..... [*prod*....] Mwauh...? Gmfuffle...... ***yawwwwwn*** ....Is it finished yet...?
Well, that was my reaction to the first half, anyway. Perhaps I'm getting old, but the 'antics' of the young people were rather tame, weren't they? (Then again, I grew up - if that's the right term for it - with Punk...) And I never did have any respect for people who slavishly follow the fads - sorry, 'fashions' - of the day, whether in language, morals, clothing, music, drugs......
Then again, perhaps the adolescents were toned down for the episode.... Ah, it doesn't really matter. Initially, I found them simply irritating, irritatingly simple, and horribly clichéd - 'nice' young couple (few problems of the physical variety, but would probably go on to become Mr and Mrs Average), obnoxious but basically harmless - because cowardly - young vandal (one lives across the road from me.....), his trying-oh-so-hard to be outrageous sort-of-maybe girlfriend, and the statutory fall-guy (fat and awkward and - by inference and in context - insecure and desperate for 'friends' (why else would he be with this bunch of wasters?) and therefore to be used and abused. Predictable, stereotyped and insensitive. Hirschfield, if we ever meet, your head is MINE.......)
Then suddenly things got better. I think it was the sheer joy (or should that be distraction?) of seeing the dead guy finally 'come alive' in the most wonderfully repellent way imaginable (the tumbling locks helped, of course.....). And Xev's strange half-maternal, half-best friend chat with Canana - touching, realistic, and thoroughly delightful. And Stan's being teased by Laleen - that Stan, he can resist anything but temptation, neh?.....
As for the rest of it.....
No, I'm sorry; I simply can't summon up enough enthusiasm to write more. For this sort of thing to really work, it would need to be much more than a straight retelling of your basic modern horror story. As it stands, it's simply humdrum and predictable. We've seen it all before. And the end was a distinct disappointment (or should that be cop out?)
Homages - well, Psycho, Friday the 13th, just about every slasher/stalker movie you've ever seen, combined with a whole bunch of urban myths, even to that late 20th century device, the killer coming back to life after being 'killed'...... Ach, you don't need me to enumerate them...... (Actually, this episode reminded me of The Unnameable and The Unnameable Returns - though I can't for the life of me think why... )
(On second thoughts, actually, yes I can - but it would take too long to explain.)
Who re-styled Kai's hair before he was put back into cryo-stasis? Surely not Xev - she can't even do her own hair properly!
I don't often comment on the actual acting in Lexx, mostly because I can't in all conscience do so without seeing the actors in other rôles in other productions. But I have to confess that for once I was highly impressed with Michael McManus' acting. Chilling, nasty, thoroughly believable - a great piece of work and the only thing that saved the episode from being a complete bore! More, please.....
I really really loathe scatological "humour". I don't find it in the least funny. And while I agree the Lexx' toilets/johns/heads/bogs/WCs (did I miss anybody out?) are, logically speaking, absolutely perfect in the context of the bug as a living, growing organism, using them as a source of infantile comedy is really well beyond the pale. (Anyone get the pun?)
While I remember, what is this strange obsession with marriage that everyone seems to have in Lexx? No one ever seems to have lovers or partners; they always talk about their wives or husbands. Or had the Divine Order made it compulsory to marry once you reached a certain age?
So Kai can be programmed. Presumably, then, he could also be programmed to love. But then again, he doesn't have the equipment (for anyone who disagrees, go and take a closer look at his "slice of life" in Super Nova. See, no genitals......). On the other hand, such minor matters have never stopped the sci-fi fraternity before. Me, I prefer accuracy.
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