Lexx : season 1 review

1996

SF elements

Review

The first episode starts out with a group of renegades trying to escape from His Shadow, the Evil Overlord of the two universes. By the end of the episode, they're all dead, but a motley group of other prisoners swept up in the escape are left in charge of Lexx (the most powerful destructive force in the two universes, also currently holding all His Shadow's previous incarnations' brains). These crew are: 4th class technician Stanley Tweedle (who is the only one who can command the Lexx), Zev (part converted love slave and part cluster lizard, due to a conversion error), robot head 790 (who got the other part of Zev's conversion, so is sickeningly in love with her), and Kai (a 2000 year dead assassin, and last of the Brunanjee, prophesied to be the death of His Shadow).

The remaining episodes tell weird dark funny stories of their adventures as they learn the power of the Lexx, and end up taking on His Shadow in a final show-down. (His Shadow obviously never read Peter's Evil Overlord list , the bit about "if a Brunanjee is prophesied to kill me, I will not keep the last of them as my personal assassin").

The summary doesn't do justice to the surreality and originality of the show. The insect machine metaphor, for example, runs all the way through (the Lexx looks like a giant sinister dragonfly), and then suddenly gains special significance. The music is very atmospheric. There's a lot of great background to His Shadow, but things aren't over-explained. The characters interact wonderfully, and dead Kai is great. And the weird humour mixes well with the darkness and the grunge.

Definitely worth watching.

Rating: 2.5