Lexx Series 3: Volumes 3 & 4 (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Paul Donovan and Lex Gigeroff
Directed by Chris Bould, Bruce McDonald, and Christoph Schrewe
Starring Brian Downey, Xenia Seeberg, Michael McManus, Jeffrey Hirschfield, Tom Gallant, and Nigel Bennett

Features:

• Behind the Scenes "Making of" segments
  
• Exclusive interviews with Videomatics Director Peter Gaskin and Visual Effects Producer Alex Busby
  
• Storyboards
  

Released by: Acorn Media
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format

My Advice: Rent them.

Stanley (Downey), Kai (McManus), Xev (Seeberg), and 790 (Hirschfield) are trapped in the alternate universe in orbit around two planets called Fire and Water who have been in an age-old war. The reason they are trapped is that the Lexx (voiced by Gallant) is an organic ship that requires food to function. Unbenownst to the crew, Xev has been possessed by Prince (Bennett) who is trying to gain control of the Lexx to use for his side in the war between the two planets. So, while the crew is trying to find a way to feed the Lexx and get away from these planets, Prince is trying to gain control of the ship for his own uses.

This show appeared to be on a downward cycle during its third season. The writers and producers attempted to create a season that contained one continuous story line rather than a series of individual episodes and it just didn't work. The characters are trapped in a certain situation (see the above synopsis), and it seems like the writers were really stretching to find stuff for the characters to do while they are trying to get out of that situation--for the whole season.

McManus is strong as the long-dead assassin Kai, and he seems to know his character arc very well. I will say that the writer's choice to make his character dead doesn't really allow him a lot of room to really shine in this role. Brian Downey is equally as good as Tweedle, the uber-dweeb/captain of the Lexx. Seeberg is everything that she is supposed to be as Xev, which is to say that she has a great body and tries to seduce everything in sight. It does appear that she tries a little too hard to be seductive at times rather than relying on her...um...assets. The character of 790 is just annoying. I don't think that it's Hirschfield's fault, but rather the writers' for just running out of things for a disembodied robot head to do. They did change the object of its desire from Xev to Kai, and they made it think its a woman, rather than a man. Confused? Don't worry, it doesn't really seem to matter.

The only other thing that you need to know about the concept of the show is that there is lots of sexual innuendo, both implied and explicit. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, it's just that not all of it is necessary. Granted the character of Xev is a love-slave, but they seem to force the sexuality into the show rather than just allowing it to come...um...naturally.

The DVDs are packed with some pretty common stuff; the behind the scenes segments really don't show very much except that they shot in some fairly bizarre locations all over the globe. The cast tells us a little bit about the difficulties of those various locations, but it just skims the surface of the production. The only thing that we learn from the interviews with the production crews is that they are producing this show with a very limited budget and some very limited special effects techniques and software. Everything else on the discs is just standard stuff: production and location still shots, trivia questions, and storyboards.

So, if you are a single man that really loves sci-fi, you could do much worse than this show. However, of the seasons that I have seen, this seems to be the weakest of the set and that's why it stays on the rental list.