I see some folk still don't know I have other channels, so here are some links - Gaming Channel - kzfaq.info/love/4AQjWVhQBOoHlOrKn_SJqA Second Channel - kzfaq.info/love/uRTWD6C2lqy-y-0HMwRoNQ

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

Lexx was criminally underrated and unapologetically weird.

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.

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.

"But then Malcolm McDowel shows up for a monk fight"- should be a sentence said more often.

If you try to take LEXX seriously you’re missing the point of it. Just have fun with it’s wackiness.

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.

The Reviewer: "So when do I start to understand Lexx?" The Lexx Fandom: "That's the neat part, you don't!"

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.

Yo Way Yo, Home Va-Ray, Yo Ay-Rah, Jerhume Brunnen-G

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.

Oooooooh. So this actually exists and wasn't a fever dream.

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.

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.

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 :)

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!

This guy obviously didn't really watch the series, otherwise he would have understood the whole bug thing. I loved this series. To fun.

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.

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.

"Look... why should we... just... replay what's already happened, lets re-write the end." -Stanley H. Tweedle S02E18 Brigadoom

Has there ever been a better title than ”His Divine Shadow”?

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..

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.

"Lexx, on the other hand, is a very different flavour of weird." Yes. That would be an accurate description.

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.

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.

"Tweedle, you SLUT!!" "Congratulations, mass murderer." - 790 had so many great lines

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.

Humans beat the insects but the insect that survived uses his essence to inhabit a human body and rule the humans that way.

I worship His Shadow.

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.

The Higgs Boson (god particle) was a storyline whose discovery led to the destruction of Earth.

"The wheel it turns, it comes around. It makes an ancient RUMBLING sound."

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

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

brigadoom is still my favourate in-series musical episode of a tv show ITS SO GOOD

"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

Last time I was this early, I still worshipped His Shadow

Lexx is Art, its like a Japanese manga in real life.

The wheel it turns. It rolls around. It makes an ancient rrrummbling sound.

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.

I was raised on it as a child it's a masterpiece

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!

Zev Bellringer, not Bellinger. Get it? 😂 Lexx is fantastic. Tim Curry and Rutger Hauer joined in.

When I watched it, it always reminded me much more of "Red Dwarf" than "Babylon 5", "Battlestar Galactica", ect.

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

The series has a lot of ambition in the face of it’s (lack of) budget. It winks at the audience and says: “hey if you can get past this we’ll see things you people wouldn’t believe”.

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 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!

I think Zev's infatuation with Kai is obvious - he's impressive and unobtainable.

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.

Lol. Considering the budget and the era this show was made with/in, the effects were freaking amazing. The faults you mention I coud also point out in B5, incidentally my all time favourite scifi TV series. Being Canadian, I saw this series in its first run. It was awesome. It's halarious to see young prople now go back and judge great series on their effects. Plus, in the first season they even had a little fan service, something that disappeared following that season and after they replaced Zev.

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.

Hey, at least they never need to worry about destroying their shuttles since Lexx can grow more

We will fight to the end. and then once again. it will be a good way to die

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.

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 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.

A coworker recommended me this show today and surprisingly it’s free to watch on KZfaq, 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

Wow, I totally forgot about Lexx!! Thanks for a trip down memory lane :)

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

It’s not a space slug. It’s a cluster lizard

I LOVED this show, it was so weird and cool. a widely misunderstood and underrated series.

I just love how different it is. How adultsy and dark, that alone makes it stand out. Lyekka, Martrid, Stanley Tweedle and his cowardliness and the best ending to the series that you could come up with, it is criminally underated.

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

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!

I loved watching this on Channel 5. It used to be on straight after one or two episodes of Sunset Beach. I have Lexx on dvd now. It's weird but it's fun at times.

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.

It certainly has a tough time standing up for someone watching it first time today, but it's a nostalgic show for me. Loved it when it was airing. Lexx Ep1 is amazing just as a film. Easy to get engrossed in the plot in that one episode. His Divine Shadow is a tingly title. The chess episode is always the one that I remember and is also a cinematic tribute to The Seventh Seal. Playing chess with Death. I've also remembered the "Stanley Tweedle is a God a warrior and a gent" song for most of my life.

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.

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.

That's the ultimate summation, "Meh"? Ah Rowen.

I live in Nova Scotia, and got to tour the LEXX filming location at Electropolis Studio in downtown Halifax during the production of seasons 3 & 4. What a delight it was to see a show that was not being produced in Los Angeles, London, Toronto or Vancouver, but very close to home. Bizarre? Yes, but wonderfully so! You need to see the other seasons, as it got better when Xenia Seeberg replaced Eva Habermann as Zev, and introduced new characters like Lyekka (Louise Wischermann) and Prince (Nigel Bennett). It gets better, or weirder, depending on your particular point of view. I Worship His Shadow!

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.

Thank you! I saw only 1 episode of this show back in the day, and never knew what it was named. I thought it was a fever dream.

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..

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.

Lexx was great, highschool lexx nerd here

The first three times I watched Lexx was on the TV at the foot of the bed in the middle of the night. My wife used to like to watch TV before we went to sleep. I was only half awake and saw fragments of "I worship his Shadow" while in a dreamlike state. It really blew my mind. Later I found out what it was and watched the VHS tape version and have been a fan ever since. It is raw and goes into those dark places that other Sci-Fi series dare not.

I watched this religiously on the SciFi Channel. And now have the entire collection on DVD, though I haven't opened it yet. One of these days.

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.

There’s a special place in my heart for Lexx beyond my usual love for sci-fi.

one thing you may have overlooked about this show is the clause in BBC contracts that limits special effects budgets (sci-fi shows especially) to approximately 47 pounds per episode.

Lexx was the first tv show ever to contain a complete musical stage play within an episode.

Lexx is Blake's 7 if it was made in the 90's.

Nah, the low fi green screen /vfx gave it its style. It was part of the whole feel.

For me Lexx is pure nostalgia. As a kid it was just me and my mom and we watched bad scifi together. We also watched Cleopatra 2525, Earth Final Conflict, Stargate and of course Farscape.

I was born in Newfoundland, so one night when I was watching this in re-runs and suddenly it was in St. John's on George Street. I lost it. I couldn't figure out how they had just shown up there, as I had missed the episode where they found earth. Weirdest thing I've seen since being drunk 400 miles form the north pole in Alert, Nunavut (small military base) watching Clockwork Orange for the first time.

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 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.

This show was so ahead of its time hope it gets reruns on sifi!🌌

Season 3 is the best of the four. Nigel Bennett as the 'Big Bad' is truly awesome.

"The dead do not feel pain," That is what I took from this show.

Gotta watch and review the musical episode "Brigadoom"!

Accidentally came across this show a couple of years ago and loved this show. It was funny and entertaining in the best way 💙