TV Review: Empire Episode 3: The Devil Quotes Scripture

Before I get into what I enjoyed about this week's Empire, let me start with what I didn't: I've said it before and I'll say it again, but Empire needs to slow way down. Through 3 episodes we've had more characters and plot points (thought not full on plots or stories to be fair) introduced than you can shake a stick at, and at a certain point in time it just becomes too much to keep straight. I don't think the show has placed itself in a position to need to wrap anything up before starting anything new, but I do think it would benefit from pumping the breaks a little bit and allowing some of the stories its already got up in the air to breath and allow us to get to know the characters we've already been introduced to before they introduced any more.

This week, while the Lyons family worked to shore up the relationship between Hakeem and Tianna, the writers decided it would be a good idea to introduce us to the person Hakeem is actually in love with, Camilla played by the lovely Naomi Campbell. Camilla is an older woman that Hakeem has been secretly seeing for over a year now and who seems to like it when he refers to her as his mother. It makes more sense now why he seems to continue treating his real mother like shit; Hakeem's mommy issues go about as deeply as Jamal's daddy issues, but at least there's reason given behind the latter. Also introduced in this episode was Cuba Gooding Jr's Puma, an old flame and talented songwriter friend of Cookie's, and the deputy mayor who's name I've already forgotten and who happens to be sleeping with Andre whenever he needs information. We learn that Andre's wife, Rhonda, also knows about this arrangement and seems to get off on Andre reenacting their indiscretions while calling her by the deputy mayor's name. So here's another kink to add to their ever growing pile. First the blow job bib, and now some kind of open marriage.  I wish I were surprised, or even remotely interested by these developments, but the truth is that Empire hasn't given me enough time to get to know these characters to feel any kind of way about these things. Were it to slow down a little bit and establish things more, that wouldn't have to be the case.

But that isn't to say that there wasn't any good to be found in this hour. While The Devil Quotes Scripture might be Empire's weakest episode to date, it's still ridiculously entertaining. A lot of this entertainment factor can be found in the episode's centerpiece family dinner. If the show had aired in the fall, this would no doubt have been their Thanksgiving episode. Getting all of these characters in the same room together is every bit as delicious as you would expect. There's sniping, shade, homophobia, underhanded dealings, and backhanded compliments. It's about as much fun as you can have in a short amount of time. If there's a complaint to be had about the dinner sequence it's that it isn't long enough.

One thing this episode does with a vengeance, however, is underline the intended parallels between Jamal and Lucious. It's clear that the show's been heading there for the past 2 episodes, but the writers waste no time in bring it to the forefront here. Each performance Jamal has had in these first three hours have been inter-cut with shots of Lucious. Last week it was Lucious' interview, this week it's flashbacks to scenes of Lucious and Cookie working on the same song she's brought to Jamal's door. On top of that, they waste no time having the characters come out and say what their point is. Both Cookie and Jamal openly remark to Lucious that he's worried Jamal is more of an artist and more talented than he ever was. This realization adds another layer to Lucious' feelings towards Jamal. It's not just that he's homophobic, but that he's also jealous. It also colors his attachment to Hakeem; maybe he isn't backing his youngest son because he believes he's the most talented, but because deep down he knows that that talent is the one least likely to actually threaten him in anyway, or because he knows that that talent is the one least likely to pay off in the long run since Hakeem is ultimately unmotivated to make much of himself. Even this episode starts with Lucious having to berate him for not spending more time in the studio getting an album together. Either way, this is one of the better ways the show has found to add depth and complexity to these characters and their motivations. They should strive to do more of this.

With all of that being said, there's a serious missed opportunity left on the table here. The family dinner at the center of this episode is meant to be a "welcome to the family" moment for Tianna as she embarks on her new relationship with Hakeem. As such, the episode should have spent more time with all of the romantic relationships. Had we seen more of Hakeem and Tianna set against scenes of Jamal and Michael and then scenes of Andre and Rhonda, we could have gotten a better picture of the characters in question as well as the show's point of view of each of their relationships. In a recent interview, series creator Lee Daniels admitted that he wants this show to "blow the lid off" homophobia within the black community. It's a worthy aim, and a goal I think they've clearly been doing a lot to achieve through the first three episodes, but for that to honestly happen, I think the show has to do more than shine a light in the dark areas of the closet of this issue. It needs to take more of a stance. One way it could do that is to showcase Jamal and Michael's relationship as every bit as normal and valid as the heterosexual relationships on the show. The quiet moments between the two that we've seen thus far really do go a long way towards doing that, but I think this episode should have been the moment where the show did more. A slower pace and a tighter focus on just the kids' relationships would have accomplished that.

This week's episode served to remind me just how young Empire is. It had a very sure footed pilot and followed that up with an episode that hinted at a potential greatness for the series in the long run, and while I still stand by my original statement that it "knows what it is, what its about, and how it wants to be about it," for the first time I'm left thinking that there are also slight tweaks that could be made to the "how" that would make everything else just a bit more satisfying. Also, the music wasn't all that great this week, and there's just no excuse for that.

Random Thoughts:

--From the Hot Mess Pile: I don't want to speak ill of the radiant Naomi Campbell, but what the fuck was that entire storyline? Was there maybe a text message between her and Hakeem before now that I'm just forgetting, or did the show just introduce the messiest character in a horribly messy fashion? I just know they can do better than this.

--In keeping with my earlier point about adding some validation to Jamal and Michael, it also would have been nice, and interesting, for Hakeem to stand up for his brother as Jamal was storming out. Telling Lucious that his relationship with Tianna is no more valid than Jamal's relationship with Michael would have been a nice moment. Although I'm also starting to wonder if that's how Hakeem even feels at this point. He clearly loves his brother, but they've never spoken about Jamal's sexuality, so who knows how he really feels about it.

-- How long before Lucious and Cookie sleep together?

--The progression of Lucious' ALS seems a bit fast to me. Not that it wasn't believable, but it makes me wonder how much mileage they're planning on getting out of that storyline, and out of Terrence Howard. Should we expect him to be in a wheelchair or bedridden by the end of the first season?

--One pacing element I'd like to commend the writers on is how quickly they allowed Lucious to find out about Cookie's deal with the feds. The fact that they didn't keep him in the dark about it for long was something I was impressed by.

--The scene between Lucious and Jamal in Jamal's apartment was really interesting. I think the writers could have taken it a little bit deeper in a lot of ways, but there was something seriously powerful about Jamal's statement that he sang that song for Lucious because he loves him, and Jussie Smollett sold the emotion well. The dueling points about Lucious trying to toughen his son up so he could survive "the streets" and Jamal's feeling like he did it just because he hated him was also a nice touch. While I can't agree with how Lucious has dealt with his gay son for all these years, I do think the best thing the show can do is to make his motivations on that front more complicated than just him not liking gay people. To the show's credit, they've started the process of doing that this week.

--Gladys Knight also has a cameo this week. It's a good sign that so many big names want to be involved with this series.

TV Review: Empire Episode 1: Pilot

Would it be more surprising if Empire were great or if it were horrible? A new show being nearly unwatchable isn't surprising, but when that show stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson and is being helmed by Lee Daniels, I think a certain level of skill is to be expected. Then again, it is a Soap Opera (a Hip Hopera actually), so maybe those expectations are to be tampered down a bit. After the first hour of the show, I'm left thinking that this series is going to have to walk the tightrope line between Holy Shit and Hot Mess. Some moments, maybe even some full episodes, will probably fall firmly on one side of that line or the other, but there's nothing in the first hour to suggest that the trip shouldn't at least be entertaining along the way.

The pilot works double time in an effort to get all of the foundation laid for the season to come. There's flashbacks, painful exposition, characters getting together in all kinds of different pairings so we can see their relationships front and center. Ultimately, I think the episode would be far better if it took a moment to just slow down and catch its breath, maybe save some of this story for a later date, but I won't hold this against the show since pilots tend to be a bit messy one way or another. But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's talk about the story. Lucious Lyon (Howard) is the head of a major Hip Hop record label. He's facing a major health crisis (recently diagnosed ALS), and the major shift of making his label into a publicly traded company. In order for this to work, he wants to officially start the process of naming his heir, and nepotism demands that he pick one of his sons for the task. It could go to his oldest, Andre (Trai Byers) who has worked hard to be involved with the company for all of his life, his middle child, Jamal (Jussie Smollett) who is gay and is sick of trying to gain his homophobic father's approval, or his youngest Hakeem (Bryshere Gray) who's more interested in partying and living the perks of a life as a rap star than anything else. Meanwhile, the boys' mother, Cookie (Henson) has just gotten out of prison on the heels of a long drug related sentence and she's out for blood.

What works best in the pilot typically is the acting  Particularly the brothers all come across as unique and special individuals possessing a kind of iciness that can only be found amongst people who've grown up together and suffered through enough of the same experiences to make them resentful. I especially loved the dynamic between Hakeem and Jamal who are close in spite of what you'd assume given how different they are, and who have seemed to have banded together in a strong and mutual dislike of Andre. Watching them all interact with each other was more than enough to form an image of what their lives as children must have been like.

Howard and Henson also provide stellar performances though I think the two of them descend (or maybe it's ascend) to melodrama a time too often. Henson shines in her moments with her sons. The story of a mother seeing her children again after a long incarceration is honestly touching. She meets with all three boys individually over the course of the episode and each meeting is charged with a different type of energy that perfectly showcases her unique relationship with each of her sons. And Henson's face is often more than enough to show what Cookie's expectations for these meetings were and how those expectations have been met, surpassed, or disappointed. Henson and Howard's scenes together might leave a little to be desired, but that's the script's fault and not the actors themselves.

I think a mark of TV today might be the manner in which it's handling certain "Issues," and on that front I think Empire might be uniquely placed. Within the first episode, we can see the show gearing up to tackle, or at least touch on, interracial dating, homophobia within the black and Hip Hop community, ALS (a disease that doesn't get talked about in fiction often. I honestly thought Lucious would just have cancer and the show would call it a day), and possibly even mental health issues with Andre. The episode also opens with a beautiful song being recorded by a lovely female artist. Granted she's not seen again for the rest of the episode, but it opens the door for the show to address how hard it is for women to make it in this industry. How the show handles these issues going forward will probably have a lot to do with how "good" it ends up being, but I'm choosing to be hopeful rather than skeptical in that regard.

The one element of the show that I think could cause it to transcend into greatness would be it's willingness to zig when you expect it to zag. The clearest possibility of this so far exists in the relationship between Hakeem and Jamal. Their parents are clearly set on pitting them against each other, but their bond throughout most of the episode seems really solid. It would be a lot more fun, in my opinion, to watch that remain the case for the foreseeable future causing all of their parents', and their brother's, schemes to fail in the process. But the show seems determined to take a more predictable route as far as that storyline is concerned. That's not to say that the predictable story won't be entertaining, but it is predictable after all.

I left the Pilot episode of Empire wonderfully entertained and guardedly optimistic about the future of the story. I don't think there's anything wrong with Soap based stories or melodrama. Indeed, early seasons of Nashville, Revenge, and Scandal, have proven that Soap is not an indication of quality. But I do think that those shows had a kind of balance between their solid characters and storytelling and their more grandiose moments which Empire hasn't necessarily found yet. The quieter moments of this episode ring truer than the bigger, sillier, more operatic moments do. But at its core, I think Empire knows what it is, what its about, and how it wants to be about it, and I think that that's very rare praise for a show this early in its development. We'll see in the upcoming weeks if I'm right or not.

Random thoughts:

--In one of the more telling flashback sequences, Lucious punishes a young Jamal for walking down the stairs and into the crowded living room in high heels and a feminine head wrap while Cookie races to his defense. I won't make any excuses for why this is my favorite story. As a gay black man, I've seen and experienced this kind of thing more than often enough. But here I was mostly just surprised that Jamal wasn't rewarded for making it down the stairs in one piece in high heel shoes. I know grown women who can't even accomplish that.

-- Gabourey Sidibe also has a guest staring role in the show, and I'm hoping she becomes a series regular before long. Her fiery attitude towards Lucious and her adorable friendship with Jamal coupled with what I've always thought of as a prodigious acting talent make her well worth watching every week.

--From the Hot Mess Pile this week: The entire storyline with Bunkie Campbell just never really worked. I think the character was meant to show us things about Lucious and Cookie more than anything else, but I can't help but to wonder if there wasn't an easier way to show us those things. We don't know these characters yet so him walking into Lucious' house and drawing a gun on him to demand money after an episode of them at least seeming to be close friends doesn't make sense. And his death by the end of the episode doesn't have any emotional resonance or shock value, which is what I think they were going for. I don't know the characters enough to care or be surprised that they'd act in this way.

--Special shout out to Lee Daniels' direction of this episode. Especially some of the music sequences were intercut in a manner that I found to be compelling.

--One more thing I didn't care for in the episode was the characterization of Andre's wife. I feel like the "scheming, money grubbing, white woman married to and mooching off of her successful black husband" trope is something we've seen more than enough times by now.