‘Secrets of the Ra’ Finally Here, ‘The LXD’ Season 2 Begins

You may call it dance, but your ability is actually a weapon. Everything in creation is made of an aggressive energy that can extend beyond the physical being. This energy flows through our bodies like a network of wires and when sliced, shaped, spun, and expelled in the right way can have a devastating effect.

The Chinese call it Chi,
The English call it Aura,
The Indians call it Shakra,
We call it The Ra.

The wait is over. Season 2 of The LXD premiered today on Hulu with the two new episodes taking us into the secret training academy of LXD warriors. “Secrets of the Ra” picks up where the opening season left off as the handpicked new recruits arrive together at the mysterious private school with a hidden East Wing.

I’m not going to beat around the bush here, this web series has me hooked. (And I’m not the only one.) The two new 11-minute episodes breezed by, with only a few pre and mid-roll ads breaking up the jaw-dropping drama. If anything I’d say it’s teasing us, building slowly to a face-off between the young trainees and the dark arts of their rival Organization X, or OX for short. We find out the trigger for the forthcoming battle, a kidnapping of one of the instructor’s wives, meaning these newbies are about to get fast-tracked.

But story is

only half of the appeal here, it’s really about the dance. Stepping, popping, breaking, tapping, locking—all intermixed to paint fresh strokes at dance as art. The cross-pollenating of styles that loosely comprise the once underground hiphop dance world is what makes the dance sequences the main attraction. Much the same as the over-the-top show choir numbers in Glee, which not surprising shares a cast member with The LXD in Harry Shum Jr.

So savor these 22 minutes, since the next one isn’t out until next Wednesday, and one every week after that through December. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that all of the dance moves are real—no wires, no camera tricks. Creator Jon M. Chu has assembled his own real life collection of the world’s best hiphop dancers, and thankfully most of them can act.

Photo Courtesy Paramount Digital Entertainment and LXD Ventures

Also check out our interview with Madd Chadd.