Welcome to the Dark Zone: A Lexx Primer

[GateGuide]

Online resources:
Sadgeezer's site is the best Lexx info site available, IMHO. I'd put it on par with the GateGuide for depth and breadth of information and design quality (what, me, brag? ;->) Sad's got information about the cultures, the characters, all kinds of stuff - and in a very entertaining writing style. There is an official Lexx site at http://www.lexx.com, run by the folks at Salter Street Films (the people behind Lexx); but they've pretty much folded the tents. They do provide an online community, and you can get some merchandise through them. For a jumpstart into the world of Lexx, though, skip the official site and head to Sadgeezer's place. [ http://www.sadgeezer.com/lexx/ ]

I'll quickly summarise my "best intros" and "worst episodes" of the seasons:

Season One (four 2-hour movies):
I Worship His Shadow and Supernova are great fun, as well as being the first episodes - they lay the foundations for the Lexx universe, also known as the Dark Zone. People differ in their opinions on the next two movies, Eating Pattern and Gigashadow. No one really thinks that they are bad; just more like "varying degrees of good" and where they fall on peoples' personal lists ;->

Season Two (28 one-hour episodes):
High points: Terminal, Woz, Wake the Dead. Terminal mostly because it explains why we suddenly have a new Xev; WtD is a sendup of teen slasher genre flicks. Michael McManus really had fun doing this episode...partially because he finally got to emote ;->
Low points: Love Grows (really bad), White Trash (didn't do a thing for me, but some people enjoy it)
There is one episode in season two, Brigadoom, which is basically a musical number. It's the second-to-last episode of the season. Brigadoom does tell an interesting backstory, and Lexxians have raved about it. [ I think I'm the only person who hates it - I loathe musicals, they're too "cutesy". Believe me, I tried to watch this one. I was proud of myself for not hitting the remote for five whole minutes. ] The majority of fans can't get enough of it; and storytelling-wise, even I can appreciate that it's technically well done. You've just gotta have something out of the ordinary to tell the story of the Brunnen-G.

Season Three (13 one-hour episodes)
This is the kicker. This is more like one 13-hour episode, shown in 13 parts, whereas seasons one and two can be watched out of order and still entertain. Season Three is darker in tone than the first two seasons, but it -=ROCKS!!=- You can enjoy it on several levels: visuals, storytelling, satire, or metaphysical/mytho-poetic. If you want to jump right into watching season three without watching anything from the first two seasons, do yourself two favours and a) read the synopses of seasons one and two; and b) watch it in original broadcast order. You'll just enjoy things a -=lot=- more.

Season Four
Filming starts at the end of January. (and there was much rejoicing) I don't have a broadcast premiere date yet, but since they will be filming for a full year, I'll hazard a guess that we'll see the first episodes some time in September - possibly June (but don't quote me on that just yet).

Kay-o, jadies and lentilmen, that's your lesson for the day. I'm going to bed, and try and stave off a cold ;->

[Edited by GateGuide on 12-30-2000 at 04:18 PM]

 

[Martouf]

weird how they have 28 eps in a series then only 13!

anyway, i thought Eating Patterns was cool! scary infact!

i am not sure if Australia is continuing to show series one, it might just stop at the four movies,

I reckon Kai is a really cool character especiallt the cool blades from his arms! Stan is a dumbass but pretty funny and Zev is 'hot'!

well that's about all i know about Lexx!

 

[GateGuide]

For first season, they didn't know if there was going to be any more. There was a two-year gap between the showing of the first season on Showtime, and filming for the second season. This was partially due to a change in backers: from Showtime (who wanted too much creative control and were a bit timid to boot; and Paul Donovan is a control-freak himself) to the Canadian Film Board and Germany's TeleFilm gMbh (or something like that...I don't have the correct name at my fingertips, I think the abbreviation is different). There are only four movies in the first season.

Second season was a full-blown "season" in the American sense of the word, with 28 one-hour episodes.

Third season apparently went overbudget, with the FX and filming locations; and even from the start it was planned to be shorter-than-normal. Besides shooting some of the series in Germany, which they had to do to fulfill contractual/cofunding obligations, they traveled to Namibia (Africa) and spent a few weeks there. They also filmed in an abandoned cement factory, and in an old underground complex. By the end of the filming in Germany, all kinds of ingenuous little cost-cutting tricks were being tried...there's a rumour floating about that the actor's phones were shut off to save money. (But you know how it is with rumours, take with a pinch - or a fistful - of salt.)

Lexx is filmed with a few traditional television sets, such as the bridge of the ship; but the actors spend a -=lot=- of time in front of a green screen. All those effects add up fast ;->

There's one cartoon of LexxPark (Lexx done in the style of South Park) where Michael McManus/Kai and Eva Habermann/Zev are standing in, essentially, an entirely green room with some stage lights and the cameras...and a white tape X on the floor. The director is saying to them, "You're standing on a tiny CGI walkway and there's a bit CGI insect where the cross is and a really big CGI city in the background."
Eva: "Do you think they're overdoing the computer effects Michael?"
Michael:"...Just a bit."

That's apparently not much of an exaggeration ;->

We don't know how many episodes we'll get out of fourth season. At one point we heard 28, but that's all subject to the vagaries of the Ghods of Fortune and Chance.

I'm going to go get coffee, and leave my strange deep philosophical Joseph-Campbell-like breakdown for later. (More a case of "It's a TV show, lighten up..." ;-> )

[Edited by GateGuide on 12-30-2000 at 08:33 AM]

 

[Martouf]

TWO YEARS?!?!?!!?
well then the graphics must be heaps better in series 2 and 3! it reminds me of the Stargate movie compared to Cotg!

anyways, we need some more Lexx fans so you can have an actual conversation with someone about it (cause talking to me aboutLexx is like talking to a brick wall)

does anyone else join the Lexx crew apart from stan, kai, zev?

 

[GateGuide]

Stan, Zev/Xev, Kai, and 790 are pretty much it for the crew of the Lexx (and the Lexx itself, natch). There's Lyekka for a while (that's that plant-person someone was referring to); and originally, Wist (the girl from Eating Pattern) was going to be the fifth crewmember of the Lexx. Then Doreen Jacobi (the actress who played Wist) had other contractual obligations when Lexx started filming season two, so there went that idea.

As for the CG...well, in S2, they're different, but still about on par with the graphics for S1 - maybe a bit more polished, since by that time the crew had had all that practice. The CG for S3 are amazing. All in all, when you consider that about, oh...about 80% of the shots (if not more) are mostly or entirely CG, then it's pretty amazing stuff, technically speaking.

Don't worry Martouf - think of these conversations as putting a "Lexx for the Non-Initiated" thread in place ;->

 

[Martouf]

the girl from Eating Patterns, she's hot aswell!!

790 is that head right? the one that's attached to Zev?

 

[GateGuide]

...talking heads...

Yep, 790 is the robot head. He's attached to Zev/Xev because he got the "brainwashing" part of Xev's transformation into a love slave. He falls in love with the first person he sees. This gets amusing in S3, when he's damaged and so loses power...and Kai is the one who reactivates him. 790 spends third season sopping about over the dead man - who manages to combine "dead" with "extremely put-upon".

I think the producers made 790 fall for Kai for two reasons: first, it was a non-obvious thing to have happen, so it had to be done; and second, they got to tweak the Kai-droolers ;->

OH - another bit of info that fell out from between the sulcae of my brain as I was cleaning up there: I think that one of the reasons for the long wait between season one and season two because of production/funding/sponsorship waffles. There will be another long pause between seasons three and four, because of difficulties getting funding. (Season three filming wrapped about February 2000, I think, if not earlier; and S4 filming hasn't yet started.) I can only remember fragments of discussion details. I think part of it had to do with the Canadian film board changing their rules of "what constitutes Canadian content", and so what shows will receive government funding, so that Lexx (and shows like it) were excluded. I'm not too sure on that one, though - I do remember someone bringing the impending change to our attention, but I didn't read the guidelines and haven't paid much attention to that.

 

[Prophet4Profit]

I thought that the pilot was brilliant and that the rest of the first two seasons were quite good as well.

the third season:erm:... eeehhh... I belive that it dragged on for too long. It started out nicely, and had its moments throughout. It was visualy stunning... But they should have wraped up that fire-water-prince story line in four to five episodes.

The fourth season is just plain idiotic:dead: . Earth? I know that its a parody and all... but not a very good one.

This show should go back to what made it great in the begining: FLYING MEAT!