Empire: Discussion Thread

[Mr. Vixen]

Brandon, boo I was watching! I live posted the first two episodes with y'all but then I got behind. I just finished 3-6.

[Vee]

Ilene Chaiken on tonight's episode.

[Particular]

Little Princess Jamal must stay! I love the soft tenderness she is bringing out of all the characters. It was so sweet when she called Rhonda and Jamal pretty before she retired to bed.

Where or where is Tianna???

Cookie flirting with Malcom was just too funny. "You know Malcom, I want to beef up security because I live alone." LOL Lucious could not stand it!

Hakeem making animal noises in the green room was hilarious! And he's just so little...he really is like Lil Wayne.

Jamal is the one who is most like Lucious to me while I think Hakeem acts more like Cookie.

Anika was so busy wreaking havoc with Elle she practically engineered the moment when it all backfired on her and Lucious admired Cookie for her gifts and talents anyway. And the ultimate climax between Cookie and Lucious took place in Anika's bed. So delicously soapy!

This show is just so fun. It's like a hip hop version of Game of Thrones. Perhaps that's what critics are missing as they seek to dissect the show. Empire is so entertaining because it's fun with a diverse group of colorful characters. It delivers on this every week.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Particular

[ChitHappens]

Sanaa Lathan directed yesterday's eppy? Well damn! She deserves an award!

Oops! Wrong Sanaa!

Edited February 19, 2015 by ChitHappens

[Vanguardian]

This show is running hot and cold for me. There are things that it does right and things that it does wrong in my opinion. My biggest beef? Continuity issues. Cookie orchestrated a killing a couple of episodes back and it's as if it didn't even happen, judging by Cookie's behavior afterwards. A presumed golddigger shows up last week with a child in tow in which she claims is Jamal's, and she makes no follow up appearance this week. She's seemingly left the child with the Lyons, and the Lyons have seemingly accepted this child as a member of the family without question. No paternity test at least?

[NothinButAttitude]

I don't see those as continuity errors. As someone mentioned, they are going to be addressed down the line. As someone previously stated, no one knows that Cookie had that man offed except her sister and the hitman. And with Jamal's supposed daughter, I think it is normal for a deadbeat, social grifter to drop their child off and keep it moving. She's going to pop back up eventually.

Didn't Sammy Jo pop in and out all the time? That's clearly who Lee, Danny, and Ilene model her after.

I'm glad that they've set these plots aside somewhat for now so when the finale and early parts of s2 rolls around the corner, they'll pop off. It's not like Ron on GH where he leaves them up in the air for months.

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

The little girl called Hakeem "pretty" and I nearly died from it. SIgh this is so not going to end well. At first I was hoping it wasn't Jama's but now that Dora has exited stage left in record time I'm fine with either outcome.

Surely he's going to perform a DNA test? Jamal can't be that stupid can he? I didn't shed one single tear for Anika last night. As far as I'm concerned Boo Boo Kitty got some well deserved KARMA on that trifling behind. Esp after the evil she did to El earlier in the episode. I was so sad that she fell apart and couldn't perform. But at least they didn't have her go up there and embarass herself or the company.

[ChitHappens]

I still have no words for last night's Eppy! Great TV from beginning to end.

Andre's meltdown, Anika drugging Elle, CookieLu in bed? That is what great soaps are made of. I love when the brothers perform together. The song they did at the beginning of the pilot was excellent. The reboot of Money For Nothing? BRILLIANT!

Last night's show was television excellence! Best eppy of the season, and I don't say that lightly!

[ChitHappens]

CBS/POI did the best thing for television when they canned TPH, and I mean that!

[All My Shadows]

I don't see the thing with Jamal's daughter (was a name ever given?) as a continuity error at all. Jamal stressed several times last night that the little girl can't be his daughter, and even Cookie seemed to voice her doubts. The family took her in because her mother vanished, and Lucious does believe the girl is his granddaughter (and probably wants to believe it, too), so if she's a Lyon, she's family, and he takes care of his family. At this point, they just seem to be trying to track Olivia down to get more of the story, but a paternity test can't be too far down the line.

I still feel uneasy about Cookie getting the guy killed, but I'll just wait and see if/when they address that again. It's honestly the only thing the show has done that I've really shook my head, so even if they gloss over it, I can forgive them. Everything else is top-notch family drama.

[marceline]

What a perfectly old-school soapy episode. One thing I loved is how the stakes were high for everyone, not just Lucious. That's where real drama comes from. Not stunts but stakes. Every character was tested tonight and from my scoreboard only one of them failed which brings me to....

Anika you trifling low-down bitch. I've tried to be supportive of the character because she has the disadvantage of going up against the force of nature that is Cookie but messing with an addict's recovery crosses the line. The season finale better end with her falling out a window or getting hit by a car. (Of course if that happens you know that it will look like Cookie tried to kill her which you gotta admit would set up season 2 quite nicely.) Also mad props to Courtney Love. I admire her willingness to be so meta. That scene of her flopping around on that seat in the ladies room was a flashback to just about every appearance she made at the MTV music awards back in the day. IMO, it takes guts for her revisit that part of her history. I've known my fair share of addicts and that hopeful nervousness of someone who is newly clean was spot on. I really felt for Elle and I hope that she gets vindicated.

The scenes with Hakeem and Jamal showed us that they've taken the rivalry to heart. It's not just Cookie and Lucious pitting the boys against each other anymore. They own this fight now. I'm lukewarm on most of the music on this show but I have to admit that when they perform together they become more than just the sum of their parts. They compliment each other well. I also like the effect Camilla has on Hakeem. The way she rolled her eyes when he told her what "bae" means cracked me up because I feel the same way.

My only complaint with this show is the lack of follow up. We now have several loose threads: the murder Cookie arranged, Olivia showing up for literally a minute then disappearing and Tiana vanishing into thin air with her. How is Empire having a big event like this one and Tiana is nowhere to be seen? I know some people don't like the idea of lengthening the season too much but it's not like there isn't enough story to fill 15-18 episodes. Right now, I think the show could benefit from a little more breathing room.

There's only four episodes left so we should start seeing the ones written after they got the S2 pickup. I'll be interested to see if there's a noticeable difference.

Edited February 19, 2015 by marceline

[ChitHappens]

I loved what Anika did. Way too soapy to pass up.

I'm so dead:

[Juliajms]

Even Lucious questioned Jamal as to the possibility that the child is his. I agree he wants it to be true. He's dying so I can't blame him for hoping he's met his first grandbaby.

I don't feel that bad about the guy Cookie killed. I can't even distance her from it by saying she "got him killed". She arranged and paid for the hit. She murdered him. He was a pretty bad guy and she thought he was threatening her life. It's unfortunate, but I'm not crying any tears.

As to Anika, she f*cked over Elle for such a pathetic reason. The woman was no threat to her and did nothing to her. She was just trying to undermine Cookie in a way that didn't even matter. I think the show went there to show that Anika has claws and that's fine. I think something like this needed to happen, but any time a show has a character do something like this (Jax Teller), I immediately hate the character who did it. I don't even have any family members that have dealt with this type of addiction, but it just strikes me as such an evil thing to do to someone.

[ChitHappens]

Yes, what Anika did was terrible, but it was great! Remember on DOOL, Eve did that to April? April was a drunk, and Eve spiked her drink causing her to fall off the wagon. This is what soaps are about. Anika gained some points last night. Elle was no big loss. In the end, we got a much better act with JaKeem!

[All My Shadows]

Wait...did I watch the scene wrong? The guy was merely delivering flowers to her from Lucious. Right?

Weren't Jamal and Hakeem gonna perform regardless, tho? Elle was simply there to open the show and represent Empire's past while the boys would represent its future.

Edited February 19, 2015 by All My Shadows