I approached Empire with an open mind, despite the early criticisms of it. That being said, it was a decent watch. I was entertained, even though I was shaking my head at some point.
The storyline is neither revolutionary nor original, but hardly anything is these days. It’s time for a father to step down and pick his successor. Conveniently, all of his children are male. The sons must prove their worth. One is all for it. One is apathetic. One is against it. The one against it soon changes his mind. War is brewing. Winter is coming. It’s like Godfather meets Hustle and Flow.
The acting leaves something to be desired, except for Taraji P. Henson. Her performance alone elevated the show. Her character will be the one to look after. She seems to be the most developed character on the show. She has the right amount of jadedness, cunning, spunk. She appears to be the one getting played, but by the end, she’ll probably be on top.
Terrence Howard’s acting could use some fine tuning. He wasn’t the most believable as a ruthless media mogul. Maybe he needs to put some bass in his voice or something. He seems like the mogul Drake would be. And of course his character gets ALS to capitalize off of the popularity of the Ice Bucket Challenge. I mean I guess… It’s whatever. I’m just gonna pretend he has cancer or something.
Watching the show, I was like “Who taught these kids to hate themselves?” Would it kill just one of them to have a Black significant other? It didn’t take long for my first question to be answered. Their parents taught them to hate themselves. Between a homophobic father who doesn’t hide his disdain for his child and the mother who uses troublesome languages and beats her child with a broomstick, these kids are surprisingly well-adjusted.
Empire wasn’t a homerun, but I’ve seen worse. I don’t put much stock pilots, because they’re usually rough around the edges. I’ll follow it for at least a few episodes to see how it progresses. Taraji alone should make it worthwhile.
If using an arbitrary rating system, I would give it three Pan-African flags out of five.
My favorite moment has been captured by beysoldweave on Tumblr.
Empire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on FOX.
