‘Empire’ season 2, episode 2 review: Is Lucious Lyon on his way out of prison?
“Empire” is a fantastically entertaining series, but for some of the characters, we can imagine that there would be one word to describe their experience: Suffocating. They want to make a name for themselves, and want to find a way to shine through the rubble that surrounds them.
Unfortunately, they all suffer in their own way, trying to figure out a way to climb out of the shadow of Lucious. This is going to be so much harder now that he has not been deemed a flight risk, and has a chance to get out of prison on $1 million. We’re not going to waste too much time thinking about how ridiculous it really is that Lucious was able to record s sick track from prison of all places, or how Hakeem seems to think that he can leak an entire album online with no legal recourse. These are things that will just make your head spin.
This is a show that is about the shock and awe to us, and how desperately many of these people want to feel important. For Cookie, it went as far as trying to create her own record label. For Andre, it meant begging for forgiveness, and feeling like his siblings receive preferential treatment to his own. There was romance, arguments, battles for loyalty, and a few fairly-fully lines here and there. We also appreciated the obvious shout-out to “Dynasty,” a show that provided much of the basis for what Lee Daniels originally wanted to do here.
With Lucious likely heading out of prison, is “Empire” somewhat spinning their wheels? The challenge we feel that the show has is going to be trying to make things different, and not that each episode is going to be about watching Lyon family members battle for the throne. We’re not at the point yet where this is problematic, but we are starting to sense the formula. Lucious now has to figure out a way to smash that in two; maybe being out of prison and not battling a health ailment will do that. For the first time potentially ever since the start of the series, we have a chance to witness him at full strength.
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