'Lexx' Season 1 - TV Review

I was intrigued by the summary of "Lexx" on Wikipedia that said "The narrative includes irony, parody, sexual topics, and fatalism." Okay, let's give this a try.

The first season consists of four 95 minute episodes. The first episode is essentially Terry Gilliam TV. Dark, bizarre, weirdly funny, with a couple stumblingly incompetent characters, and all the characters over-the-top ... It reminded me of both "Brazil" and "The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen." I really enjoyed it, even though (or possibly because) I'd classify it as completely crazy.

It's set in a far future, in a repressive and religious civilization where societal roles are strongly (and often terminally) enforced. Several characters - Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey), Zev (Eva Habermann), Kai (Michael McManus), 790 (the head of a robot, voiced by Jeffrey Hirschfield), and an errant and particularly unpleasant cannibal rather accidentally steal the Lexx - a semi-sentient organic starship that's also the most powerful destructive force in the universe. Unfortunately for the government, Kai - who is dead but re-animated - is also the last of the Brunnen-G, and thus prophesied to cause the downfall of the government/religious leader. Stanley is incredibly ineffectual and whiny ... but he's the only one with the power to control the Lexx.

The first episode juggles the darkness and the humour reasonably well, and thus my comparison to Terry Gilliam. The remainder of the first season was just as silly, but not as thought-provoking. I've been told by friends whose judgment I trust that I should not, for any reason, watch season 2. And even more critically, don't watch seasons 3 and 4. Ah well - I did really enjoy that first episode ...