By Joshua Tyler and Jonathan Klotz | Published
The Sci-Fi Channel in the late 1990s was a realm of weird and unknown shows that you could only read about in TV Guide. Of all the oddities of the canal in those days, none was stranger than Lex.
The show aired late at night on the channel for a very good reason. Lex was the weirdest, most confusing, weirdly sex-obsessed series in television history.
This is not a hyperbolic statement. Lex corresponds to every word of it and myes, 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 origin of Lexx and his complete insanity
Lex is a joint German and Canadian production. It’s the brainchild of series creator Paul Donovan, who does next to nothing in entertainment after Lex. before Lexhe produced some mostly average, very small and unseen indie films. There was nothing to suggest the madness he had built up in his head.
Trying to explain the plot of Lex is impossible, and it can make you engaged, as you will have to explain how the universe is under the control of His divine shadow, a seemingly immortal evil being. He wants to conquer the neighboring universe, the Dark Universe as well.
If there is a plot, it revolves around some attempt by the lead actor of the series 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 weird made-for-TV movies, and then it got even weirder
of Lex The first season consists of four made-for-TV movies. In the first, we are introduced to a ragtag crew of misfits and the strong, brave and heroic revolutionary heretic leader, Thorin, played by Barry Bostwick. Then the quintessential sci-fi hero, Todin, is killed off, and we realize that somehow a lazy, treacherous courier named Stanley and an escaped, recently turned attractive love slave named Zev are our main characters.
Stanley H. Tweedle is played by Brian Downey and Zev was originally played by Eva Haberman. It will get even weirder when, in the second season of the series, Zev is suddenly played by a completely different actress named Ksenia Seaberg, for an obscure sci-fi reason. They also started calling her “Xev”, which is pronounced the same as Zev.
Who is your favourite? Zeus or Xeus? Let us know in the comments.
Lexx is a show with no real characters, but it has a dead body
Stanley and Zev are not your typical science fiction characters. In fact, calling them “heroes” is a bit pretentious. They aren’t able to accomplish much on their own, so the show gives them 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 killer. Correction, not really, he’s completely dead,
Kai betrays the villain of the series, His Divine Shadow, when his memories are restored. He ends up on Lexx, the superweapon starship the show is named after.
The ugliest, dumbest starship in the history of science fiction and awesome?
If the Lexx isn’t the ugliest, dumbest starship in the history of science fiction, then I don’t know what is. It’s not ugly in a cute way like Firefly’s Serenity. Or in a fun way, like the awkwardly shaped Millennium Falcon.
No, it’s just dumb.
bad.
it’s not good
I want one too.
Lexx is one of the central focuses of the show as it is where most of the episodes take place and has the power to destroy everything.
It’s all about Lusticon
There’s also a sex-obsessed robot head voiced by Jeffrey Hirschfield. Oh, and let’s not forget the cannibal Gigerota, played by Ellen Dubin. Others have popped in and out of the cast over the course of the show’s four seasons and are just as weird, dumb, weird and sex-obsessed as the main cast.
If this sounds similar to Guardians of the Galaxy or Farscapeit is, but it’s much, much weirder.
Lex is filled with fan service and innuendo that makes a device called the Lusticon a plot point. That’s right, said Lusticonn. For a throwback to ’90s cable, pick up the series Dream On and throw it into a blender with Farscapeand Lex would be the result.
Stanley Tweedle has no dance moves and Xev has no standards
The best and one of the longest running gags used in this concept revolves around Stanley’s attempts to bond with Zev and later Xev. Xev doesn’t seem to have any standards, so it’s usually a pretty good game for that sort of thing, except Stanley is the only person in the universe who actively pushes her away.
So Stanley fools himself into playing a long game. Meanwhile, he follows Zev around the ship, drooling over her like in that scene 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-crazed cartoon wolf. Imagine this scene being repeated over and 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 whatsoever. Stanley is like a player character from some bland, text-based video game from the 90s, brought to life and blasted into space. And he’s your main character, folks. The person you should root for and identify with.
Lexx is the David Hasselhoff of sci-fi programming
like Lex progresses, the whole tone of the show changes and I have to give a lot of credit to the production team here. Season 1 and 2 of the show are wild and filled with bro humor on a base level, but season 3 is much darker and becomes a dark experience.
Season 4 is set on modern day Earth, and it’s probably safe to assume that this is due to budget issues that make the show’s elaborate green screen sets unavailable. That’s right, even the green screen became unavailable. This is a kind of budget, Lex was working on.
The budget cuts happened despite the fact that Lex was a huge hit in Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe. You could say so Lex is David Hasselhoff of science fiction programs.
Budget be damned Lex runs through every possible plot line you can think of in the space of about a dozen episodes of season four.
How it compares to respected sci-fi shows
If you watch legit shows like Farscape, Babylon 5and The Expanse, Lex cannot be compared. Up against those great pillars of TV science fiction, Lex is crazy trash. That’s probably why he’s forgotten today.
To be honest, it was also forgotten then.
I can’t make excuses for that. Lex just not a total disaster. And sometimes it’s a disaster.
But there’s usually something. A joke that falls flat, a wild sci-fi concept, or even a heartfelt character moment. Something that makes the show not the worst thing you’ve ever seen.
It’s crazy and it’s either terrible or genius. Or maybe both.
but Lex 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 dumb humor we need more of in our science fiction.
The one thing about Lexx that everyone likes: Yo Way Yo
If there is something for Lexit’s undeniably good, with absolutely no apologies, caveats or hesitation: it’s the show’s theme song. It was added in Season 3 and is one of the best decisions on the show.
The Lex the theme started out as a fight song from Kai’s past, Brunnen G’s fight song. It was used in the first episode of the show. For of Lex the opening credits, the visuals that go with it still aren’t great, but the sound of those voices singing in battle is so good it almost doesn’t matter.
Once you hear it, you’ll find yourself humming it in the car. Listen to Lexx’s theme song in the video below.
Experience Lexx’s insane lust, but don’t blame us if it breaks your head
If you want to experience the pure madness and unbridled lust of Lextake care not to be easily offended. Because breaking every reasonable rule of conduct, television, and life in general is what Lex does best. Don’t blame us when it breaks your head too.
You have been warned.
There never was and never will be anything like it Lex. Which is probably why it’s free to stream on services like Amazon. I mean, who would actually pay for that?
Apart from us, that is. We will watch it again.
