After the Fallout, Your Opinions please

I absolutely loved the series 1 movies, with IWHS and GiggaShadow being my favs.

Series 2 was pretty good with “Brigadoom” topping the list. However, I was somewhat disappointed by the way Kai’s character seemed to change from the movies. In the movies, he was clearly becoming emotionally aware and I expected Xev’s love for him to draw out his “personality” making him “alive” even though he was physically dead. Instead, as the show progressed (through series 3) he became even more distant, emotionless, and frankly I got tired of hearing him rattle off “The dead do not …” list all the time. I was wondering exactly what it was the dead actually did, and couldn’t find an answer. By the time series 3 ended, I was getting bored with the Xex/Kai relationship ( or lack thereof ) but hung on for the ride anyway. The last scene in “Heaven and Hell” whetted my appetite for more Lexx.

Unfortunately I actually stayed around to watch several series 4 episodes, becoming more and more distressed with the direction the series seemed to be headed in. The “Kai” of GiggaShadow never re-emerged until the final ep, and then it was too late.

I had been a die-hard Lexx fan, but by the middle of series 4, I just couldn’t take it anymore and started missing eps, catching only the last 20 minutes or so, and then turned the VCR off altogether. Funny thing was the other women I knew who were big fans of Lexx (series 1,2,3) had basically the same reaction to season 4. What happened to Kai?

Initially I blamed Michael McMannus, figureing he just wasn’t putting forth the effort needed to portray Kai as the “tortured soul waiting to be redeamed by a woman’s love” anymore. His lines were becoming stale, and there was no emotional “spark” anywhere in his delivery of them. The look in his eyes was as “dead” as his character was supposed to be. Without any sense of an emerging personality or a continuation of his emotional awakening, Kai became little more than a part of the scenery. Michael McMannus is certainly one of the most beautiful males the human race has ever produced, but it takes more than a pretty face to keep people interested. However, the final ep made me realize that McMannus had the ability all the time, he just wasnt directed to portray the character that way. During the last “farewell” I once again saw the Kai of Giggashadow emerge. The look in his eyes, the tone of his voice, it was all present. It was also too little, too late.

Had the powers that be allowed McMannus to develop this “Kai”, Lexx would have indeed kept the “contract” it had with its movie audience and I suspect a lot of VCR’s, including my own, would have stayed on. TV works on ratings, and rating require an audience to stay with a show. I’m one of the fans that caused it to fail, because I (and many others like me no doubt) simply stopped watching it. For those of you who enjoyed the show and would have liked it to continue, I appologize for being part of the reason it was cancelled. For me Lexx ended long before the Finale aired, and I was already sad to see it go. It had so much potential.

As for the finale: the final wrap up (though probably one of the best written eps of series 4) smelled just a little much like the set up for a sequel, than the final ep of the show.

Stan never did have to make the ultimate decision (to save Kai and Xev by sacraficing himself) that would have proved him a man instead of a mouse. Of course this leaves Stan as a possible returning character in a sequel. And the devil (prince) was let loose in the playground (the dark zone), so the spin off will have a villian. Kai came back to physical life and then dies, which means that Xev would never have had to deal with the true question the series posed in the first place. What is the nature of life and love? Only by loving the “dead” kai could Xev answer unequivocably that life and love is of the spiritual realm, not the physical. So in the end, the show wrapped itself up more as a potential spin off (without Michael McMannus, who I am assuming became as bored with his character as I was and simply quit.) than a true conclusion. What a waste.

I will keep and cherish the series 1 movies and probably some of series 2,3 eps as well, but I’d frankly rather forget that series 4 ever happened at all. It was a great ride for a while, but a disappointing and uninteresting ending.

I wish the writers had had the guts to “cross the line” and truely explore what love is, but I suppose there are some taboos that must remain untreadupon. As the “spirits” of Brigadoom said Lexx was the “Story of Kai…”. Without the guts to go THERE, this show was doomed to failure. If a sequel does come about, count me out.