# I've been watching Lexx

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 11, 2000, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966 "2000-08-11T15:01:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 19\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Needs2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5e925/32.png) [@Needs2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Needs2know)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/1 "2000-08-11T15:01:13Z")

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OK…I watch the Sci-Fi channel all the time. But since Friday night is usually a night out, I’ve never really watched Lexx. Well one night I tried but couldn’t follow. So this week Sci-Fi has been running the movies. I’ve been watching. They bill the series as “fantasy”.

Ok someone help me out here…is this shit writing or what? I’m just not that impressed. Someone help me understand what it is I don’t like about this series. I’ve been watching all week, I just don’t really “like” it. But I’ve been giving it the old college try. Does anyone know what I’m talking about here? Why do I find it almost a little disgusting or offensive or I can’t put my finger on why it doesn’t appeal to me.

Needs2know

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**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/2 "2000-08-11T21:27:01Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Needs2know \*  
> **Ok someone help me out here…is this shit writing or what? I’m just not that impressed. Someone help me understand what it is I don’t like about this series. I’ve been watching all week, I just don’t really “like” it. But I’ve been giving it the old college try. Does anyone know what I’m talking about here? Why do I find it almost a little disgusting or offensive or I can’t put my finger on why it doesn’t appeal to me.**

If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. I don’t see the need for a reason. Maybe it’s too cheesy for you, or the acting is horrid. Or the stories are too unrealistic and/or pointless and/or just plain silly. Perhaps you are offended/disgusted by the lowbrow comedy. I would tend to agree with all of the above.

That said, I love the show. What’s not to love about Malcolm MacDowell and Rutger Hauer guest starring? I don’t think the show is trying to be a serious sci-fi contender, just a playful romp, which is what it is. And the special effects actually aren’t that bad. I was drawn in from the first episode, because it was so bizarre I had to see more. If you don’t like it after a week, you probably aren’t going to.

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**Author:** ![Zoing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecccb3/32.png) [@Zoing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoing)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2000, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/3 "2000-08-11T21:53:22Z")

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I like Lexx too - not for intellectually stimulating sessions, but brain candy. It’s lighthearted, stupid, inane, and wonderfully entertaining.

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**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/4 "2000-08-12T02:23:42Z")

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It’s terrible…but in a good way 🙂

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**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/5 "2000-08-12T03:45:46Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I’ve been watching Lexx

I’m so sorry.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/6 "2000-08-12T04:14:19Z")

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I tried watching the Sci-Fichannel show that explained the backround for the show, which I gather was condensed from one or more TV movies. I was STILL hopelessly lost.

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/7 "2000-08-12T13:27:03Z")

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From my [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21127) a few months ago:

I have given this new series my best shot, but I can’t watch it any more. It’s basically The Beverly Hillbillies Go Whorehouse Hopping In The Outer Space Equivalent Of West Virginia. All it’s missing is banjo music.

Each week, Uncle Jed & Elly May are visited by a wacky bunch of Hatfields or McCoys knockoffs wearing various outfits modeled from the burlap school of fashion design. Lexx, the ship, is a living being, and the inhabitants subsist on its internal excretions (I might be missing some subtle nuances here as I have to walk away from time to time and puke my guts out).

The resident mechanical entity is a disembodied head with videographic eyes & mouth that has never once offered a shred of technical or even helpful advice. In tonight’s episode, Elly May reclines in a fit of sexual frustration and says to the head:

> [@](#):
>
> I wish you had a tongue.

:rolleyes:

Meanwhile, Jethro is some kind of alien zombie who once went on a rampage and killed almost everybody on the ship, but in tonight’s episode is kind & sweet and acts as a defense attourny. The character’s actual name is khai, and it can not be mere coincidence that khai means “stinks of urine” in Vietnamese.

Does anybody like this show, and for God’s sake why? The only good part is when Lexx blows up a planet, and that only takes about six seconds.

It’s back to Farscape for me.

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**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/8 "2000-08-12T19:46:39Z")

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I know that show has a lot of quasi-sexual-almost-worthy-of-cinemax-time-slot scenes, but is it just me or is Lexx flying backwards…?

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**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/9 "2000-08-13T06:47:03Z")

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I’m so ashamed I know this.

Lexx is a living being, a humongous bug. Aeons ago, Lexx was converted, by an ancient alien race, to be the universe’s greatest weapon. Lexx is a bug, whose insides were altered to form living quarters, and had mucho electronics and such installed in itself, and integrated with it’s physical presence.

Zev is the chick with pink hair. She’s sexy.

Khai was killed thousands of years ago, and reanimated by the same race that built Lexx, to be a perfect assassin. He was somehow freed by Lexx or Khai. I’m not clear on this. He uses a fake blood substance that keeps him ‘un-live’ or something.

The janitor guy (forget his name) was the janitor for the ship. Somehow, he was given the sole power to control Lexx.

790 was a love android with a piece of human brain to act as his ‘personality.’ Somehow, his body was destroyed. He’s in love with Zev. He hates the Janitor.

There’s a girl who’s a plant, but she died yesterday. She had a thing for the janitor.

Oh, and the ‘light plane’ was destroyed by Manford’s (sic) drones. Basically, the entire universe was consumed by the drones, and collapsed upon itself when the crew of Lexx tricked them into all assembling in the center of the universe. Lexx was somehow shunted into the ‘dark plane’ at the last moment.

–Tim

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**Author:** ![Zoing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecccb3/32.png) [@Zoing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoing)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/10 "2000-08-13T06:50:35Z")

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Lyekka - plant girl - died?! Well, crap! Maybe I should actually be watching the damned show.

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**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/11 "2000-08-13T17:12:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Homer \*  
> \*\*  
> Zev is the chick with pink hair. She’s sexy.
> 
> He’s in love with Zev. He hates the Janitor.
> 
> –Tim \*\*

Is there something I should know about??? :eek:

Zev Steinhardt

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**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/12 "2000-08-13T19:40:00Z")

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The show is explained on the Lexx site: [http://www.scifi.com/lexx/](http://www.scifi.com/lexx/)

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**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/13 "2000-08-14T02:58:06Z")

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bad acting in any cinematic part

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**Author:** ![Ura-Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Ura-Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ura-Maru)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/14 "2000-08-14T04:02:35Z")

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Yeah. Drop MST3K for Lexx. I don’t agree, Scifi network, but I guess it’s your decision. Why don’t you just TAKE THAT PIECE OF CRAP SHOW, ADD FIRST WAVE, mix them up \*\*REAL \*\*good and **SHOVE THEM RIGHT UP YOUR** –

Uh, sorry about that. I have issues with SFN, I guess. I shouldn’t bash them for \*\* buying a show that makes hentai anime look like freaking Babylon 5, and promoting the fuck out of it, INSTEAD OF KEEPING AROUND A SHOW THAT COST 80 BUCKS A WEEK TO MAKE AND JUSTIFIED THE REST OF THEIR MORONIC SF WANNABE CRAP’S EXISTANCE-- \*\*

Maybe I should just drop it. Farscape isn’t bad, to be fair.

–  
“It’s my destiny to release evil into the world, and then slowly reclaim it, after the deaths of many innocent people.”

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**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/15 "2000-08-14T05:53:22Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \*  
> \*\*
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*Originally posted by Homer \*  
> > \*\*  
> > Zev is the chick with pink hair. She’s sexy.
> > 
> > He’s in love with Zev. He hates the Janitor.
> > 
> > –Tim \*\*
> 
> Is there something I should know about??? :eek:
> 
> Zev Steinhardt \*\*

You mean you didn’t name yourself after her? 🙂

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**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/16 "2000-08-14T17:19:21Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by opus \*  
> **I have given this new series my best shot, but I can’t watch it any more. It’s basically The Beverly Hillbillies Go Whorehouse Hopping In The Outer Space Equivalent Of West Virginia. All it’s missing is banjo music.**

Well, when you put it like that…

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**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/17 "2000-08-14T17:58:46Z")

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I tried to like it - really. My husband watched the movies, and I never got them, either. Mostly I think the attraction for him was you got to see a lot more of Xev (yes, not Zev - the same character, but different - don’t ask, I don’t understand it either), as it was not a network TV show.

As near as I can tell, the plot of every episode is thus:

1. They encounter some idiots on a planet or another ship.
2. Stan sees this as an opportunity to have sex, preferably with Zev.
3. Zev sees this as an opportunity to have sex, preferably with anyone but Stan.
4. 790 sees this as an opportunity to insult Stan and woo Zev.
5. We get to see some of Lexx’s disgusting bodily functions (the mess hall, the toilet that licks your ass clean, etc.)
6. The idiots they encounter endanger them somehow.
7. They wake up Kai, and he kills the idiots.

This got old after three episodes. Especially number 5. As I said, I just don’t get it. We watch Iron Chef instead.

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**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/18 "2000-08-15T03:08:52Z")

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Zev was the original gal who was killed. She wore a wedding dress. Xev is the replacement chick that Lyekka made out of the dead patriot people. She wears the skin of a lizard thing. She’s also tamer. Same but different.

–Tim

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**Author:** ![Needs2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5e925/32.png) [@Needs2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Needs2know)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-watching-lexx/28966/19 "2000-08-15T13:29:44Z")

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That must be it for me the “toilet humor” involved. And the graphic details of brain squeezing and such. Not that you can enjoy horror or sci fi and have a tender tummy. It’s just that this show is shit. The writing is shit, the acting is shit, and the whole sexual tension thing is shit. There is nothing sexy about it. Well maybe if you think Pink Flamingos is sexy or Ace Ventura Pet Detective.

I don’t watch Farscape either but I’ve enjoyed it when I did. Definiately can’t get into First Wave. But I have seen a few episodes of Space: Above and Beyond. I can tolerate this one because to me it’s basically an action series, the whole Marine thing.

I’d say other than running a decent movie now and then and old episodes of Twilight Zone, and Crypt Tales, Sci-Fi channel needs to tighten up. Perhaps the Dune mini series coming up will be enjoyable.

Needs2know
