Empire (Fox tv series)

[oscarnerdjulief]

This is the biggest new hit of the 2014-2015 season with 20 million viewers seeing its debut.  I liked it, though it's a little over the top in some places.  Taraji P. Henson is great.  I also think Fox benefited from repeated airings.  I couldn't watch the show at its usual Wednesday time due to other shows I usually watch, but I did see it on a Saturday repeat.

Did you enjoy it?  I decided to watch it when I heard it described as an African-American "Dynasty."  It's on tonight at nine on Fox if you want to try it.  By the way, The Americans is on at ten, too, on FX.  It returns for its third season.

[karinothing]

I like it, although i find the scenes about what it is to be a man and homosexuality hard to watch.

[itsme]

I like the show. The corny background music during some scenes turn me off. Not the parts where they sing (and it's obviously studio recorded when it is supposed to be live) but the other background music like they used to play in the 80s on TV shows.

[meowmaps]

I watched the first episode and thought it was ok, if a bit overdramatic. I think I watch too much TV as it is so it's not a show I'm going to add to my list.

[oscarnerdjulief]

I like this. It's fun watching it, kinda like reality shows. I just dumped Modern Family so I could tape it.

[secretlyevil]

I am enjoying it but like pp some of the rhetoric and dialogue about homosexuality and what a man should be like is a bit too much.

[jigsy]

I think it is a fun new nighttime soap. I find it really interesting that they are approaching homosexuality in black/hip hop culture in a thoughtful way (so far)
The scene where he puts his son in the garbage was incredibly heart breaking, but also not a stretch for the time and setting.

It's like a hip hop Nashville. So I've been tuning in.

[orangeblossom]

Feb 10, 2015 0:37:48 GMT -5 jigsy said:

I think it is a fun new nighttime soap. I find it really interesting that they are approaching homosexuality in black/hip hop culture in a thoughtful way (so far)
The scene where he puts his son in the garbage was incredibly heart breaking, but also not a stretch for the time and setting.

It's like a hip hop Nashville. So I've been tuning in.

Unfortunately, the scene in the trashcan actually happened to the director.  I am happy they're addrrssing it, even if it is cringeworthy at times. 

[oscarnerdjulief]

I can't watch Empire tonight because DH and I are watching Modern Family and Blackish instead, so can someone please recap the episode when it would no longer be a spoiler? Thanks in advance.

[orangeblossom]

blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/02/11/empire-recap-season-1-episode-6-out-damned-spot/


The Lyons gather (would that be a pride of Lyons?) and that cannot be good. Whenever this family gets together, something goes down. They need therapy, or Jesus. As Cookie enters wearing a lovely sable, she tells Lucious she’s nervous because of the rose.



She gives him the saddest flirty laugh, sad only because we know Lucious has some big news to share with his first wife. Lucious blanches and says, “That’s not why I brought you here.” Jamal tries to make up with Hakeem but Hakeem remains petulant. Before the brothers can really get into it, Lucious and Anika announce their engagement and she holds up her hand in that special way and says, “Boom.”



No one is more shocked than Cookie who calls Lucious out. He says the rose was simply a reminder of where they were yesterday. She throws a (different) rose, that she has conveniently plucked from the table, right at him before standing and revealing that beneath her sable, she is wearing some fierce lingerie. Yes, this happens. “Oh, and Anika,” she says, grabbing her ass, “This is an ass.” Our Cookie knows how to leave a room, that’s for sure. She also correctly identifies her ass as an ass. Team Cookie.





Grace Gealey, Terrence Howard, and Bryshere Y. Gray in “Empire” FX

Michael is worried that as Jamal’s career rises, he’s going to be left behind and Cookie does little to assuage his fears. After listening to Jamal’s new song at their remarkably chic new apartment, Cookie heads off and Michael follows, asking if she has noticed any changes in Jamal. She quips that he’s becoming a top because that’s what it takes to get to the top. Cookie tells Michael Jamal is going to have less and less time for him and with a gentle caress of the cheek, she’s off.



Lucious watches Hakeem perform Drip Drop and is forced to deal with a flare up of his ALS. When he looks over at his security monitor, Lucious sees a detective pawing through his trash so he calls on Vernon who confronts Lucious directly and asks if he killed Bunkie. Oddly enough, Lucious rises up with smug and righteous anger and confesses to his crime as if he, even with Bunkie’s death, remains the affronted party. Vernon, who clearly has some sense, tells Lucious he should have paid the man and then Lucious asks Vernon how he’s going to fix this, as if it is that simple to clear up a little thing like murder. On this show, it kind of is, truth be told. Vernon lays out a plan involving beefing up security (why?) and acting like everything is normal (what?). It all seems legit but the best part is how Vernon isn’t at all surprised that one of his oldest friends has murdered another of his oldest friends.



All kinds of nefariousness emerges in this episode. Vernon storms over to Andre’s office and grabs him in a chokehold, talking about how they had a deal. Once Andre explains that he instinctively covers up for his father, Vernon leaves and takes a walk with his sponsor. They mumble about the journey of sobriety and following great men and so on. Andre, still trying to catch his breath, calls Rhonda who still isn’t sporting her bib. He tells her he was right about his father but she can’t really talk because she’s at work so she puts their machinations on pause.





Terrence Howard as Lucious Lyon in “Empire” FX

Lucious consults with his private doctor who has a line on a trial treatment from Russia that he can somehow get his hands on and later, the doctor shows up with the magical elixir and who knows? Maybe it will work.



Guest star Courtney Love makes a turn as fading star Elle Dallas, temperamental but talented diva. When she learns Cookie wants to start managing her, Elle initially refuses because she has sold a hundred million records for Empire. She doesn’t want to work with an ex-con.. Later, Cookie shows up at a sleazy motel where Elle and some rando junkie dude are shacking up. Cookie throws the rando junkie dude out and stages a quick one-woman intervention. She tells Ellen how her music helped her through the dark times and how Elle needs to get clean. Cookie throws Elle’s drugs away and before, Elle is sobbing in Cookie’s arms.



Some back alley dirty business takes place between Vernon and another guy, clearly designed to help Lucious with his predicament.



At his apartment, Hakeem is staring at the pictures of Tiana and her girlfriend. Who wouldn’t? The youngest Lyon is less than thrilled and when Tiana calls, he ignores her, instead giving Camilla a call. Alas, he only gets her voicemail. Hakeem’s struggle has never been more real.



Jamal has a big night at Leviticus because Cookie has a plan. There’s a famous football player at the club and after the deejay starts playing Jamal’s single, Cookie slinks over to the baller’s table and coyly asks him to get his social networking on. She knows what’s up because she asks him to tweet about the single to his followers. Twitter is everything. Amen. Meanwhile, everyone in the club is dancing like they are hearing the greatest song ever sung. What a coincidence! The football player is reluctant at first, but Cookie is wily and uses humor and some vaguely drunk young nubile women who are badly acting their way through straight girls gone wild, to get her way.



A drunk Hakeem comes to his older brother for some solace and Cookie, still trying to mother the boy, asks if he’s okay. She suggests that they both go to Hakeem’s place as Hakeem begs Jamal for some help with a new song. Jamal continues his independent, “to hell with the men in my family” streak and tells Hakeem he should have treated both he and Cookie with more respect if he wanted Jamal’s help.



Back in the back alley, a different one but the same one, if you know what I mean, Vernon and the shady guy from earlier meet with a third shady guy who agrees to take the fall for murdering Bunkie. There is some money exchanged and they all act like everything is perfectly normal.



As you might expect, Elle Dallas’s voice is a hot mess during her studio session. When she throws a tantrum, Cookie puts her perfectly sheathed foot down and demands that Elle cut the BS. That also involves Elle taking off her fur coat, her weave, her jewelry and “fake ass eyelashes.” When she starts singing again, we’re supposed to believe she sounds amazing but… keeping it real, she doesn’t.



There is trouble in paradise because Jamal has to cancel a planned romantic get away with Michael. Alas, he needs a rain check for their trip to Fire Island, the most romantic of all places in the metropolitan New York area. They have a bit of an argument and Jamal huffs, “This is about the music,” before turning back to his keyboard that won’t have opinions or expectations or anything silly like that. Jamal is still feeling his music at an interview/performance on satellite radio with the one and only Sway. And then in a depressing twist, Sway asks Jamal if there is a lady in his life. After a pause, Jamal says he doesn’t have a lady or anyone special in his life. Michael, watching the interview from home, sits stunned. Judas, Brutus, Jamal?



The police commissioner personally tells Lucious they’ve found Bunkie’s murderer and Lyon, flush with relief, tells Vernon he owes him but Vernon merely fixes Lucious with a killer stare.



New security procedures are being instituted at Empire and Cookie is about to get into it with a security guard before Malcolm, the new head of Empire security, suavely swoops in and charms Cookie. “I feel safer already, Mr. Devoe,” she purrs as she goes about her business.



In the bathroom, Vernon and Andre have a conversation that lets us know there is some kind of secret pact between them. “I apologize for choking you out,” Vernon says and Andre, with equal calm, replies, “One more thing. You put your hands on me again, I will slit your throat.”



Walking through the halls of Empire, Cookie and Jamal hear a deeply sexist song blaring from the conference room. It is, of course, Hakeem’s new song, and Anika, Lucious, and Hakeem revel in the misogyny and all the records it will sell while Jamal and Cookie urge them to drop the song. Misogyny, 1, Decency and Common Sense, 0.



The episode ends with something of a Maury Povich twist. Conveniently enough, the entire family is in the Empire lobby where a woman, Olivia, has shown up with a young girl. She goes up to Jamal and says, of the little girl, “She wanted to meet her daddy. Everyone suddenly starts exchanging “meaningful” looks. Who knows what’s going to happen next. If Maury pops out and says, “Jamal, you are the father,” I will be thrilled, but that’s just me.

[oscarnerdjulief]

Thank you so much. That helped me. I was able to watch this week and have it set for next week. It's so entertaining.

[bbonanza]

Anybody watch the finale? Your thoughts? There was so much going on, I'm not sure what to think. And why is Terrence Howard in a different series coming up in May, lol?

[oscarnerdjulief]

There was so much going on. I wish they had divided it. I liked the first episode but didn't like the second. Some of the "guilty pleasure" moments also could get too much and make the show go off the rails. I don't know if I like the fact that Luscious didn't have ALS. I actually thought that it was going to come out that Annika (sp?) was poisoning him and he wasn't sick at all.


It was a huge hit with a 6.5 rating in the demographic and 17 million viewers.

I just watched it. Still don't know what to think. I guess the Empire soundtrack's #1 on Billboard, keeping Madonna out of the top spot for the first time since 1998 (or so the article I read stated). Poor Madge, I just love her.

[secretlyevil]

Hey, he has to stick around somehow. Soooo much happened. All kinds of crazy. I can't even wrap my mind around it. Except! Cookie is the awesomest!

[oscarnerdjulief]

I heard that Lee Daniels wants Common and Oprah for season 2.

[karinothing]

Mar 19, 2015 8:20:01 GMT -5 bbonanza said:

Anybody watch the finale? Your thoughts? There was so much going on, I'm not sure what to think. And why is Terrence Howard in a different series coming up in May, lol?

It is a mini series (at least as far as I know).