A "Light Universe" and a "Dark Zone" keep good and bad apart for the characters of Lexx, even though it's often hard to tell the difference between the two in this offbeat and unique sci-fi show that delights in its own nastiness. The show's Canadian creators, "Supreme Beans" Paul Donovan, Lex Gigeroff, and Jeffrey Hirschfield--partnered with German money and studio facilities--intended every episode to be, in their words, "a nasty adventure". With flashes of nudity and surgical gore, and a collection of extreme hairstyles and accents, the overall look is often akin to a sci-fi Eurotrash. Aboard the stolen 10-kilometre-long spaceship Lexx (designed to look like a dragonfly) are the "Dirty Three-and-a-Half": insufferable coward Stanley H Tweedle (Brian Downey), the Edward Scissorhands clone and 2000 years-dead Kai (Michael McManus), decapitated and lovestruck robot head 790 (voiced by writer Hirschfield), and the skimpily wardrobed Zev (19-year-old Eva Habermann). It's with the last of these characters that the show generated its main audience and proved itself totally indifferent to regular boundaries of TV formatting. A disregard both for genre conventions and good taste makes the show a constant series of surprises. --Paul Tonks

On the DVD: The jam-packed pilot "I Worship His Shadow" is full of startlingly graphic imagery, skimpily clad women, and literally wall-to-wall computer graphics. TV sci-fi has never been introduced so explosively. "Super Nova" has the crew of the Lexx hunting for Kai's homeworld, and drawn to a planet by a holographic message from Poetman (Tim Curry). Essentially, the story has little to do with the overall arc, but is an experiment in format and testing boundaries (the most obvious example being Zev's naked shower scene). There's also a nutty song and dance moment for Kai and Zev, a cameo of the director floating in space, and Curry chewing scenery with gusto.

The first movie's disc features a Sci-fi Channel trailer of interviews for the series, a behind-the-scenes documentary introducing the show's creators and their irreverent sense of humour, plus DVD-ROM Screen Saver and Weblinks. The second movie's disc features a gallery of 12 stills, cast biographies, and another documentary which this time looks at the enormous CGI work put into the first season. This is where the digital transfer really pays off, and the FX-heavy show looks gorgeous in crisp definition as opposed to the general murkiness of TV broadcast or the VHS releases. --Paul Tonks

A "Light Universe" and a "Dark Zone" keep good and bad apart for the characters of Lexx, even though it's often hard to tell the difference between the two in this offbeat and unique sci-fi show that delights in its own nastiness. The show's Canadian creators, "Supreme Beans" Paul Donovan, Lex Gigeroff, and Jeffrey Hirschfield--partnered with German money and studio facilities--intended every episode to be, in their words, "a nasty adventure". With flashes of nudity and surgical gore, and a collection of extreme hairstyles and accents, the overall look is often akin to a sci-fi Eurotrash. Aboard the stolen 10-kilometre-long spaceship Lexx (designed to look like a dragonfly) are the "Dirty Three-and-a-Half": insufferable coward Stanley H Tweedle (Brian Downey), the Edward Scissorhands clone and 2000 years-dead Kai (Michael McManus), decapitated and lovestruck robot head 790 (voiced by writer Hirschfield), and the skimpily wardrobed Zev (19-year-old Eva Habermann). It's with the last of these characters that the show generated its main audience and proved itself totally indifferent to regular boundaries of TV formatting. A disregard both for genre conventions and good taste makes the show a constant series of surprises. --Paul Tonks

On the DVD: The first films's disc features a behind-the-scenes documentary with the show's creators talking generally about the intent of the films, a text interview with Jeffrey Hirschfield on his dual role as writer and voicing robot head 790, plus a hilarious "Purity Test" quiz to see how much of a fan you are. The second film's disc features a gallery of 12 stills, a Sci-fi Channel featurette and another documentary containing a very frank interview with director Robert Sigl and hilarious outtakes from Malcolm McDowell. --Paul Tonks