This Classic MTV Animated Sci-Fi Series Killed Its Titular Character Over And Over Again

Long before Cartoon Network unveiled its Adult Swim lineup of mature-themed cartoon programming in 2001, MTV gave audiences its own selection of adult cartoons in a showcase known as "Liquid Television." Launched June 1, 1991, the series was a variety program of sorts that aired strange animations and bizarre segments. It's where the show "Beavis and Butthead" got its start in 1992, but the showcase also brought about a dystopian cyberpunk series known as "Aeon Flux" that constantly killed its main character.

You may be familiar with the 2005 live-action movie of the same name starring Charlize Theron, but the original animated series ran from 1991 to 1995 and was created by writer Peter Chung, who was also a character designer for Nickelodeon's "Rugrats." "Aeon Flux" is weird, avant-garde, and also great for those who love bleak sci-fi. Like a certain animated adult sci-fi movie that deserved more attention, we can tell you where "Aeon Flux" is streaming, but be sure to put it on after the kids are in bed.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 90% Tomatometer rating and an 83% Popcornmeter rating, with critic Sonia Saraiya stating for Vanity Fair about Season 3 that "It's unsettling, nasty, fluidly drawn, and deliberately unsatisfying, with an attention to thematics that was way ahead of most other animated shows of the era." Like the animated sci-fi movie starring Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr., "Aeon Flux" was something completely different.

Starting as a series of animated shorts on "Liquid Television," Season 1 of "Aeon Flux" was six two-minute segments. Season 2 is composed of five episodes that were five minutes in length. Along with a protagonist that dies in every episode, the first two seasons are also noteworthy for containing virtually zero dialogue, save for the occasional laugh or guttural groan.

The series follows the titular character (voiced by Denise Poirier), who is a secret agent and assassin originally from the country of Monica. While audiences are given scant details about her backstory or motivations, Flux constantly deals with her antagonist and lover, Trevor Goodchild. Within each mission, Aeon Flux uses her inhuman agility to deliver her own form of justice, when she isn't dying, that is. As Chung never intended "Aeon Flux" to blossom into a series, they just killed her off in every episode of the first two seasons and implied that Aeon is a series of clones.

Even in the very first episode, Aeon dies due to a tack in her foot, and she frequently dies in episodes due to her own ignorance. However, by the third season, she only dies once. While the surreal series was meant to get a true reboot on Paramount+ (aside from the critically panned live-action movie), it has yet to materialize. It's worth checking out, and you can find "Aeon Flux" on Paramount+.