Television series
Lexx
- Space opera
- Strange
Lexx is a Canadian sci-fi series that throws four misfits into a living spaceship the size of Manhattan. It's visually audacious, tonally unstable in the best way, and unafraid to be simultaneously silly and bleak. Think baroque space opera filtered through midnight cable, where B-movie camp collides with genuine cosmic horror. Not for everyone, but for the right person, absolutely unforgettable.
If you liked this
The Fifth Element1997
Luc Besson's operatic space adventure shares Lexx's love of vivid, grotesque production design and its willingness to be silly without apologizing. Visually intoxicating and tonal mischief in every frame.
But It's more polished and Hollywood-friendly than Lexx, which might feel like a step down if you crave the show's weirder edges and budget-busting ingenuity.
Farscape1999
Another show about a crew of misfits stranded on a living ship, navigating hostile space with humor and genuine darkness. Same DNA: campy aliens, strong character work, and a willingness to get weird with it.
But Farscape leans more into action-adventure and emotional continuity. Lexx is more episodic and philosophically bleak, so the tone is quite different.
Flash Gordon1980
Mike Hodges' camp masterpiece understands that pulp sci-fi can be both ridiculous and genuinely stylish. Technicolor space melodrama with real artistic ambition underneath the cheese.
But It's a 1980 film, so it moves and looks nothing like Lexx. If you need narrative momentum or contemporary pacing, this will feel glacial.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Lexx
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Æon Flux2005
Both prioritize visual world-building and an unsettling aesthetic over conventional narrative satisfaction. Both trust viewers to stay uncomfortable rather than providing reassurance.
Karyn Kusama's live-action adaptation of the animated series has Lexx's commitment to baroque production design and moral ambiguity. A secret agent navigates a totalitarian dystopia where nothing is as it seems and visuals overwhelm logic.
But It's visually stunning but narratively confusing and coldly paced. Many found it pretentious and glacial; it's asking you to surrender to atmosphere over plot coherence.
More like this (8)
Barbarella1968
The template for kitschy, unapologetic space opera. Roger Vadim's film treats absurdity as an art form and never winks at the camera—it just commits. Pure visual joy in impossible costumes and sets.
But It's 1960s soft-focus pretty in ways Lexx deliberately avoids. Some find it tedious; others find it transcendent. No middle ground.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen1988
Terry Gilliam's fever dream about a man telling impossible stories has Lexx's commitment to visual excess, tonal whiplash, and the sense that budget constraints only make things weirder.
But It's a fantasy film, not sci-fi, and narratively more straightforward than Lexx's anarchic serialization. Also notoriously troubled production that shows on screen.
Dark Star1974
John Carpenter's space comedy is lo-fi sci-fi done with wit and genuine unease. A bored crew maintains a bomb-filled ship while slowly losing their minds. Bleak, funny, and utterly original.
But It's deliberately minimalist and static—the opposite of Lexx's visual ambition. The humor is drier and the pacing more deliberately slow.
Space Ghost Coast to Coast1994
Adult Swim before Adult Swim existed. Absurdist comedy set in a sci-fi framework, using genre as a scaffold for pure tonal chaos. You never know if you're watching parody or sincere weirdness.
But It's a talk show sketch comedy show, not narrative sci-fi. If you want plot or character development, you're looking in the wrong place.
Red Dwarf1988
British sci-fi comedy about the last human alive on a mining ship with a hologram, a creature that evolved from cats, and an android. Absurd, endlessly inventive, and genuinely affectionate about its misfits.
But It's much broader and joke-driven than Lexx. Where Lexx builds dread, Red Dwarf lands gags. The British humor might not translate depending on your tolerance.
Liquid Sky1982
An underground sci-fi film about an alien visiting Earth to study human pleasure. Utterly singular—avant-garde, transgressive, visually hypnotic, and genuinely unsettling in ways mainstream sci-fi never attempts.
But It's experimental cinema with a deliberately static camera, minimal plot, and no conventional narrative arc. Requires patience and an appetite for genuine weirdness without explanation.
The Holy Mountain1973
Both reject the comfort of conventional storytelling in favor of mood, visual strangeness, and existential dread. Both are more interested in how you feel than what happens.
Jodorowsky's surrealist masterpiece is sci-fi as fever dream. A mystical journey through a hallucinatory landscape filled with grotesque imagery, sexual transgression, and genuine spiritual vertigo. Like Lexx on psychedelics and philosophy.
But It's aggressively difficult, deliberately paced to frustrate, sexually explicit, and hostile to meaning-making. If you need narrative sense or comfort, this will feel punitive.
The Expanse2015
Both depict space as genuinely hostile and indifferent to human morality. Both treat their crews as small and expendable in a vast, uncaring universe. Both understand that sci-fi can be genuinely pessimistic.
Space opera with genuine scale and moral complexity. Humanity fracturing across the solar system, with politics, physics, and the uncanny woven together. It has Lexx's willingness to let things get dark and weird without resetting.
But It's much grittier and harder sci-fi than Lexx, with minimal camp and no moments of tonal absurdity. If you loved Lexx's theatrical weirdness, this will feel soberly realistic.
