"Aeon Flux" (1991) TV series

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Creator:

Peter Chung

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Release Date:

12 September 1996 (Denmark)

Genre:

Adventure | Animation | Sci-Fi | Action

Plot:

Aeon Flux is a mysterious and amoral secret agent from the country of Monica. Her motives or background are left unexplained...

Plot Keywords:

Agent | Secret Agent | Immorality | Surrealism | Innuendo

Cast

Denise Poirier	...	Æon Flux (3 episodes, 1995)
John Rafter Lee	...	Trevor Goodchild (3 episodes, 1995)

Also Known As:

"Æon Flux" (USA) (alternative spelling)
"MTV's Æon Flux" (USA)

Runtime:

30 min (including commercials)

Country:

Hong Kong | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) (DVD) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (DVD) | Australia:M (some episodes) | UK:15 (some epiosodes) | Germany:16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Japan:R-18 | USA:TV-MA

Company:

CCHTV

Trivia:

Began as a series of short films for MTV. Each of these films, plus a couple of full episodes, ended with Aeon Flux being killed, with continuity being "rebooted" in the following episode. This angle was phased out over time. Plans for a second season were discussed, but as of 2005 have yet to be fulfilled.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Trevor Goodchild: The unobserved state is a fog of probabilities, a window of and for error. The watcher observes, the fog collapses, an event resolves. A theory becomes a fact... What is the truth? Tell me, if you know. And I will not believe you. Things are never what they seem. Clean gloves hide dirty hands - and mine are dirtier than most... Without truth, there can be no justice. Justice will be done!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Troldspejlet: (#35.7)" (2006)

The best television series ever on television. Go get your mind warped today!

If I were to make a list of the top ten television shows ever made, I would put Aeon Flux at #1. If I were to make a list of the top ten television shows and movies combined, it would end up at #2 (if you read my other comments, you'll notice that I often exalt films that I've seen in a similar top ten list format and that I have said that many films are this high on the list, but that was usually right after seeing it without any retrospect; I have seen every episode of Aeon Flux at least 10 times, so I have the proper retrospect here). It only falls behind Stanley Kubrick's 2001.

Like 2001, Aeon Flux is a mind-bending series that pushed the limits of narrative. As Trevor Goodchild says in the final episode of this series (so far; they've said that they might come back), "End Sinister": "A person from a thousand years ago could never comprehend the world today." Well, Aeon Flux is about 800 years in the future, because one has to see all the episodes several times before they begin to make sense. I like this, because the first few times you can appreciate the art. After you have seen each episode multiple times, you notice how amazingly and originally the narrative is constructed. So don't get angry at the series if you don't understand it initially.

Begin with the more conventional (though that word can hardly describe this television series) episodes. Rent or buy (it is certainly good enough to buy without having seen it before; look at my other comments to see if you agree with my tastes, then go for it if you do) the red cassette (which is also on DVD), and watch the first two episodes, "Thanatophobia" and "A Last Time for Everything." Then on the Blue Tape, watch "Reraizure," the first episode. Next, go to intermediate episodes, "Isthmus Crypticus," "Ether Drift Theory," "The Demiurge," "Utopia or Deuteronopia," and "End Sinister" (though you may want to save that for the end). Then, for the advanced class, go to the silent episodes on the red and yellow tapes, then see the hardest-to-get episodes "The Purge" and, by far the most mindbending and 2001-like, "Chronophasia." Personally, I like the simple beauty of "Thanatophobia" and "A Last Time for Everything" best, but "The Purge" and "Chronophasia" will warp your mind for sure. And like I said, don't dismiss them if you don't understand them. Think about each episode as an individual structure and then as a part of the whole. And if you're truly impressed, good luck finding the Aeon Flux book they published, _The Herodotus File_. It will help in your understanding if you have the good luck to find it. Also, another miraculously-produced MTV animated series marvel that you might like if you like this is The Maxx. It can usually be found on the shelf with Anime films, but if not, it can be purchased just as Aeon Flux can. It, if I were to list it along with the greatest television series and films, would be #3.

So please, go get your mind warped today by Aeon Flux and The Maxx!