Gabourey is a good actress but her hair has to go.

I knew "Empire" would be good and that I would be covering it on Soap Opera Network, but I withheld doing so because I didn't want to be disappointed if the ratings came in terrible. So happy it didn't. Therefore, I watched the pilot and loved everything about it. Is it the best thing ever created? No. Did it flesh out the characters enough? Not really, but this isn't a big screen movie or a daily soap opera that has time to do so, but what it did do was flesh out very flawed characters and address stereotypes that I never would have expected on network TV. Even ethnic cable networks like BET or TVone would have ignored some of this.

Like many have said before, Cookie (Taraji) is EVERYTHING!

I love seeing that actor from AMC's last year in this. He didn't stand out much but I hope to see him shine and become another breakout AMC alum.

I loved me some Mookie and the actor looks better now than he did on AMC. I didnt even recognize him from that show till you mentioned it

Oh HELL no, he didnt just call her a bitch. Beat that ass!

I love their relationship. Easily the two most intriguing characters on teh show

As sad as that scene was I had to LMAO at her getting one last kick in, or at least trying to

Edited January 9, 201510 yr by Cheap21

The show is so far from homophobic is absolutely ridiculous! Some folks simply refuse to sit back and enjoy something. The show is homophobic, yet the gay creator is pretty much telling his life story thru the middle son? Over it!

Cheap, I'm super happy you captured that last gif. That was THE moment that convinced me Cookie Lyon was EVERYTHING! Taraji nailed it. She convinced you this woman is fierce when it comes to Jamal. It was heartbreaking as well because that desperate kick showed her immense hurt over the incident. Just wonderful!

Errol and Daytime, so great to read your posts. I love all the discussion about this terrific show but reading what 2 people who hardly discuss the Daytime soaps has to say is great!

The show is so far from homophobic is absolutely ridiculous! Some folks simply refuse to sit back and enjoy something. The show is homophobic, yet the gay creator is pretty much telling his life story thru the middle son? Over it!

Cheap, I'm super happy you captured that last gif. That was THE moment that convinced me Cookie Lyon was EVERYTHING! Taraji nailed it. She convinced you this woman is fierce when it comes to Jamal. It was heartbreaking as well because that desperate kick showed her immense hurt over the incident. Just wonderful!

Errol and Daytime, so great to read your posts. I love all the discussion about this terrific show but reading what 2 people who hardly discuss the Daytime soaps has to say is great!

I agree that the show isn't homophobic. The writing isn't homophobic either. I think people are confusing homophobic writing with characters being homophobic. Not the same thing at all.

Edited January 9, 201510 yr by ajsp35801

Cheap, did you see my post about our girl Raven having a recurring role on this show!?

Cheap, did you see my post about our girl Raven having a recurring role on this show!?

No! This thread moved way too fast for me so I haven't read most of the posts

As sad as that scene was I had to LMAO at her getting one last kick in, or at least trying to

Yes! How could I have forgotten that awesome moment!

That was a cool premiere. I love Taraji & her gargantuan, villainous ass eyebrows. She was mesmerizing! Fave line "Y'all better have an elevator up in here, my feet hurt" says the woman who decided to strut out of jail in heels...LOL I love how she said she was wearing the outfit she got locked up in.

"The word is you're a mess. The word is you're a disappointment. The word is you're WASTING MY TIME!" LMAO! Hakeem was sounding wack as hell and I loved when Jamal told him so. He literally said he sounded wack. I was dying. Is it just me or didn't he still sound wack even after Jamal helped him? I wasn't even impressed with that lil music video at the beginning. I found Hakeem embarrassing in this & hope he gets knocked down several pegs. You ain't sh!t. Go Jamal!

Also. When Cookie slayed him with the broom. LMFAO!

I wasn't expecting to see Gabs in this. She's just ;-))). I wish she had a more prominent role

I had to lmao at the flashbacks. Their asses looked the same You can tell they tried, but no. Lol.

I loved me some Mookie and the actor looks better now than he did on AMC. I didnt even recognize him from that show till you mentioned it

His character Andre was my fave! He was smarmy but not overly so. There's a certain charm and intrigue to him. And what was he taking pills for?

And yeah he did look much better here than on AMC. Glad he's gotten rid of that uneven chest peach fuzz he was sporting in Pine Valley. It didn't work for him!

His character Andre was my fave! He was smarmy but not overly so. There's a certain charm and intrigue to him. And what was he taking pills for?

And yeah he did look much better here than on AMC. Glad he's gotten rid of that uneven chest peach fuzz he was sporting in Pine Valley. It didn't work for him!

I think a lot of us are speculating that it could be some form of mental illness (e.g. OCD, anti-anxiety, bi-polar, (manic) depression, etc).

And yes, what a difference some good lighting and a nice set of clothes will do for a brotha. Seriously, although AMC was one of the soaps that had better lighting, for some reason a lot of the characters of color often had poor lighting/makeup. I think AMC tried to take some steps to make him look more menacing somehow though...

And yes, it was what I thought--Taraji did request Terrence Howard. That seals it for me, the show is obviously really about Cookie's quest to take hold of the music empire that her money launched. Lucious is a big part of that as her ex and even though I think they could end up sleeping together again, he is somewhat of an antagonist to Cookie.

He is either manic or bipolar, I suspect.

I still can't believe they made that poor man play a dude named "Mookie" in 2011.

I know several people nicknamed Mookie so it barely registerered for me that it was a strange name for a character.

I'm surprised how much I like Empire. Not only has Fox in general been disappointing with their shows, but shows centered on music usually fall into a trap----either the music completely blows (good lord, Smash) or the actors portraying singers are EPIC fails (Nashville). Maybe I'm just out of touch, but Empire seemed to pass both those hurdles with flying colors.

The other thing that impressed me was how truer-to-life these people seem to be. Everyone's got an agenda. They're allowed to be both good and bad in spite of it. (Well, except maybe the middle son, but even he's not annoyingly perfect.) No one's going to confuse Cookie with Miss Ellie.

Not only do I hope TPH runs away with every award from here to eternity, I hope Empire flushes Tyler Perry's crap down the drain.

is there any word on an OST being released? I NEED that song that Jamal performed

lol

Edited January 9, 201510 yr by Cheap21

The music from the pilot is on iTunes the first episode is also on iTunes for free.