The Maxx, Episode 2

Last post I mentioned that this is a six episode series. That was both right and wrong. It's actually 13 episodes, but when it aired on MTV it aired in six episodes with five half hour segments containing two episodes each, and the final episode being an hour long with a recap of eps 1-10 and then eps 11-13.

But anyways, onto episode two. It begins with Maxx educating us about some of the creatures of the Outback.



The Outback Slug: "It can leap nearly a quarter mile straight into the air, but it has never mastered the ability to land. It has no predators. It is just...stupid."


The Great Northern Crabbit: "It can land and jump. But it has a natural enemy. The izs."

The Izs: "It can jump and land and has no predators. Unless you count...ME! "

And Maxx crushes it with his fist, killing the creatures.

Back in the city we have a voice on a radio informing us that Mr. Gone has thusfar killed 12 people and the cops are baffled. Maxx and Julie are walking back from the police station, Julie lost in her thoughts. She's thinking about Maxx. How he doens't have any idea what's really going on and justifies getting into trouble with the law with the excuse that in another world he was protecting the Jungle Queen. She thinks it's sort of good that at least in his dreams he's a hero. Overall she's pretty cynical. She thinks the city's full of people who are experts at avoiding reality. That no one really wants to know what's going on out there. The best thing is to not think about it and move on (very important facet of Julie's character).

When they get back to her apartment Maxx falls asleep on the couch and has another dream of the Outback. He quickly wakes up and Julie tells him it's almost night, he needs to go. She got him a coat and hat though. Maxx is more interested in toast.

Meanwhile in a dirty laundromat elsewhere, a girl named Glorie is doing her laundry with her boyfriend Tommy who is touching her ass. She's playing with a large butcher knife her father gave her for protection. She dresses like a ho so she'll probably need it. Tommy slips his hand down her panties and she tells him to lay off and get them some cokes. He goes and immediately after he leaves Mr. Gone appears and his evil cap seems to stretch to cover all the machines in the vicinity as if it has a life of it's own.


Mr. Gone starts going on about how he can feel the beating of her heart and calls her a "small, delicious slug." Ew. He then sends out his evil minions to maim her.


Vicious little buggers. All goes dark and we next see Tommy coming down the walk gathering up the courage to tell Glorie they're going steady. He sees her body and faints.

Back at Casa Julie Maxx feels bad that the woman he was trying to protect got hurt. She tells him it's not his responsibity to try to save women who can't take care of themselves. As he leaves Julie's phone rings and it's Mr. Gone telling her "The others cry out for you, Julie Winters. Their screams of agony are the kisses I place along your neck." She's had the line tapped and asks him to go on. He's aware of it and tells her so, saying he's having a servant place this call. Outside as Maxx is walking by we see a little nasty blue Isz using a payphone while holding a wireless one (old cell phone?) beside it.

The Iz notices him, smiles, and runs for it. Maxx realizes it's a dark Iz and isn't sure what's it's doing there. The Iz goes through a narrow alley and Maxx runs around and catches him a trash can. He opens it up to deal with it and sees it's gone, it bit through the steel of the bin. He finds it climbing a drain pipe an chases it all over the city, ending up at a gas station where it leaps to it's splattering death. Maxx is greeted by Mr. Gone, who we really get to see for the first time.


Wouldn't want to roll over and see that thing in the morning. Maxx asks him who he is and he's very surprised Maxx doesn't remember and mentions that he normally hates killing amnesiacs. Maxx sees the Izs and remembers everything about the Outback, and now knows it's real. Mr. Gone confirms this and tells him it's too bad he'll be eaten before he'll have a chance to mutter it to anyone and we end with the evil little creatures giggling maliciously (or whatever it is they do).

The Maxx, Episode 1

Way back in the good old days when MTV didn't suck and a small ten-year-old girl watched it as though it would answer all the secrets of the universe, there came along a cartoon called The Maxx, about a purple clad super hero who was homeless and got arrested all the time, all the while shifting between this world and a parellel dimension of his social worker's creation. Confused? Yeah, there was some fucked up shit going on in this cartoon. But I drank it in. I recorded every episode and watched it every weekend to the point that even NOW, I know the whole damn six-episode series by heart. Though I still have my tape my VCR stopped working some time ago so I haven't actually seen it in years. So imagine my delight in a vain attempt to find it on DVD I discovered that MTV put online. So many ideas for my stories came from this series, the characters from Jimmy Dearest were pure plagerism. It had such a tremendous effect on my writing and I can see it's effects even now. As soon as I saw the opening my mind screamed MUST.RECAP.THIS.NOW. How could you not love a show that opens with this:

Most of us inhabit at least two worlds. The real world, where we're at the mercy of circumstance. And the world within. The unconscious. A safe place. The Maxx shifts between these worlds against his will. Here, homeless, he lives in a box in an alley. The only one who really cares for him is Julie Winters, a freelance social worker. But in Pangea, the other world, he rules the Outback and is the protector of Julie, his Jungle Queen. There he cares for her. But he always ends up back in the real world. And me, old Mr. Gone, only I can see that the secret which unites them could destroy them. I could be helpful. Ah, screw it. I think I'll have some fun with them first. Mwahahahahahah!

Yeah. That was from memory. *the shame, the shame* So yes, I lift from obscurity a childhood obsession for others to enjoy: The Maxx.


So Maxx is a big guy who wears a purple suit and a mask and lives in a box. He has amnesia and has no idea who he really is. The show starts with an ass hole cab driver Renny dropping off a woman on her way to the theatre on the bad side of town where two of his lackey's, Fridge and Tigo can jump her. Maxx tries to save her and ends up killing Tigo, but the body falls out of site as does the woman. The Maxx is arrested for messing with Fridge and as the cops lead him away the serial killer that's been terrorizing the city attacks the woman. I love irony.

As Maxx is being driven to the station the cops complain about cleaning up his mess and how it must be great being nuts. Maxx has a habit of talking out loud and they tell him to shut up. He gets a headache and blacks out, waking up in the world called the Outback (aka Australia; aka Pangaea). How you can tell the difference is in the Outback he has a mane of gorgeous blond hair rivalling that of Zechs Marquise. Well, not quite. Creepy little white hands errupt from the ground and pull him under. The Outback isn't the Australia we know, it's more like a primordial land with volcanos, giant caveman, weird dinosaure-esque creatures, flying wales, my favoriet--the crabbits (which are exactly what they sound like, half crab, half rabbit) and the Izs. The Outback is ruled by the Jungle/Leopard Queen, who is always as scantilly clad as her real world counterpart and runs with a leopard. Maxx declares he can be a hero for her and rips free of the clinging arms (also ripping the arms from the bodies they belong to).


We flash to Julie Winters, who is a freelance social worker (does such a job truly exist?) She asks a homeless client the standard questions (like who's the president right now?) and he says she looks like a hooker. She classily throws him out of her apartment. She gets a creepy call after he leaves.

"I did it all for you, Julie. The pain. The sex. It was all for you."

She hangs up on him. Julie is a heroin with common sense. Gasp! The phone rings again and she calls the caller filth and turns out it's the cops on the phone, wanting her to pick up her old pal Maxx. She agrees and as she leaves mutters saracastically that if it weren't for the corruption and violence, the city wouldn't be any fun at all. As she walks through the rain to the police station she reflects on the fact that Maxx is always getting arrested for something different, and that he really seems to think he's a super hero. When she arrives Sargeant O'Conno tells her she should be careful, that women send out certain signals that attract men like Gone (the serial rapist and murderer going around the city) and that with the way she dresses isn't she worried about sending out the wrong kind of signals. Her response is to ring out her soaking wet hair all over his paperwork. I love Julie.

She tells Maxx it's getting harder to get him out of there and he claims it was his mask that did it. They leave, her promising to get him new clothes and hot bathe. As they walk off we see a radio playing and cloaked figure stomps on it, maliciously evil dark creatures giggling menacingly. God I love this show.