Empire returns in its midseason premiere content
with just playing the not-so-greatest hits. Read our
review here.
Empire Season 2 Episode 11
Empire returned tonight from its midseason
hiatus and it’s quite evident that the record
is starting to skip. When Empire arrived on
the scene, it felt fresh, fun, and vibrant, but
somehow not even a lengthy winter break
could make the familial in-fighting over
Empire Records seem interesting again.
“What will Empire do next?” quickly has
become “When will Empire do something
different?”
I can only listen to Hakeem defy Lucious with
a line to the effect of “I’m not going to do
what you want me to do,” so many times
before I start to become bored. I can only
hear Cookie recycle a burn like “Yoko” so
many times before it starts to become stale.
Lucious’ melodramatic monologues are
starting to become parodies of themselves
now, they’ve become so routine.
Not only has Empire lost its ability to
surprise, but it’s hardly any fun anymore as
well. I understand that the show is a drama
at its core, but tonight’s best moments were
when Jamal and Cookie were teasing each
other like mother and son or when Cookie
worked a smile out of Lucious. Things have
largely become so dour, yet in moments like
the episode’s open, when Cookie waits for
Hakeem in his apartment furious, broom in
hand, it’s almost like the episode is playing
the moment for comedy. Basically what I’m
saying is that the show is tonally mess,
making bizarre choices as it goes along.
Bizarre like deciding Naomi Campbell, a
mediocre actress at best, should return for a
major run as an antagonist, or that Rhonda’s
tragic miscarriage should become a plot
about Rhonda denouncing God. Isn’t there
enough drama in the unsolved murder
attempt that we could avoid such a goofy
effort at internal conflict for Andre?
As always, barring Cookie, Jamal gets the
best material tonight, confronting the gay
lobbying/bullying of Jamison and the jokes of
his mother with thoughtful discussions about
sexual fluidity. Too bad the corny, on-the-
nose song he writes about it minutes before
performing it with a choreographed dance
sort of takes the all the air out of the
moment.
The other bright spot of the episode comes
in a dark moment. When the Lyon family
arrives at the hospital, with tears in their
eyes over the loss of Andre’s unborn child,
their pain feels convincing. The scene is well
acted, until Andre starts crawling around on
the floor, but it just proves that when you
put these characters in the same room with
something else to talk about beside who is
running Empire that this show can be
engaging.
Empire is going to need to be a hell of a lot
better than this in this next run of episodes
to redeem what has been a lackluster slog of
a second season. Thankfully Empire never
sticks to any one plot point for too long, so
hopefully all things Camilla and Daddy-issue
related fall by the wayside rather quickly so
we can get so Empire starts sounding
innovative again.
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