Contents:

• Boozy First Impressions Among Sci Fi History

• Lexx in a Nutshell

• Plot, and Viewing Recommendations

• Characters

• SEX SEX SEX GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS and Sometimes Boys

• Ask not why, but Rather why not?

• Season 3

• Wrapping up- is Lexx good?

TL;DR: If you like David Lynch's Dune, check out Lexx.

The first time I watched Lexx I was visiting a friend who possessed a variety of collections. A large collection of sci fi movies and boxed sets ranging from obscure 50’s sci fi B movies to the (then) 6 Star Wars movies. He had a collection of memorabilia including a bridge piece from the Enterprise D model, a baseball signed by Avery Brooks, and a floor tile from the set of Minas Tirith. He also had a collection of good spirits, and a collection of glassware tailored for different types of drinks. It was while I was holding one such glass which in turn held some expensive amber oily drink that he suggested we watch Lexx, having just polished off some black and white film I can’t remember the name of (Attack Of The Monolith Monsters maybe?). I don’t recall much other than the episode being very long, and Barry Bostwick’s skirt being very short. Oh, and a couple of phrases. And Kai’s warsong.

As I meandered unsteadily back home I noticed a T shirt (presumably containing a person) with a Lexx design on it. After a couple of seconds for my brain to actually process this- along with appreciating the coincidence- I turned around and called out with the confidence of the whiskey drunk “May his divine Shadow fall upon you!” Which I reasoned to the Lexx equivalent of may the Force be with you. A few seconds passed before the contents of the T shirt tentatively called back “Evis…?” whereupon I looked at the face of the T-shirt’s bearer for the first time and realised I knew him.

I made it home and since then I’ve seen a number of references to Lexx. It isn’t some ultra rare lost show known only to the most elite of sci fi fans (but what is in the age of the internet?)- it seems many of our jumpsuited fraternity have at least heard of Lexx but know nothing more other than ‘it’s weird’. In some cases the intensifier of ‘really’ is inserted in the middle. And this is not unfair. I recently decided to watch Lexx properly and weird is the appropriate word for 90% of this show, from the visuals to the writing to the characters to… well, everything. It makes Farscape look grounded and in terms of its presentation has something of a David Lynch feel, especially his Dune movie. That dreamy, detached, almost ephemeral feel.

Lexx is a show that got what it deserved. There are very good reasons it’s not a household name like Star Trek or Star Wars, or even fondly remembered by many like Babylon 5. There’s a reason it’s somewhat obscure even among sci fi fans. But then again there’s also a good reason why you’ll keep seeing the name pop up and good reason why it ended up with a cult following. Lexx isn’t a great show. The writing is all over the shop, the characters are often inconsistent, the performances are at best strange (with a few exceptions), the sets are ambitious if not always executed well, the CGI is bad even for the time and the greenscreen comping has enough feathering to supply a pillow factory. This was when cheap TV was moving away from bad soundstages and into bad greenscreen effects. Older readers who played the classic Westwood games will get flashbacks to the FMV sequences in said titles. The production makes extensive use of this awful greenscreen too. And yet- I still found myself enjoying Lexx. Sometimes with irony, sometimes without. The bizarre decisions and presentations often leave you laughing, or at least smirking at the show, but at the same time there are interesting character moments and plot beats. Lexx is genuinely creative meaning when the show falls flat on its face it at least does so in fascinating ways. It’s also anything but predictable with the show going out of its way to ‘subvert your expectations’.

What you end up with is a show that’s generally not awful but not very good, however it’s stuffed to the gills with ‘moments’. These can be anything from an actor’s performance to a dodgy effect to a genuinely good bit of writing, to attention to detail which shows there was actual care taken with this programme. These moments come thick and fast too, so watching Lexx isn’t waiting around for ten minutes of mundanity just to get a little nugget of entertainment.

As such I’m going to give you a soft recommendation on Lexx. It isn’t some hidden gem. But as we shall get into presently there’s enjoyment to be had here if you are prepared for the weirdness and willing to take its flaws in a tongue in cheek manner. But if you just want to watch a good sci fi show you should let this one slip.

Let’s start with the outline of the plot. Actually let’s start earlier with the season and episode selection. If you load the show up on Amazon Prime like I did you may be confused to see the first season has only 4 episodes, and each of them is an hour and a half. This goes some way to explaining the genesis of the series but means you’re getting a dose of that weirdness right off the bat. Lexx’s first season was a set of 4 made for TV movies. These made for TV movies (unlike direct to streaming movies) were always made on a shoe string budget and virtually always looked like it. Lexx is no exception. Just be aware when you watch it that this looked pretty cheap even back then.

All together the four movies are essentially the show’s establishing story. The plot is simple enough but you can miss it if you’re not paying attention as the show does exposition quite naturally and in smaller chunks. You also need to read between the lines in some places as information is presented in the form of diegetic propaganda. This overview is also going to sparse as there’s simply too much detail to cover everything and a lot of Lexx’s charm is in the specifics of how things play out- so while much of this is cliché the show still does interesting things with this plot. Points like exactly how His Shadow lives for 2000 years (not to mention the Divine Predecessors) and Stanley’s status as a traitor to the rebel allia… sorry, the Ostral B Heretics will be left for you to enjoy should you want to watch the show. These are examples of those moments which are what elevate the show beyond its serviceable to poor fundamentals.

The league of 20,000 planets is under the rule of a despotic theocrat known as ‘His Divine Shadow’. One significant attempt was made to stop his rise to power by a Human subspecies called the Brunnen-G. It failed, and the last of the Brunnen-G, a man named Kai, is killed at the hands of the Divine Shadow only to be reanimated and brainwiped for use as an assassin who kills on behalf of the Divine Order- the government/church which has built up around the Divine Shadow.

Some 2,000 years later our other two principal characters enter. Zev Bellringer (not that one) of B3K, and Stanley H Tweedle. Zev has been sentenced to be turned into a love slave, and Stanley has been doing so badly at his job he will be required to give three organs as punishment (an eye, a kidney and a testicle if you’re interested). As Zev is sentenced and Stanley tries to escape, a group of rebels (sorry, ‘Heretics’) led by Thoden (Barry Bostwick) are attempting to Trojan horse into the capitol and steal the Divine Shadow’s latest toy- a powerful warship called the Lexx which is capable of destroying a planet. The rebel’s paths cross with that of Zev and Stanley creating opportunities for the two to escape on board the Lexx. Kai, woken by the Divine Shadow to deal with the Heretics ends up getting some of his memories back and joins the others, along with 790- the robot who was overseeing Zev’s transformation into a love slave and ended up being decapitated and brainwashed with the love slave programming meant for Zev. The four (Kai, Stan, Zev, and 790) escape on board the Lexx and flee his Divine Shadow. The Heretics don’t make it.

That is a very, VERY potted summary of the first episode (or movie if you will). As said I’ve ignored a LOT of details and specific events, partly just for the sake of keeping this piece readable but also because the way events play out is part of Lexx’s appeal. From then on hijinks ensue. Season one ends with the crew defeating His Divine Shadow and thwarting his ultimate plans. Season 2’s overarching plot starts with the crew looking for a new home. The two middle movies are basically just very long TV episodes. The second movie guest stars Tim Curry (as Poet man, a poet), the third has Rutger Hauer (as Bog, the King Of Pattern) and the final one has about five minutes of Malcolm McDowell. As is the case for the series as a whole the films are either carried by their strange presentation, visuals, style, and interesting moments- or you’re in for a bad time. The two middle movies have nothing to do with the larger plot (again betraying the way these films were made with a TV show mindset) so I won’t go into details here. The third film works better than the second, mostly thanks to a great performance by Hauer who knows damn well he’s in weird schlock and goes full ham with it. Apart from that though the four films of season one are at best middling low budget sci fi and are just too damn long. But these issues do get better when Lexx transitions to a 40 minute episode format. While these episodes still suffer from the same issues it’s far easier to enjoy something that’s flawed for 40 minutes than it is to enjoy it for an hour and a half.

So if you’re enjoying the style of Lexx but finding the films a slog- skip them. Go directly to season 2 which demands far less. If you’ve got plot OCD and want to make sure you don’t miss anything I suggest only watching the first and fourth movie. The middle two can be skipped without fear of missing anything important except a good gag at the start of movie 2 and Hauer’s performance in movie 3.

Alternatively- skip season 1 entirely and try out S2E1- Mantrid. It’s 40 minutes and a pretty good indicator of what you’re in for. If you like it, go back and watch the movies. If you don’t then you’ve only wasted 40 minutes instead of an hour and a half! It is tying up the ending of the last season though, so it might be hard to follow. As an alternative to the alternative, try season 2 episode 3- Lyekka. That is mostly a stand alone episode and is pretty entertaining and indicative of Lexx as a whole.

Let’s take a closer look at our core cast of characters. This is where the technical problems start to appear.

Stanley Tweedle is part audience proxy and something of an everyman. He’s a cowardly, mostly pathetic and dishonourable character. He combines the worst aspects of Arnold Rimmer and an animated character played by Chris Parnell. Stanley’s thoughts are always of safety and security- for himself first and then others if the situation allows. About the only thing he’ll take risks for is sex. Stanley is more of an obstacle for the other characters than a character in his own right as he is the only one who can command the Lexx- so when someone wants to do something they normally have to convince Stan to do it first. Fortunately in addition to his many contemptable qualities, Stan is rather weak willed and easily manipulated.

The biggest problem with Stan is that he’s unlikeable and unsympathetic. Almost all of the traits that define him are negative. At best we can sympathise with him on a BoJack Horseman level where we see our flaws reflected in him. At worst he’s just a filthy, churlish old man. Brian Downey’s performance is a big part of what stops the character being completely insufferable as he plays up the more pathetic aspect of the character to cultivate pity if not sympathy. Stan also gets his occasional moments of heroism and pathos. Also well he may be a twat, he’s the most consistently written and presented. As a twat.

Kai is dead. He’s reanimated with a substance called proto blood of which he has a limited supply. As such Kai spends his ‘downtime’ in a cryo chamber awaiting the next time he’s needed a la master chief. When conscious Kai is sort of like a Vulcan- cold and emotionless. But he also does not experience motivation, drive or wants. Because he’s dead. He’s also pretty much impervious to damage and over the course of the show is shot, stabbed, decapitated, dismembered, and vivisected. Sometimes more than one in an episode. Kai’s passive, detached nature is played up as tragedy, but without much of an idea what he was like before he was killed this rings a little hollow. Showing him wearing brightly coloured clothes while he’s alive and then an all black outfit when dead doesn’t do much to alleviate this.

Kai is easily one of the more inconsistently written characters. Despite establishing on a few occasions that he doesn’t have much in the way of drive and emotions, he frequently shows traits and takes actions which indicate motivation and want. Sticking religiously to the brief would of course just result in a character who does what everyone else tells him which isn’t interesting. But to me that indicates the concept is fundamentally flawed from the point of view of creating an engaging character. Kai would work better with a more Vulcan take- he has emotions but his death has muted all of them and outright removed some. There’s even a stab at trying to lampshade this inconsistency in the episode ‘Nook’. Ultimately though, Kai has virtually no agency. Oddly I never felt that his indestructible nature was a problem as the show rarely tries to create tension around Kai being killed or injured. Instead tension revolves around things like ticking clocks, or the rest of the crew needing to wake him to deal with a threat but not being able to reach his cryopod easily.

790 was a service robot. Being a decapitated head he can’t even move around without the aid of another character. He acts as the show’s science officer/engineer but I couldn’t tell you why. He operated the lusticon (the device used to turn people, presumably all women, into love slaves). However while running the procedure on Zev, 790 was attacked by a cluster lizard released by the Heretics in their attempt to steal the Lexx. His head was placed in the Lusticon by Zev (no idea why) during the final phase of removing any personality and replacing it with adoration. The escaped Zev being the first thing he saw, 790 fell immediately in love with her. All his motivations are focused around Zev. He utterly despises Stanley (who keeps trying to put the moves on Zev) and is somewhat jealous of Kai (who Zev is totally into, and wishes he was in her).

790 is one of the richer characters in terms of what we actually see on screen. His (later her) deep seated hatred of Stanley plays nicely with the audience’s (presumably) contempt for Tweedle. But like Kai’s death, 790’s obsession with Zev means he has no agency of his own. Being a decapitated head doesn’t help either. The effect used for his face is disconcerting and appropriate, and Jeffrey Hirschfield’s voice work is one of the best performances of the show.

While Lexx is an ensemble you may have noticed that none of the characters mentioned so far have much in the way of actionable traits. If Stanley was in control of the story everyone would hide in a hole and never do anything except emerge to look for a different type of hole. Kai doesn’t have wants or desires to pursue. 790 does whatever Zev wants. Which brings us to Zev who is the main driver of the narrative and so arguably the main character. Other characters get the spotlight in certain episodes, but in general it’s Zev driving the plot.

Zev Bellringer of B3K was an ugly, overweight woman, abandoned by her parents because she ‘didn’t work out how [we] expected’ and raised in a place called The Wife Bank where she was trained to be a perfect housewife. When she met her betrothed he was unimpressed with her and made a few choice remarks which resulted in Zev losing her temper despite her training and giving him a solid straight right. She was arrested and ‘tried’ for failing to perform her wifely duties which brings us to the love slave transformation. This takes place during the rebel attack while some dangerous animals called cluster lizards have been set loose inside the facility. One of them (the same which decapitated 790) ends up trapped in the lusticon with Zev while her body is being transformed into something more pleasing, resulting in some ‘contamination’. So while Zev is now slim and sexy with a dramatically heightened libido she also has some cluster lizard traits (when the writers remember to include them) including enhanced strength (again, when the writers remember). Having grown up cloistered, Zev wants to see more of the two universes and as such is the only really pro active character in the crew. Zev is comfortable with her new body and has little angst about what was done to her. Indeed prior to the transformation she is presented as suicidal, and afterward is far more confident. She does experience considerable frustration though as despite her turbo charged libido she regards Stan as unfuckable, and Kai being dead has neither the inclination nor the ability to play hide the sausage. 790 is just a head, and sadly has no tongue.

Zev is played by two different actresses. Eva Habermann plays the role in season 1 and the first episode of season 2 (accompanied by an awful wig), and a reincarnated version of the character (Xev) is played by Xenia Seeberg thereafter, after Eva left the show due to a scheduling conflict. Eva is… well she’s not bad by the standards of pre millennium budget sci fi. TV and film have certainly hired far worse actresses for roles that… umm… demanded a certain physicality. She can carry a scene but sometimes struggles to be convincing when she must be more intense. I think Xenia is a better actress but there isn’t that much in it. She tends to handle more intense scenes a little better and comes off as a bit more commanding which works for a character who often needs to drive the plot. The redesign is also good, with her clothing used to emphasise that Xev (and Zev for that matter) is not entirely human. To be fair they tried to do that with the weird rubber mantle and belt she wears when played by Eva, but the only thing to indicate these items of clothing are supposed to be part of her body are the fact she’s wearing them in the shower. Where they still look like clothes. So I didn’t get what they were trying to do for ages. Then once I saw it I started getting Andromeda flashbacks to that awful tail and the badly done claws on the Nietzscheans. Hmmm maybe I should revisit that for you…

With our characters and general plot out of the way, we come to the question of themes and presentation. Presentation is weird. As mentioned If you’ve watched Lynch’s Dune adaptation then Lexx will feel comfortably or horrifyingly familiar depending on how you feel about that film. It has a similar detached, dream like quality where dialogue isn’t wrong but doesn’t always feel right. Conversely what is logical often plays second fiddle to what feels conceptually right. Lots is shown and little explained directly. Strange visuals abound.

The theme however is easy to nail down. It’s sex. I’m not joking when I say that there are multiple episodes where the story is built out of the characters’ sexual desires. These range from obvious such as the characters deciding to visit a brothel as they are all climbing the walls with horny, to characters being outsmarted because they are thinking with their genitals, to some interesting character moments such as (very much hetero) Stanley considering sex with another man just because he’s that desperate for sex. I really love that scene. It’s a more sincere and interesting look at a character’s sexuality and identity than anything I’ve seen in recent Star Trek. Sex permeates the entire show from Stan’s constant attempts to fuck Zev, to the crew blowing up a planet just to threaten their way into (another) brothel, to more mature and character driven exploration of characters’ sexuality, to underlying episode concepts such as Nook, where a society has been created without women to get rid of the idea of sexual competition. And of course there are lashings of sex presented in the show’s visuals.

Lexx is a living ship in the vein of Moya from Farscape. But whereas Moya is described as a ‘bio mechanoid’ meaning visually her construction scans as metal materials but in organic shapes and colours, the crew of the Lexx wonder around inside something far more unsettling, Geiger-esque and fleshy. Parts of the ship have more inorganic parts than others, which to me scan as the Lexx having constructed sections intended for its crew, alongside entirely biological areas. Visually these areas look like the hived base in Aliens. The showers are… ummm… penile. And controlled by fondling some… uhh… large spherical controls. The toilets have a built in bidet… in the form of a tongue. The Lexx also creates some sort of nutrient gruel for the crew which is not so much dispensed as ejaculated. Its command station has a vaginal quality which is really emphasised in a set redesign in season 2. Stretched fleshtone sheets are used to create the impression of flaps of skin creating alcoves and details. The controls for the moths (Lexx’s shuttle craft) have a scrotal look to their colour and shape. Well Deadpool’s scrotum maybe.

Even the shape of the Lexx itself recalls a giant erect cock (with a barb) and cold morning balls. A fact not lost on the production when they encounter a brothel ship shaped as a woman’s torso and upper legs. Many of the more positive ‘moments’ I spoke of earlier come from this sort of presentation- both funny and interesting ones.

Sex is everywhere in the show, from gratuitous shower scenes of Zev to Dextrose 9, The Planet Of The Milk Fed Boys. When it comes to male sexuality the menu consists of black beefcake, tan beefcake, and white beefcake. I hope you like posing pouches and muscles!

Being mostly episodic Lexx has some downright bizarre ideas from time to time which come completely out of left field. It’s a show where people asked ‘Why not?’ rather than ‘Why?’. For example there’s a random 80’s slasher movie episode. Because why not? A bunch of teenagers end up on board the Lexx and one of them for reasons I didn’t quite capture convinces Kai to start killing everyone in creative ways. Kai spends the episode Michael Meyrsing the teenagers. Then there’s an episode with cannibal hillbillys who take over the Lexx. Because why not? It’s like the show production has ADHD and got bored writing sci fi so they decided to do a few horror episodes instead. These aren’t even the most peculiar episodes. Even episodes with a simple concept on paper end up playing out in bizarre and unpredictable ways such as S2E3, Lyekka which introduces a fifth crew member (again when the writers remember she’s there) but is also a first contact episode in which the crew of the Lexx are the first aliens encountered by a group of astronauts from the planet Potatoho. That episode also includes the show’s one genuinely good special effect, a 0g scene. It looks like crap today but at the time it would have been pretty effective, not least because actors are interacting with floating objects. It’s one of those ‘moments’ I’ve been banging on about.

Disturbingly, guests aboard the Lexx tend to die. In horrible ways too. It seems like no one they encounter ever just gets dropped off on an inhabited planet or sent on their way. Often this isn’t the direct fault of the crew but it’s still a strange pattern and after a while you can’t help but start to wonder how this episode’s guest characters are going to meet their end. It’s like Star Trek ToS’ redshirts, but these people have a lot more dialogue and characterisation before they inevitably kick it.

The most bizarre episode is probably the most infamous- Brigadoom. A late season 2 episode in which the crew find a theatre floating in space and go aboard (inside?) only to find a group of extra dimensional aliens who apparently just like to go through time and space putting on musicals. The subject today? Kai and the Brunnen-G. It plays out like the floor show in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Is it good? I didn’t think so. We also needed this episode waaaaay earlier to contrast dead Kai with living Kai. But it was creative and so managed to be entertaining even if the music wasn’t very good and the performances lacklustre. It’s pretty clear the actors can’t really sing with much range or style and the music itself is very plodding and tonally predictable. Xev’s actress (Seeberg) is trying a little harder to give some appropriate fortissimo and range but doesn’t have the ability to do it cleanly.

Brigadoom is a microcosm of Lexx as a whole. Ideas that are creative, interesting and unexpected but often not executed particularly well. But what you’re watching and hearing is so unexpected and bizarre it’s fascinating. I’ve often said the worst thing a show can be is boring. A competently written, by the numbers three act story is of less interest to me than a production trying to do something new or strange. Of course that doesn’t mean I’ll lap up anything that’s ‘avant garde’, but I have far more patience for shoddy execution if it’s a result of reach exceeding grasp. If you do as well then you might have a good time watching Lexx. But for most I think it failed due to inconsistent characterisation and writing, rather than it being too strange. Lexx wasn’t an ambitious project hamstrung by a weird vision that was not mass market friendly, but a shoddy production with a unique and fascinating vision which is just enough to keep a few people watching despite its flaws. It’s a good example of how creative thinking and a clear, unique voice can help hold up an otherwise ropey product, while at the same time showing that creativity alone isn’t enough to create a good show.

Confession time. When I started to write this little bit of fanwanking I was mid way through season 2. Since then (and a variety of edits) I’ve finished season 2 and moved on to season 3, the last season available on Amazon prime- which I have also now fininshed. Aaaaaand I didn’t enjoy it as much. Or really at all. A quick look at Wikipedia says the season is a bit more serious and focused. It… is. And much of the charm is gone. Those ‘moments’ which used to come so regularly are now few and far between. The writing quality has improved a little (maybe) but not enough to make up for the loss of character.

The entire season is also set in one location, following one long story. Previously if I didn’t really like an episode I’d watch it anyway as the next episode would be something new. It’s easier to put up with mediocrity when you know it’s going to end.

The visuals are now crap. Not charming, not rustic, not nostalgic, not funny. Just utter trash. The previously bad greenscreen is now somehow worse and used more often. I’m not sure if the camera used to film the show was a really crappy early digital camera (and I mean an early digital camera full stop- not an early digital professional TV/Cinema camera), or at some point the series was compressed to fit on a floppy disk. The show now has a resolution that would embarrass a Roman mosaic.

Briefly, season 4 is supposed to be set on Earth. Around the time Lexx was made! Hard pass on that, sorry. I’ve seen enough sci fi of this era to know what set in contemporary earth means. I hate those sorts of stories. Yes, even when Star Trek did it- especially when Picard S2 did it (but thankfully I ducked out of that trash fire early on). Don’t @ me, it’s a question of taste. I mean if it was more like season 2 then… maybe. MAYBE.

As always your mileage may vary. Some might like the more ‘traditional’ season 3, however I reached my jumping off point for Lexx. But it was one hell of a ride and I genuinely enjoyed those first two seasons and enjoyed them in a range of ways I hope I’ve made somewhat legible.

No, not on a technical level. But in terms of being entertaining there’s stuff to be had here. That constant flow of moments and weirdness is something I found genuinely entertaining if often not in ways the production intended. But that doesn’t mean Lexx is a ‘good bad’ series in the way that something like Plan 9 From Outer Space is a ‘good bad’ movie. It has genuinely good qualities as well. The show is subversive of the genre, actively trying to subvert your expectations in different ways. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Lexx is a cult classic and that feels like exactly what the show deserved. If you’re going to give it a try I recommend keeping your expectations low and enjoying it in good company with a stiff drink. Or three. You’ll laugh at the show, you’ll laugh with the show, and more often than you might think you’ll actually be engaged by the show. There’s no other sci fi series quite like it.

May his Divine Shadow fall upon you!

Lexx is available on Amazon Prime and, in keeping with the weirdness- YouTube. Most if not all of it is still up there. Apparently the rights holders are too embarrassed to issue a takedown. Can’t think why. Also appropriately you’ll need to navigate around the channel of a bodybuilder with the same name.