Empire 2015

I feel like this a low rent Nashville that makes black people look terrible. The music is mediocre, the story generally lazy and hacky. It's like a show that were it given the attention of an HBO or Showtime might make you feel immersed in, but you're left with seeing how much Terrance Howard and Taraji can carry the series. (edit: Nov 2016 I recently finished watching Power which is a glimpse at what Empire might've been like on a different network) Extra points for making me hate Cookie so much, that's powerful acting or character development.

The relationships are soap opera like, the writing fairly blah and redundant. What could be compelling story lines are wrapped up quickly or ignored all together. It feels like the show can't pick a direction. I don't understand why it's so hyped, it certainly can't be from the song quality, and the superficial glance at the scatter-brained roles each character is supposed to play doesn't endear me to any character in particular. There's way too much TV to compare this to for this to stick out for any other reason than Black-ish does. It caricatures black people and requires zero effort to follow. (Black-ish has laid off the accelerator...a bit)

This show does JUST enough to keep me watching from week to week. They keep adding new big names (Chris Rock was a Cannibal who killed many people?!?!) to draw a big crowd, and credit to them, that has worked rather well. The show is way over-hyped. The plot is great, and the story could be deep and powerful if the writers would have taken it in a different direction. As it is, I'm not sure they have a solid grasp on the direction.

My other big problem with the show is how they make it into a trashy, modern day soap-opera. You cannot watch an episode without feeling like it cut to Young and the Restless from the music at key points in the episodes. The way they add the music to scenes is completely cheesy and gives it the feel of an early 90's show. Similar to when fox added those laugh tracks to the short lived Red and Meth show. It really makes you feel like it was produced by amateurs that are looking for a big break.

So, why do I still watch it? Well, the first season, I thought the music was great in the first half. Watching it on a surround sound gave it some nice bump, and I really saw the potential. I was into the controversy with the gay son and power struggle between the brothers. But the production of the show JUST KILLS IT. Toward the end of the first season, they show a murder that looks like me and a buddy recorded it with our cell phone in the back yard. I was literally laughing. That's when they lost me, but by that point I had all the characters down and kept thinking they would take it in a better direction. Boy....was I wrong!