in it!
I remember watching this in my teenage years, baked out of my mind. I really enjoyed it back then, but after watching it later on (and not high)...yeah. It was still weird, and I enjoy weird, but my god...good ideas so badly done.
But...Eva Habbermann was a joy to watch. Those shower scenes were very, very nice.
@@justiniansnow8919 Good ideas badly done, in ALL the fun right ways. This is the very epitome of "so bad, it's good", and I LOVE it for that.
i.e. perfect
Underrated is RED DWARF. This not so much. More like time capsule of cringe from the 90's. If rebooted with a decent cast, better writers, and a decent production budget. It could possibly be something worth watching.
You puzzled over Zev's "love" for Kai several times without telling us that she was raised by holographs on planet B3K preparing her for the wife bank. She gets married off to a spiteful little boy who rejects her and sent to be reprogrammed and physically reformed. Supervised by a robot, her reprogramming goes awry when a cluster lizard, released in the chaos of the bug bomb, gets its head stuck in the body reforming machine along with Zev and she winds up with cluster lizard DNA blended with hers. That explains both her desperate love for Kai, who was reanimated after his death by His Shadow, and her ability to call off the cluster lizards when they threated the crew. The robot head that becomes part of the crew got the brainwashing because when Zev's physical reprogramming was finished, she grabbed the robot head from the decapitated robot (again the chaos when the cluster lizards were released) and put the robot head in the machine for the mind reprogramming cycle and "he", equipped with a tiny smidge of human brain, falls in slavish love with Zev. There. I did your homework for you.
"then zev becomes a pile of goo and is reformed in to a new fake zev with inflatable lips and then you get to see some of the worst tv ever because the show is so low budget the story goes to modern day earth to save a few bucks and it gets worse from there".... 2 stars out of 5
i have learned recently that there have been unreleased short, where it is explained that the small particle of the brain in 790 is actually from a women, that was punished by the divine order for some ridiculus crime to "donate" her parts to the needs of the order.
@@Mike-ue8um but man the wild ride you take when watching this truly badass and wierd show is like a 4 out of 5. No need to wah wah over how bad it ends when the ride was freaking awesome.
He also puzzled over the seemingly human looking citizens from the "insect civilization"
Well, that's because the humans won that war. His Shadow is the mental/spiritual essence left behind one of the last of the insectoids. Since the death of the insectoid's physical bodies, his shadow is settling for slowly enslaving humanity from beyond the grave.
The actor doing Zev was replaced in series 2 onwards, Same character though.
It is a kind of love triangle, she is chasing the male that isn't interested while the other males, including the robot head are chasing her. none get anything in that way. Kai is reanimated death, nothing but ( programed in ) revenge in him.
Brian Downey was Stan Tweedle, Jeffrey Hirschfield was 790, Tom Gallant was the Lexx, Eva Habermann was Zev Bellringer, Xenia Seeberg was Xev Bellringer & Michael McManus was Kai. There were also a ton of celebrity appearances as characters as well.
Xenia Seeberg was Xev Bellringer - if I didn't know already I'd have to guess which was the actress and which the character name. 🤣
Rutger effin Hauer, S. Curry, M. McDowell...
@@VishnuZutaten S. Curry?
@@somercet1 Spiccccyyyyyyy
"But then Malcolm McDowel shows up for a monk fight"- should be a sentence said more often.
Right! We should throw him in bad movies to give the plot away, then a screen of him shaking his head walking away into a fog.
Never bring a priest to a monk fight.
If you try to take LEXX seriously you’re missing the point of it. Just have fun with it’s wackiness.
Like the time Lexx got shot at and he respond "ouch, ow...."
And the fact that LEXX has the shape of a giant penis.
You're absolutely right. Not only was the show a sci-fi made campy but it existed at the beginning of the computer graphic revolution.
the later seaasons mae that more abundantly clear. mfw: the gender swap episode.
No, actually, Lexx has some very serious and intelligent/philosophical undertones sometimes. A running theme is people never change and are motivated by base desires more than higher callings; it's a very misanthropic and pessimistic show.
In later seasons, I can't remember now, there is a totally engaging description of heaven and hell with the planets fire and water. Their description of hell is priceless. The being forced to pump air and the mechanism of failing to do so decapitates you, only to be reborn and be put through it all over again. The tone is really awesome. The darkest stuff I have ever seen.
That was Season 3. Malcolm McDowell played a version of Satan. And yes, a very interesting interpretation of the Heaven/Hell dynamic.
@@davidanderson_surrey_bc Nigel Bennet played the Satan Character
The Reviewer: "So when do I start to understand Lexx?"
The Lexx Fandom: "That's the neat part, you don't!"
The Lexx is surprisingly logically consistent.
You can defiantly understand it if you follow along.
Lexx is one of the very few sci-fi series made after Star Wars that was not derivative of Star Wars. Lexx was brilliant because of how unique and unpredictable it was.
Lexx is one of the very few sci-fi series made after Star Wars that was not derivative of Star Wars. Lexx was brilliant because of how unique and unpredictable it was.
Lexx is one of the very few sci-fi series made after Star Wars that was not derivative of Star Wars. Lexx was brilliant because of how unique and unpredictable it was.
Lexx is one of the very few sci-fi series made after Star Wars that was not derivative of Star Wars. Lexx was brilliant because of how unique and unpredictable it was.
Lexx is high camp, and should be judged and appreciated on that level. "I Worship His Shadow," for example, drew heavily upon the jokey, cult sci-fi film "The Ice Pirates" (1984). Once you accept this about it, you start to pick up more on its dark humor and irony. There are some exciting moments when the series really transcends itself, and while the writing is often cringe-worthy, it can also be highly imaginative. An example is the season 2 villain, Mantrid, who controls self-replicating drone arms that increase exponentially as they use planets, stars and galaxies as raw material to build more drone arms. The battle in the season finale takes place on a cosmic scale, and resolves in a clever way that avoids the usual sci-fi cliches.
I agree that the second and third movies are weak. Season 2 is the high point, in my opinion. Season 3 is also good, but very different in tone. Its setting is also very original. Season 4 is not so great, but it does resolve the series, and those who have watched the first three seasons and missed the fourth should, at the very least, watch the series finale, because it is cathartic.
I started watching Lexx when season 2 was airing on the Sci-fi Channel, and this enhanced the overall weirdness of the show, because I had missed the earlier content that established the characters and setting. Curiosity motivated me to keep watching in spite of its B-quality presentation. It became my favorite show during the time it aired, and while it's not for everyone, I do think that most people tend to judge it prematurely.
the fact tim currys role wasn't even mentioned in passing is a clear indicator we are listening to the opinions of someone who dont know camp
@buddy guy I'm confused... he did mention it though...
Ice Pirates is also a masterpiece
Season 2 was not a highpoint of the show 😅 definitely not. But it's cool that you have that impression. They didn't know how to turn it into a series at that stage so it was very experimental and all over the place with some gems and some absolute trash. The web and net episodes are the same exact thing done over with just one single change for example... Those are trash and there were a few like that.
By the third season they knew what they were doing and it's basically just pure art. The forth is just for fun.
@@Theduckwebcomics Chill out, man. It's just a preference.
Things you got wrong:
The civilization is ruled by humans, although the Divine Shadow is secretly an insect
Kai was not a warrior when he was alive, explaining the haircut. He comes from a warrior culture in spite of that (elaborated in season 2)
Stanley has reasons for being cowardly that I don't want to spoil and are elaborated in season 2.
to expand on that the Brunen G were key in winning the actual war against the insects, and the Divine Shadow is the last survivor of the insects past that war
Tadas Rimkus after the original war the Brunan G perfected immortality and became a stale culture. They weren’t warriors when His Shadow arrived in the Foreshadow to wipe them out. They didn’t even want to fight back. They wanted to die. Only Kia and a few braves fought back using ancient insect starfighters they found in a museum.
Also how sad were you when blue zev died. That hurt a lot 😂
@@jamp12008 didn't want to go too much into the details not to get ppl spoiled, on the details. for me Lexx is one of the best sci-fi series, yes the effects might be tacky but the thought woven into the stories and some world representation at that time, and some things still apply for today's world as well
@@jamp12008 Spoiler, that isn't revealed until season 2.
Oooooooh. So this actually exists and wasn't a fever dream.
Can't it be both?
I thought the same
I thought it was a side effect of the volume of Grolsch, Warsteiner, Bitburger and Einbecker beer I was consuming at the time.
Same. Its one of those "did I just have a really weird dream that stuck with me?", but yes, it was real. Even weirder.
This comment is the best description of Lexx ever made.
This show definitely doesn’t suck. It is beyond weird but it embraces its weirdness without a hint of irony. It just comes off incredible. When this first appeared on Showtime, we couldn’t get enough. Season 3 is the peak though.
Weirdly enough my introduction was catching half an episode from Season 3 and then I went and bought Season 1 on DVD.
@@jonstfrancis That's probably a good way to have lucked into it as well. The guy playing Prince in Season 3 gives the series so much gravitas and a twisted sense of serenity in contrast to the rest of the cartoonish chaos.
@nemock that would be Nigel Bennett, who was/is awesome in everything he's in. Particularly shines in Forever Knight.
I would recommend season 2 it has 20 episodes a few stinkers but plenty of good episodes too. Season 3 gives us a brilliant villain and is a bit shorter. Season 4 is just silly even by Lexx standards.
I'd have to agree more or less. First 4 movies were okay and weird. Second season gets more weird, but probably has some of the best memories of any sci-fi show I've watched. Season 3 is also quite good and more polished - maybe a little long in parts. Season 4...kinda hit and miss - Some amazing stand alone episodes, but a few real stinkers too - don't think I've seen such an extreme of good/bad mix in a season of TV.
@@PeppersnGlowworms I like Mantrid alot but you see so little of him overall, at least with Prince we get to enjoy him everytime he is on screen. The guy basically becomes a cast member even though he is really their mortal enemy.
To me a lot of season 2 is about getting to the insane ending. Sure in Trek they blow up ships and in SG1 occasionally even destroy a solar system but Lexx has taken out multiple realities.
Yo Way Yo, Home Va-Ray,
Yo Ay-Rah, Jerhume Brunnen-G
I can hear this comment. It's my alarm tone for my phone.
I can hear it to
Brunnen G ❤️
preach it bro
I sing it to my 3-year-old daughter, to her great confusion.
Did you Really just stumble upon Lexx?? Wow, you are in for a TREAT! the series progresses in a most interesting and deeper than the pedestrian eye would catch way , the writing gettings deep and adds more comedy (despite the innuendos) I hope you enjoy the bizarre weirdness :)
This guy obviously didn't really watch the series, otherwise he would have understood the whole bug thing.
I loved this series.
To fun.
He only watched the movies, which is kinda lazy. I don't like reviews from people who won't watch something fully and clearly based on other comments, didn't even pay attention to the few he watched. I love this channel, but this video was weak.
Do you mean to use the expression "too fun" or are you proposing a toast?
Lexx was a great show. He just didn't get it. Also, wrong universe.
Chris Lichowicz ah yeah, that’s right, the movies (except for their trip to Brunnen) were in the light universe.. most of the series along with earth hehe is in the dark zone
He failed to catch many of the key parts of even the first season such as the whole deal with his shadow, the insect civilization and even the BrunnenG (though BrunnenG is better explained in the season 2 Brigadoon)
Humans beat the insects but the insect that survived uses his essence to inhabit a human body and rule the humans that way.
also they secretly feed humans to Lexx & GigaShadow
With the intention of continuing the mission to which all his kind are instinctively driven: Exterminate anything that is not a fellow insect.
Thats right. This video has made the misconception the the League of 20,000 Planets and the insect civilization are the same thing. They're not. The insects were defeated as you pointed out.
That's for adding to my comment i didn't want to add everything and look like I was ranting
Vyl Bird but that wasn’t the predecessors plan? They built the Lexx to suppress rebellion. Only the last His Shadow wanted to go all out and exterminate everything. Even though he wasn’t properly blended with his new host and still had some human stuff going on. But (CENSORED COZ SPOILING) and the end of season 2 anyway.
I censored myself. I got chinned for spoiling earlier 😂
Lexx came at that weird period of sci-fi TV that Red Dwarf, Farscape, Babylon 5 all dressed the sci-fi landscape in a totally unique way. None were the spit-and-polish of all the Star Trek series. All were new and fresh sci-fi that I, myself, found extremely refreshing, as grimy as the shows felt. There was a rawness to them that somehow made the characters more... human. Brief as it was, it was a kind of dirty golden time for TV sci-fi. I miss it.
I love this show and until now I thought it had been cancelled after one season. I just looked it up and discovered that it went on to complete its full story arch. now I wanna see it all!
Has there ever been a better title than ”His Divine Shadow”?
It does have a certain ominous appeal.
I agree. And May His Shadow Fall Upon You.
No. It’s so regal. Like saying his majesty or his nutsack
Lol I remember I named my WiFi ‘The Dark Zone’ and the password was ‘I Worship His Shadow’ 😂😂😂
Pattie Cimino I’m goni do that. That’s amazing 👍
If you watch the entire series you may notice that the show's genius lies in the story and not the visual effects. I watched every bit of it and grew to care less and less about the special effects quality. Zev fell in love with Kai because he's attractive and the only stable thing she's ever had in her life. In later episodes we discover that she'd been abused her entire life and never experienced anything like real friends.
"Look... why should we... just... replay what's already happened, lets re-write the end." -Stanley H. Tweedle S02E18 Brigadoom
Lexx is Art, its like a Japanese manga in real life.
"The wheel it turns, it comes around.
It makes an ancient RUMBLING sound."
Season 2: Is episodic like TNG, it's ok.. there is the sweet soil of Potatohome and the peckish Lyekka..
Season 3: Has an overall heaven and hell planet arc, it has extra metaphysical weirdness, plus Bunny's volleyball pants..
Season 4: Is mostly more episodic again, but they find Earth and eat the Dutch and monster stomp Japan..
Sex theme is.. German humour.. Sexual frustration ist funny ja?
It's like watching classic Doctor Who.. Ignoring the iffy effects is just part of how you enjoy it..
There is enough gold in Lexx to be worth the sifting, I'd say..
Virtuuuuuueeeee. Potatohoeeeeeeeeee.
ist es wirklich!
"Ignoring the iffy effects is just part of how you enjoy it" Yes! This! Though I don't generally ignore them as I find them endearing.. :D
well the german only was included in 3 seasons and for last season it was only british/canadian which is why it was never translated or shown in germany :/
@@patrickkanne they remind me of 90s video game FMV sequences, which strangely give them a different approach for hooking me. That effect makes me more invested rather than breaking my suspension of disbelief.
The Higgs Boson (god particle) was a storyline whose discovery led to the destruction of Earth.
I think the reviewer missed the idea with this series.
It is basically an "'up yours" to Hollywood and deliberately goes against the common tropes. As for visual effects, Kai's hair, etc, the series is intended to be more like theater. IE symbolic, over the top and willing to play with crazy new ideas. It is NEVER completely serious, or "cool". In this light Stanly is deliberately an anti-hero. The reason the love slave is madly in love with Kai is, surprise, because she is a love slave. And even a reanimated corpse is more appealing to her than Stanly.
Back in the 90s I really enjoyed Lexx, so to have it ripped to pieces saddens me. I watched it all again a few years back and still thoroughly enjoyed it, mainly for it's weirdness and imagination. I suppose we are all entitled to our own opinions and I'll give you there may well be a real case for criticising the series for production issues due to a low budget.
But they tried well enough to produce something original, different and pretty memorable as sci-fi goes. To me it was never boring, sometimes adventurous, sometimes funny or silly or even satirical. Sexy, sure - why not? Quite philosophical sometimes, and even sad in parts. Myself, I hold Lexx in high esteem, warts and all.
I have a love for this show that persists to this day. I found the show to be fantastic, yet I recognize and acknowledge that there were many flaws. Even with the weirder than weird plots, some episodes made me cringe in spots. The characters allowed me to, not overlook, but overcome the flaws.
Looking at it from today's perspective I can see some of the points he is making, but for it's time it's was totally unique and acceptable in terms of it's effects. It's kinda something that you had to experience at the time it was made to fully appreciate it. It just looks like a show with a softcore porn budget by today's standards and I can see why someone new might not get it. It's a product of a time and those times are long gone unfortunately. The sex slave thing and an all white leading cast would probably not go over so well today.
@Stimpy&Ren Why focus so much on CGI? It was very early CGI and low budget. Sure you can compare to Babylon 5 and Farscape, but this show was much lower budget.
@Stimpy&Ren I know, I didn't mean that directed to you. Lexx is my favorite show.
It was unique I guess, we need shows like that every now and then to brake away from the trope of the epic personal adventure or galactic war that engulfs science fiction.
I worship His Shadow.
May his shadow fall upon you!
Long may he reign
May his merciful shadow fall upon you.
His Divine Shadow for president 2020.
May his merciful shadow fall upon.... Me. Preferably.
"Tweedle, you SLUT!!"
"Congratulations, mass murderer."
- 790 had so many great lines
Back when it was still on the air a buddy of mine summarized Lexx as "They took all the sex scenes out of a European porno, and were left with a Sci-fi show"
I still think of it that way. Then a lot of the weirdness and shoddy VFX is is at least understandable
Last time I was this early, I still worshipped His Shadow
Ha!
This show was awesome back in the day. I remember reading a magazine interview with the writers Lex Gigeroff and Jeffrey Hirschfield, they said it was partly a satire of "straight" drama and sci-fi like Star Trek, and that sexual seduction and selfish desire was at the heart of so much in human history that that's why all the sexual imagery and lust-driven plotlines came from. Season 1 is probably the best, the others are very different to each other. Season 2 had some weird villain sets and character designs, like a low budget Jean-Pierre Jeunet, but often very corny humour and sitcom-like plots. Season 3 was more serious and surreal, elements of Jeunet also, but much slower and sometimes just dragged. Season 4 was set on Earth, much more satirical and funnier but the plots very OTT and silly. But a unique show
One last thing.... There was some additional material somewhere that also reveals Stanley Tweedle to be the Creator of the Lexx, but His Divine Shadow wiped his memory, making him a subservient, ignorant drone, as a punishment.
Hahaha, I was an extra on this show as a Moth Breeder. Not sure if the footage was ever used, but it was easy money for a teenager.
I was an avid fan back when this show aired. But that was more due to being present as the insanity came out, being greatly amused by how the show had some original and uncompromising concepts, but also took TV sci-fi tropes and utterly went the opposite way, for good or ill. And that's the thing with the show. I can't rightly say now whether it would be worth it, as I don't remember enough of it anymore. A lot of it's appeal at the time (for younger, silly me) was that "it went there", which admittedly looking back on what bits I still remember, doesn't mean that simply by "going there", the experience and story is ultimately worthwhile.
The first "season" (which is admittedly a very uneven series of four tv movies) helps to establish the level of imagination and audacity of the show. The subsequent seasons settled into a mold and pacing more akin to a normal show of the day, following many typical tv plotlines, with the difference being the conclusion each week was the opposite of what TNG would have done at the time, to rude and laughable... but also permanent, effect. I somewhat suspect the creators were as shocked as the audience they got more seasons, so they proceeded to do TNG with the most dysfunctional ship and crew. But even this approach changed by season three. And the free form free fall continued from there.
If I had to say one overall thing about Lexx, it had the guts to follow through with every bad decision the characters/writers made along the way. The compounding of the mess that comes about was certainly something I don't know another show ever had the guts, or perhaps gall, to keep running with. Bearing in mind, most shows of the day either had a very gradual and eventual evolution of an overall story, OR fairly inconsequential week to week adventures. Lexx, instead, just kept damaging it's characters and setting with every story to such a degree that it's continuity was actually being permanently marred. It was frankly hard to look away because I remember wondering, where can they possibly go from here?
I'm sort of repeating my thoughts on it now, I suppose what I'm saying is, the end result I can't say will be satisfying. But the journey, maybe if observed as an experiment in willfully writing oneself into an elaborate and bizarre corner, could be.
P.S. You may not be aware, but due to casting conflicts, they had to recast the Xev character with another, in sort of a Doctor Who-esque fashion. Yet another strange facet in a litany of strange that was Lexx.
Only things I'd add is that I think the mid seasons resemble farscape plots more than Trek and season 4 had alot in common on the surface with the same point in Andromeda.
Avenue 5 is intentionally making bad decisions, does that count :)
Thanks to an illness that wiped huge chunks of my memory, I re-discovered Lexx and rewatched it. And it still holds up. After season 1, episodes are hit-or-miss, and the "sex plots" are clearly aimed at 90's teens (admittedly the weird/smart ones), but it's still a lot of fun.
First two seasons were really good in their bizzare way, third one was a bit meh although the concept itself was pretty interesting and different, while season 4 is an outright insult to the fanbase with perhaps one good episode (the chess game) it seems like somebody decided they want x2 more episodes with half of the budget I would suggest just skipping it.
"Its" not "it's" for the possessive form of "it." "It's" means "it is."
This series was definitely way ahead of its time, much love for it!
Regarding your critique on why "the Insect Civilization" doesn't have much insect-ish elements to it, if you pay attention to the story His Shadow pretty much hides the true "Insect" origins from the general public of the Light Zone, his empire isn't even called "the Insect Civilization" but rather The Divine Order. Remember that dawning realization to Kai at the end of the fourth feature in Season 1, that His Divine Shadow is a survivor of the Insect Civilization, that's because nobody except for His Shadow knew of the ties between the actual Insect Civilization Kai's ancestors fought and the Divine Order Kai himself was destined to defeat.
LEXX is so high up , he cant reach it or grasp it....
The very most important thing you have to understand about LEXX is that it was intended to be a SciFi series based around the B movie SciFi aesthetic, which NO other scifi series was doing and that it did amazingly successfully.
It makes sense of every single thing You complain about, nothing drags, nothing fails, nothing is weird, it's all deliberate and works as intended.
It's MEANT to be creepy and sexy. At the time and even now there was nothing else that took the classic 1980s B movie SciFi feel with its hyper sexuality, horror, and kitsch and made a series around it. Everything else was either a straight serious series or full on comedy, there was no one else doing what LEXX did and for that it deserves to be celebrated and cherrished.
I was raised on it as a child it's a masterpiece
Quite the childhood you had there.
i know you commented this 2 years ago but i came to this video because this show was somthing my brother and I used to watch with our dad when we were about 6 or 7 and it made a great impression on us as kids. it still comes to me sometimes as fever dreams or suppressed childhood memories and now I really want to watch this show again as an adult and figure out what this whole childhood trauma was about.
@@berg_ahorn The entire series is available to watch for free here on CZcams. Dive on in.
Old comment but yes, me too, and I agree.
late to the party but I too, grew up on this scifi. now everyone I know gets initiated into it by me lmfao.
Hey, at least they never need to worry about destroying their shuttles since Lexx can grow more
As long as there are some moth breeders present
The Lexx Prime Directive is to stay alive, even if you have to obliterate a few galaxies to do it.
Voyager was a Lexx. True story.
Stanley being unlikable is literally the point. He’s supposed to be unlikable lol.
In the Lexx series, the war between humans and insect civilization is human beings' victory, and then human civilization slowly turns into a centralized empire similar to the Nazis, which is not insect civilization but human civilization.
But the answer was revealed in the fourth episode of the movie. A Zerg survived the war and hid underground. After a few centuries, its consciousness possessed a miner, and then used this miner to infiltrate human society and turn human civilization into a totalitarian empire.
Lexx was great, highschool lexx nerd here
"The Weirdest Sci-Fi Show I've Ever Seen" was literally the concept of this show.
i still laugh to this day to the one villain using an N64 controller as a remote xD xD
I remember interviews at the time and Gigeroff used to say stuff like "We'll blow up a planet every week or your money back!" He sounded like a real character and I was sad to read of his relatively young death.
After the Titan submersible disaster, that game controller scenario no longer feels far-fetched!
This also jogs a memory of '80s-era Cybermen wearing silver-painted cricket gloves.
Lexx being a German-Canadian co-production explains so much. I love that it's so crazy. And the CGI really works for this show and, to me, resists the passage of time. Not because it's good but because it fits its aesthetic. Is it a good show? YMMV but the things that work (again YMMV) really work and are interesting.
Fighter pilot? No, Stanley was a "deputy assistant backup courier" for the resistance if my memory serves me right. Well, always happy to see anyone talk about a good show. I enjoyed Lexx because it was just so "out there".
I think Zev's infatuation with Kai is obvious - he's impressive and unobtainable.
No , while Zev was being turned into a sex slave she was imprinted with a code that makes her fall in love with the first person she sees which was supposed to be her new master, yet Kia showed up instead
And also she has a raging libido thanks to the love slave transformation.
Robot head spends half the show obsessed with Kai also due to the same reason though he used to be obsessed with Zev.
@@lupobouguereau8777 No that code gets imprinted on the Robot.
Zev would be happy to settle for any man she can get. Unfortunately the only other people on the ship are a disembodied head, Kai, and Stanley. Given the choice between Stanley and a dead man with no equipment, she still considers the reanimated corpse a better prospect.
When I watched it, it always reminded me much more of "Red Dwarf" than "Babylon 5", "Battlestar Galactica", ect.
For me the greatest episode from Lexx was an early standalone episode in season 2 called "LaffTrak". This was ahead of it's time in terms of satirising reality TV and people being obsessed with obtaining their 15 mins of fame. This episode really captures the whole dark weirdness of Lexx in a single episode. The show definitely peaked in season 2. It didn't seem to work as well in the latter seasons when they got bogged down on a single planet, although season 3 is definitely a lot better than 4.
A coworker recommended me this show today and surprisingly it’s free to watch on CZcams, this show is something I’ve never seen before gives me red dwarf vibes but it’s not a comedy yet I must continue to watch
It’s not a space slug. It’s a cluster lizard
haha That got me too!! :)
I watched it recently on Amazon Prime and it aged very well! Even the Full CG Sets hold up to the style of the show very well! A masterpice and should be in every scifi collection!
Zev Bellringer, not Bellinger. Get it? 😂 Lexx is fantastic. Tim Curry and Rutger Hauer joined in.
And dont forget Barry Bostwick in epeisode one, AKA Brad in RHPS!
I LOVED this show, it was so weird and cool. a widely misunderstood and underrated series.
I had a TV In my bedroom back in the late 90s. I used to stay up and watch shows that I shouldn't. Keeping the volume low so my parents wouldn't hear. I remember stumbling on LEXX one night. My 10 year old brain was captivated by it's visuals. It was one of the later seasons, Zev is played by a different actress in the episodes I saw, back then. I became enamored with the show, and I think Zev was one of my first actually crushes haha. I would make sure I caught as many episodes as I could. The visuals, crazy stories, the awesome sword guy with crazy hair, the talking robot head and wired bug ship. And of course the really hot girl I didn't quite understand why I liked her so much 😂😂. This show holds a special place in my heart. The nostalgic level of this one for me is through the roof. I say don't give up on it and watch the rest. It gets better in its own wired way. Try and appreciate it for what it is and it's quirkiness. I think after a while you will get it. Or not. Maybe I'm biased. Haha
This!! This is exactly the appeal I felt for the show too. I remember watching it on a local aussie tv station, SBS, and was 'wtf did I just watch?" and a few years later it nagged at me. in the mid 2000's I found it again online and binged the lot. Loved it.
I even captured that segment of the episode where that brain thingo alien was making the crew of a crashed ship imagine different scenarios... the one with whats his face, shirtless, in shorts and boots, tending a potato farm, with the alien asking him "Are you gonna play in your garden, or play with me?" and he looks around, grunts and says "uuugh, garrddeenn.." and continues watering it, but it's all these peoples heads in the field. And as he waters one head, says " Good garden. Good virtue. Drink up... Garden is virtue.. Cheer up, son. Garden is value. Home sweet home Potatoho.."
Lmfao
really well described, what it wasm and how. and yes, my little brain could barely handle that show, but i kept watching it. even tho, i felt uncomfortable doing so. was like a feverdream.
@@ksenomorf4566 Like when you're 10 years old and have been fishing at the ocean all day, come home on sunday evening, and fall asleep by the fire place. The family is over, all the adults in the kitchen playing poker, and they didn't bring their kids, so you wake up alone in the living room, around 10pm, and on the tv, is this strange, bizarre, surreal thing. You're fixated, incapable of comprehending it's reason for existence, yet by the now dimly ebbing fire place, and the dancing shadows cast all around you, you are fixated.
you forget this bizarre event for many decades, till something in the back of your mind reminds you of it, it did happen, you just know it. Luckily by now you have access to the internet, and try all means of search terms. All the strange things. The flying talking bug that kept falling off things, the robots, the fire, the darkness yet whimsical nature of it... till one day, you hit pay dirt.
There it is, there is this thing that burnt itself into you psyche as a child. In all it's torrent glory. All yours for the taking. And as you watch it with fresh eyes, it burns a deeper pathway into your soul....
then it gets a bit weird, and you think "I liked it better before." but eh... est quod est, nil desperandum....
Zev is played by a different actress in the second episode of season two.
Lexx is Blake's 7 if it was made in the 90's.
We will fight to the end. and then once again. it will be a good way to die
Season 3 is the best that the show has, especially with the introduction of Prince, but you should 100% definitely watch the entire series, otherwise you can't judge it accurately!
Prince was an extremely charismatic antagonist.
When I was young, I enjoyed the LEXX series in a "camp" or "cheesy" sort of way. Back then, I was able to identify myself more like the character of Kai. Now that I am decades older, I probably am more like Stan (although I would stubbornly never admit that to myself).
LEXX was definitely dystopia Sci-Fi, and my naive younger self thought that type of dystopia can never become true. Now, I see how our world has changed over the decades (for the worst) and the dystopia world of LEXX is more than likely than ever before, and will eventually become true (especially as depicted in "I Worship His Shadow").
Lexx came out before the Internet. It also came out when I was a young horny teenager. So, I am embarrassed to say is why I enjoyed it at the time. :-P
Gene Roddenberry predictive it pretty well.
@@RPGmodsFan Commercial internet became available in '89, also I love your work RPGmods! :)
Lexx is a low-budget, extremely weird satire. The problem with a lot of SF shows is they try to be over-dramatic and deliver a serious message, and fail. LEXX never took itself seriously. You can't really compare it to the great SF shows, apples and oranges. At first I found it dumb, but got really hooked and watched all 4 seasons. This is a Terry Gilliam, SF and black comedy style show, which is really fun. 2nd season is case/episode, 3rd season has a story of its own, kinda like ST Enterprise's 3rd season, and 4th season they are stuck on contemporary Earth, and it is a great satire of modern USA.
And I can't believe you never mentioned that robot head, the 4th crew member. Overall, this is the most creative and weird show I have watched, Lexx is a different, original experience, and the writers are really great, and I missed the characters after watching the Series finale.
Don't take this seriously, this is a SF-horror-dark comedy satiric masterpiece.
And that Brunnen G song, which is in the opening credits of 2nd and 3rd seasons, is the most memorable theme song of all SF shows.
Exactly!
I noticed also that the "weird pacing" actually helps some of the jokes land.
Sometimes I catch myself humming brunnen G tune.
Yo-way-yo
Exactly. This falls in the sub-genre of Sci-Fi comedy similar to that of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Unfortunately, there is a group of sci-fi fans how there that really don't like this small and rare part of sci-fi. But for me, I love sci-fi comedy and wish there was more of it around.
@@davideflory
Hitchhiker's Guide for perves would actually encapsulate this show pretty well.
Stanley = Arthur
790 = Marvin
Zev/Xev = Trillian.
Which makes Kai Zaphod, though the two aren't very alike.
Wow, I totally forgot about Lexx!! Thanks for a trip down memory lane :)
the Lexx ship: it looks like a dragonfly without the wings, but if you look at it backwards, you get
"Dr. Freud, there is a call for you, Dr. Freud, please use the house phone"
i think you misounderstood the empire in this series it was outworldy an human empire secretly controlled by the last insect. atleast thats what i remember. the insects were beaten but one survived and subverted the humans goverment
I think you are correct
Ah right that would make sense
His Divine Shadow was the last insect possessing a human host.
@@kamui003 ...not just ANY human host; the most evil, vile, and vicious human they could find. Remember, the last His Shadows purification was incomplete and his psychotic tendencies resulted in the end oh humanity... at least the end of the cluster. Good show!
@@kamui003 And the actual insect was the Imperial Throneworld itself. Rolled up like a pill bug.
Nah, the low fi green screen /vfx gave it its style. It was part of the whole feel.
It’s bad cgi is part of its charm. The over the top sexuality is just a magnified take on how sex dominates the world we live in. Weird, but a classic show!
Oh man I absolutely LOVE Lexx, but I do get that it's a bit like an expensive cheese. You either love it or think it stinks. lol
In season 2 we change out Eva Habermann (Zev) with Xenia Seeberg (Xev -my favorite) and things get actually weirder, but more comedic, which might make more sense to you because the flow doesn't take itself as seriously (you have to watch season 4 they come to Earth) LOL .
Stanley Tweedle is very much like Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf season 1, but make him evil and incredibly more selfish. Just like Rimmer, he is responsible for the death of large amounts of people based on incompetence, he's a coward, always puts himself first, but has a vulnerable side that can be endearing. In Season 3 of Lexx Stanely actually goes through an Inquisitor type of situation when he dies and goes to Hell and has to be judged by an alternate version of himself.
Zev is obsessed with Kai and falls quickly in love with him because she was raised in a Box, literally. Her family gave her to the Wife Bank, and being cut off from people, plus her high libido makes her fall in love fast. As the series continues she falls for others, but each one turns out to be a "Bad Man" as she calls them, and so she always falls back in love with Kai.
Some of the best fun is when 790 the robot head falls in love with Kai and turns on Xev. He becomes such a crazy, horrible, hilarious character that I would definitely continue with the series just for that.
Overall I would say please give my favorite show Lexx another try! There are so many fun characters, crazy concepts and truly unique plots that I think you would really enjoy as the series goes on. Though you didn't really like it, I still appreciate you doing a review on it, because not many people do. You gave the cheese a taste...who knows...put it on some toast and you might fall in love with the next bite. LOL
Yo-Way-Yo
Lexx was *so* out there that it’s amazing it was ever made.... and I loved it! I watched it on 1st run in 1997 channel 5. It was a strange time for SciFi, real experimentation and we (the viewers) forgave it all in service to the story.
Same, Late night channel 5 ate up a lot of my time, but only Lexx was worth staying up for really, I will always see Lexx starting as 4 two hour long movies.
Gotta be careful, this series is a beloved show and putting a spotlight on it might draw the attention of the cancel culture. Anime and old british comedies are already on their hit list and I hate to see this show get the same treatment.
Watch the rest of it. Worth it. Farscape was the only other SciFi show that ever came close to this kind of weirdness, but Lexx still has them beaten by miles.
I met Eva Habermann at a screening of Under ConTROLL last year. She seemed terrified that anyone remembered this show.
Fans should probably not be allowed out after dark.
I always had the strong belief I was the only one watching this. Comments evidence to the other wise. Never had anyone to to talk about Lexx and as always had no acquaintances to share my opinions on this show as well as others.
Same. I'm shocked so many other people remembered this show
There is still a somewhat active group on Facebook if you're interested.
@@xylord18 do not have Facebook account but I did Alex forums . It is about what you expect from the fan base
@@kassjazzy
It's good to recall it.
I haven't thought about it in a long time.
It was interesting to pitch a show solely at drug - addled college students.
If you play any MMO ask around about it. You'll find a few people and have fun discussing it.
I binge watched all seasons a couple of years ago, and I thought it was a brilliant show. To understand LEXX you have to think of it as an anti star trek show. Where star trek is about clean polished machines, lexx is about messy biomechanics. The protagonists of star trek are brave and driven by lofty ideals such as peace in the galaxy. By contrast the protagonists of Lexx are often cowards (Stan) and driven by natural desires such as lust and hunger. Where star trek is an exploration of new worlds, Lexx is in many ways an exploration of the human psyche, which makes the somewhat crappy cgi less relevant. There is a lot of subtile or absurd humor in this show as well, and I think it should be compared to red dwarf in that sense.
excellent summary
If you didn't like the first "season" then you probably won't like the rest. The character of Xev is recast partway through the second season, explained as the original Xev being killed and an alien recreating her. Of course, it didn't help that the SciFi Channel aired the episodes out of order, starting with the new Zev rather than picking up where the movies left off. There were some other production changes as well, resulting in a different look for some of the sets. As I understand it, the movies were made as a miniseries, never intended to be continued, then SFC came along and wanted to continue it.
Season 2 is mostly a bunch of stand-alone episodes. Season 3 sees the crew stuck between two planets and introduces a mystical theme. The final season is in my opinion the worst. They arrive on Earth and encounter duplicates of characters that they've met before, all playing different parts. There are comical misadventures (like Stan claiming to be a "fluffer" on a porn film, without understanding what that actually means), a simpering moron as the president of the United States (at least they got that part right) and a scourge of alien carrots destroying the entire universe.
Personally, I think the first two seasons are the best, although season 3 did have what I consider to be Kai's best line while being interrogated by a bunch of officials; "I have killed mothers and their babies. I have killed great philosophers and proud young warriors. I have killed the evil and the good, the intelligent, the weak and the beautiful, but it's been a while since I slaughtered a whole room full of petty bureaucrats! "
(may not be exact, online resources differ in the wording) :)
i found this on one of our random streaming channels on roku. I told my wife "Man, I used to watch this all the time when i was in my 20's" so I watched some of it. ya its not aged well...
There’s a special place in my heart for Lexx beyond my usual love for sci-fi.
"The dead do not feel pain," That is what I took from this show.
The dead do not poo.
brigadoom is still my favourate in-series musical episode of a tv show ITS SO GOOD
That's the ultimate summation, "Meh"? Ah Rowen.
Did you forget Kai ( the brilliant Michael McManus) lost his head more than once along the show and he was technically an undead ? Honestly his hair style was a minor concern during combat.
Fell in love w/ LEXX despite viewing it lo_ong after originally broadcast. It reminded me of 80-90's Sci-fi Anime for its boundless imagination and weirdness. In fact, being animated rather than filmed live would've kept imaginative possibilities high, while erasing the inevitable aging of its SFX. The characters became so compelling throughout EACH season; The stakes, set pieces and drama evermore compellingly bizarre. In its own fearless category, that's for certain!
this guy doesnt have a clue. its a masterpiece
Stan is Humanity.
Zev is Fertility.
KIA is Death.
790 is Ego.
His Divine Shadow is Malevolent Evil.
The Universe is the unforgiving Wilderness mankind is in after God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.
Main theme is that "We Are Our Worst Enemy."
Life and Death are often in love and connected.
I started watching this by mistake. I thought it was something else, and then it pulled me in with the batshit craziness. It was just different, weird and had me wondering how the hell did they get away with this.
Thanks for Covering my favorite Science Fiction Show.
By the Way Zev Bellringer was sold as a small Child to the Wife Bank because her Parents were afraid that she would not fit into the System like the other Children.
She spend her Life in a Box learning from Hologramms.
Stan and Kai were the first Friends she met.
Together with 790 they fight themselves out of the toughest Situation.
I see Zev Bellringer as a Fighter never giving up and I can relate to that
The wheel, it turns, it comes around. It makes an ancient, rumbling sound.
The wheel it turns. It rolls around. It makes an ancient rrrummbling sound.
Second seasons is more comedic and gets weirder, ya should try it more
Mayhaps :)
Agreed with @grafotter
The overall arch for season 2 is the most different plot i have seen in a sci fi ever.
Season 2 is the only reason I love Lexx, Lexx is generally all over the place but season 2 watched late evening is class!
@@RowanJColeman I personally thought Season 2 was very good. The solution in the finale was very clever.
Each season has a theme. Season 2 makes some strides in world building. Season 3 has a heaven/hell theme. It gets amazing. If you watch any, at least watch season 3.
i think season 3 had the same problem, i was always waiting for something to happen. if they had had half the number of episodes, it might have been better.
I got bored and couldn't finish season 3.
It didn't seem to be going anywhere (literally or figuratively).
season 2 is the best, IMO
Season three had a great idea they didn’t do anything with
@@keychainere yeah but the themes were strong. It's my favorite season but I get if you didn't like it. The show does fight one's enjoyment.
When 790 got a muscle body and tried take Stan up the wrong'un
You won't see that in trek.
1:39 I’m not sure if the video maker deliberately erroneously described the war of humanity vs. the insect civilization to avoid spoilers or if he just didn’t understand it because he wasn’t fully paying attention since he didn’t enjoy the show.
This one of those shows that seem where the writer try to get away with as much as they can and producer did not check the script until they started filming.
As it should be.
What I remember most about this show is the weird tongue toilet.
The Lexx didn't miss a chance to eat. Waste nothing!
Thanks, I'd successfully forgotten that.
@elf twentyfive st0p
What I remember most was the swarm of arms.
@@Phelan666 What fresh hell is this?
The silliness and tackiness of the show are what makes it enjoyable and unique among sci fi shows. There's some bite scenes here and there that makes it worthwhile. I fell asleep before I can get through the whole show as the shows air way late at night..
I completely forgot about this show. Saw them all. All I recall is that I enjoyed it at the time.