Empire: Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

Irony and an eerie sense of timing - M. Emmet Walsh was a guest star on the latest episode of Empire, while earlier in the day Retro TV aired a rerun of The Doctors that featured Mr. Walsh as a very young Congressman who was also a hospital board member!!

[Cheap21]

that lipstick is all shades of wrong on Taraji

[Skin]

So I watched all 8 episodes, and it's enjoyable. But it's reaching its limits within the past two episodes. The last two episodes were less enjoyable than the earlier ones.

Jamal is the most likable one by far in my opinion. While Andre seems to be the one who it makes the most sense to leave the "Empire" to. Hakeem is the weakest link storywise and in terms of likability, but Andre has the worst storyline and is the most neglected character, episodes have come and gone and we have no idea what is happening with him.

I don't understand some of the ignorance, regarding Luscious other than just plain racism or homophobia. His anger and hatred toward Jamal and Andre is incredibly stifling and profoundly illogical. Hating Andre who has always held his back no matter what, just because he wanted to be an educated man and not act like an imbecile like Hakeem, is just revolting to watch, while he seems to endlessly reward Hakeem for behaving like an uneducated hoodrat. Hating Andre because he married a white woman is just confounding. Same with Jamal, who is clearly the most talented musician in the family and can make musical gold with absolutely nothing to his name. All in all Luscious is just a disgusting father to both Jamal and Andre. I don't care at all if he is suffering from ASL, he deserves all the pain that he will ever receive. He's morally repugnant.

[Cheap21]

what do you mean? He's bipolar and trying to take over control of his family's company bc he is the neglected son. This past episode shed light on that with Lucious revealing that he's resented him bc he's untalented (creatively) and married a white women. He is mentally disturbed and tries to hold it together (which he has medication to help), but he struggles with that

[All My Shadows]

The last two episodes (there have only been 7, btw) have focused a lot on Andre lol

[Skin]

That's an outline, not really a character arc. We got some explanation to him in this past episode, but he still spent most of his time at the beginning of the season making phone calls to pit the main two brothers against each other while he wrung his hands and smiled mischievously. That's not really much in regards to impacting story plots. Hakeem and Jamal get most of the major story components -- which makes sense, as they are avatars for Cookie and Luscious. But compared to Andre, he is often neglected and ignored for other stories, hence why I described him as the most ignored character storywise.

There have been episodes that have come and gone, where his story didn't really matter or impact anything important to the main narrative, which shouldn't be as a leading character. There are three sons, not two.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Skin

[Vee]

Not every episode is focused on every character. They took their time in teasing out Andre's character - he was initially presented as a schemer, but they've deliberately waited to reveal that he is much more than that.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Vee

[YRBB]

I thought the same thing, although it annoys me less than it did yesterday. I guess they tried to match her with Howard's clothes!

Edited February 27, 2015 by YRBB

[Cheap21]

and thats changed since the season started. We've seen and learned alot more about him since. Your statment would have been valid several weeks ago, but now? Not so much

[Eric83]

The next episode appears to be heavily about Andre as we see him flush his pills down the toilet and him having a mental breakdown so I'm excited about that.

[DeeeDee]

Mo'Nique said she was Lee Daniels first choice to play Cookie.

Edited February 27, 2015 by DeeeDee

[Skin]

It's changed since the last episode, but infinitesimally so. He still hasn't been fully fleshed out as a character compared to the rest of the cast. Jamal and Hakeem have both established character arcs of there own, Jamal's is about being true to himself and coming out as gay, while Hakeem's is about breaking free and becoming his own man outside of his father's shadow.

Andre's is? ... acquiring Empire? Which is pretty much the same thing he set out to do during the pilot and which he is no closer to since then? There's been no progression within his story over the course of eight episodes. I mean, it is what it is, but I would say this is an aspect that the writers and show runners dropped the ball on. They got Andre out of the way early, and developed everyone else but him during most of the season.

Edited February 28, 2015 by Skin

[All My Shadows]

Bruh, Andre's story is *just* getting started. They developed a lot of stories in the earlier episodes, but we're only on #7! The last or was very Andre-heavy, and they're giving him his time to shine after focusing on the more dynamic characters.

[All My Shadows]

I think that was the point, though - to show that Andre is the more timid brother who often gets upstaged by his younger, attention-grabbing brothers. And now that he's coming more into the forefront, we're seeing much more of him. I could get this criticism if we were still in the early episodes, but they've definitely given him more attention in the last two eps. His story is heavily influenced by the others' personal arcs because that's the role he's played in the family.

[MoTheGreat]

The show is really about how great & talented the gay middle son is. Cookie loves him a lot. & Lucious loves him because he knows he can be the next runner of the company, but he's gay. The other sons, the hell with them.

Edited February 28, 2015 by MoTheGreat