Why 'Lexx' Deserves a Second Life as the Weirdest Sci-Fi Gem You’ve Never Seen
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The Ship That Time Forgot
A cult relic from the pre-streaming dark ages
In 1997, when 'Titanic' ruled the box office and 'The X-Files' dominated TV sci-fi, a bizarre little Canadian-German co-production slithered onto late-night screens. 'Lexx' was its name, and it was unlike anything else—part horny space opera, part surreal comedy, part body horror. The show followed a mismatched crew aboard the Lexx, a living starship shaped like a dragonfly, as they bumbled across the universe after accidentally destroying their home planet.
What made 'Lexx' special wasn’t just its willingness to be weird—it was its refusal to apologize for it. While 'Star Trek' polished its utopian ideals and 'Babylon 5' leaned into political drama, 'Lexx' reveled in horny, grotesque absurdity. Its aesthetic? Imagine if H.R. Giger designed a carnival ride after reading too much Kafka.
The Unholy Trinity of Influences
Star Wars meets Farscape meets... Monty Python?
The original article nails the comparison: 'Lexx' was indeed a Frankenstein’s monster of 'Farscape’s' puppetry, 'Star Wars’ mythic scale, and 'Red Dwarf’s' slacker humor. But it also smuggled in odder DNA—David Lynch’s dream logic, the psychosexual nightmares of 'Videodrome,' even the low-budget charm of 'Doctor Who.'
Key to its appeal was the cast: Eva Habermann (later replaced by Xenia Seeberg) as Zev/Xev, a love slave turned gun-toting heroine; Michael McManus as Kai, a dead assassin with a killer stare; and Jeffrey Hirschfield as Stanley Tweedle, the cowardly everyman who somehow became captain. Together, they formed a dysfunctional family that made 'Guardians of the Galaxy’s' squad look like choirboys.
Why It Bombed (And Why That Was Inevitable)
Too strange for syndication, too horny for kids
'Lexx' aired in the dead zone of sci-fi TV—after 'Star Trek’s' golden age but before streaming allowed niche shows to find audiences. It bounced between channels, often edited for content, and never quite found its footing. The first two seasons (shot as miniseries) were moody and arc-driven; the latter two embraced outright parody, with episodes like 'Brigadoom' featuring a musical number about cannibalism.
Its tonal whiplash confused audiences. Was it a satire? A drama? A horny cartoon for adults? The answer was yes—and that very ambiguity doomed it commercially but cemented its cult status. As showrunner Paul Donovan once admitted, 'We didn’t just break the fourth wall; we set it on fire and danced around the ashes.'
The Case for a Revival
In an era of reboots, Lexx’s chaos is exactly what we need
Today’s TV landscape is both 'Lexx’s' curse and its potential salvation. Curse, because its practical effects and model shots would be replaced by CGI sludge. Salvation, because streaming platforms now cater to hyper-specific tastes—and what’s more specific than a show where a planet-sized bug devours civilizations while the crew debates robot orgasms?
Rumors of a revival surface every few years, but perhaps 'Lexx' is better left as a time capsule. Its mix of horniness, horror, and humor feels uniquely late-’90s, a pre-9/11 artifact when sci-fi could still be gleefully irresponsible. As Kai might say in his icy monotone: 'All things die. Even stars. Especially good TV shows.' But damn, what a way to go.
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