Empire (2015)

[Strong and Daniels} oversee the pilot with an unfussy style and attentiveness to nuanced characterizations. I hope they have enough imagination to nurture an ongoing series without pulling punches ... or going soap opera cray-cray.

The series hits the ground running, letting the viewer fill in the narrative gaps. In other words, Empire is that rare nighttime soap opera that credits its audience with understanding without a lot of tiresome explanation, and whose purpose is to entertain, to surprise, and to confuse.

Empire coasts with the chutzpah of a series that knows exactly what it wants to say and how to say it, leaving viewers no quarter except to pick their jaws up off the floor between commercial breaks.

Doesn't really matter if hip-hop is your musical genre of choice, because the beat the deliciously entertaining Empire grooves to echoes the more traditional and timeless rhythms of grand soap operas. [5-18 Jan 2015, p.16]

In the larger sense, Empire is a music soap the way “Scandal” is a political soap, and it already has that same densely packed swirl of interlocking stories.

The focus and tone could shift and drift any number of ways in subsequent weeks. But whether it rises or falls, Empire is off to a sensational start.

Whether Empire can sustain these running plots remains to be seen.... But the pilot suggests Empire could become [an] addictive, juicy prime-time soap.

Just when you're smirking at Empire, it reaches out and hooks you.

There's no denying that the show throbs with life--and offers enough of a promise of tuneful, scenery-chewing entertainment to make up for the familiarity of some of its twists.

With the former "Hustle & Flow" co-stars as the leads, whoever tunes in will get something interesting.

Empire, its flaws notwithstanding, looks as though it has the potential to be a mainstream success. It roars into view and keeps everything humming throughout its all-important first episode.

If the rest of the series is anything like the pilot, this is one party you don’t want to miss.

The show is polished. The acting is good, and so is the cinematography. But at its core, this is really just a nighttime soap. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Like the Carringtons on “Dynasty” and the Ewings on “Dallas,” the Lyons play dirty and fight dirty. How far they go to control their musical Empire should be fun to watch. As long as Cookie’s the underdog, this show will have plenty of bite.

Almost nothing about Empire ... feels original, but just a few minutes into the premiere episode, you’ll stop caring.

It is good, or, at least, it’s effective--unapologetic melodramatic fun, to judge from the first two episodes.

It remains to be seen if the strength of the performances from the rest of the cast (which includes another Academy Award nominee, Gabourey Sidibe--it might be hard to find work as a black actor, hm?) will balance out the show’s pulpy premise.... Empire is notable for doing something different, in a landscape populated by dramas of an entirely different stripe. For that, and that alone, it’s worth checking out.

Empire isn't a subtle show, nor does it pretend to be: Characters say things like, "I'm here to get what's mine" and "Music saved my life." But amid all the prime-time soap-opera posturing, there are moments that feel like something more, as Lucious and Cookie catch up, or Jamal and Hakeem collaborate.

Though the result can be obvious, even cornball, at times, the show--which is smart enough, often enough--works.

While the busy first hour scarcely has time to set a premise and lay down a beat, it promises all the glitter and heightened emotion its genre mashup implies, if it can keep its pathos from sliding into parody.

The story is not surprising--almost every turn seems obvious and a little hackneyed--but it is surprisingly enjoyable.

Empire is a defiantly sudsy bit of escapism, a show that embraces its nighttime soap foundation but does so with enough on-screen talent and off-screen flair to keep it entertaining.... Judged on its own terms, Empire works.

If Lucious and Cookie and Jamal’s dynamics seem unique and complex, other parts of the show are messy and flat.... Generally speaking, the arc of the soap opera is long, and it bends toward insanity. But, one episode in, Empire feels insane in exactly the right measure.

Empire is a big swing for Fox, and there are a number of question marks and stumbling blocks within it, but ultimately its entertainment level transcends the worries.

It hits a few sour notes, to be sure, and there are some off-key moments, but, for the most part, Empire artfully draws you into its high-stakes game of throne envy.

The pilot has a propulsive pop energy, and melodramatic swagger.

The series has great potential. The question is whether Empire should stick to being a good family drama in a vibrant contemporary setting with a topical issue woven into the story, or whether it can measure up to the pretensions to great literature.

At least at the outset, there's more than just a lot of potential. There's a lot of everything.... Parental beatdowns! Sibling rivalry! Drug money! Terminal illness! Blackmail! Betrayal! Gold chains! It's all so much, so soon.

Timbaland produces the original songs that give Empire its real oomph, while the actors try to figure out what kind of characters they’ve agreed to play.

While parts of this are too broad, it’s crafted in such a way it can’t be ignored. Just when you think you’re ready to move away, Henson pulls you back in and Empire becomes the new song you can’t get out of your head.

Having a prominent gay character on a hip-hop drama is still a step in the right direction, though, and Empire’s characters might develop greater nuance as the show progresses. For now, it’s a trashy soap with one entertaining performance.

The script and direction could both use a jolt of crazy energy of the sort that made Precious so thrilling (or, if you didn’t like it, unbearable).

Empire is being marketed as a bold, original show from high-profile artists, but it feels strangely tentative in its first episode.

It's as if Empire had too many antecedents, and--failing to decide upon one--embraced them all. The result is an interesting idea that can't quite figure out what that idea actually is--or where it should go from here.

Fox’s wildly uneven, but potentially addictive new nighttime soap, Empire, feels like an anachronism.

For now, Empire feels more like an opening act than a marquee player, one that will need--even more than a good lead-in--luck and time to find its groove.

Give me a little more music and a little less soap opera, and we may have something here.