The Raunchiest Sci-Fi Series Ever Made Is Hiding A Dark And Serious Season

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 39 seconds ago

Lexx is a fascinating series to look back on, almost 30 years since its 1997 debut. Unlike every other sci-fi series, Lexx embraced sex head-on with a crew that wanted to hook up as much, or more, than they wanted to defeat His Shadow and free the galaxy from his insidious influence.

They accomplish their mission at the end of Season 2, which allowed the writers to go nuts for Season 3, sending the crew of the Lexx over 4,000 years into the future to deal with the problems plaguing the twin planets, Fire and Water. Fans of the sex obessed series stuffed with satire and irony were not ready for how dark the season would get, and especially didn’t expect Lexx’s captain to be sent to Hell. 

The Last Temptation Of Stanley Tweedle

After Lexx drifts into orbit around Fire, the tyrannical Prince (Nigel Bennett) boards the ship with his loyal soldiers, capturing Stanley (Brian Downey) and Xev (Xenia Seeberg), one for torture, one for romance, and even without seeing a second of the show, you can guess who is who. Prince punishes the guilty, tempts others into committing horrendous acts, can die and be reborn, and even judges the dead, making him the closest thing in Lexx to the Devil. 

Prince realizes how important Stanley is thanks to his bond with Lexx, and instead of torture, decides to tempt him into destroying the planet Water by offering up, what else, a woman. In this case, it’s gonna be May, a recently deceased citizen of Water Prince resurrected for Stanley. Stanley actively considers destroying Water using Lexx, but resists temptation, and so Prince arrives to spirit May away from him once again. 

That moment comes back to haunt Stanley later in the season, when he drowns and winds up in the afterlife of Fire on a beach with one of Prince’s forms for judgment. As it so turns out, saying you were in love isn’t a valid reason to plan planetary annihilation. Thankfully for Stanley, none of his actions from the other universe, where they fought His Divine Shadow, count in this one, but there’s still more enough for Prince to condemn his soul to eternal torture. 

From Sex Adventure To Philosophical Debates

If that seems a little heavy for a show that includes a love bot, that’s because it is. Stanley’s adventures during Season 3 may be the darkest of the crew, but everyone, including Kai (Michael McManus) gets put through the emotional and spiritual ringer as the nihilism and hedonism of the first two seasons are reframed through Prince. The writers, realizing that no one from the studio was paying attention, wound up crafting one of the strangest, most interesting seasons of any sci-fi series. 

At the end of the day, it’s still Lexx, which means there’s an episode about Kai releasing drag queen slaves and then Lexx eating them all as they attempt to escape from Girltown. Philosophical musings on life and morality are all well and good, but fans still love Lexx because it’s absurd and unlike anything else. Watching Xev get one over on the Devil, Kai drop from space to the surface of a planet, and Stanley realize that maybe he really is a hero (he’s not) is all great, but it’s also a wild tonal adjustment from what came before. 

Lexx is easy to dismiss with its low-budget special effects and plots that sound like fan fiction gone too far, but it’s also fun for the same exact reason. Even now, clips of Lexx make it feel like a weird fever dream, and there’s been nothing like it over the last 30 years. Season 3 may not be considered the best of the series, that would be Season 2, but it at least dared to try something wild and different, and in the process, sent the raunchy series in a bold direction that questioned its very existence.