Empire TV Writers: Shock and Awe

Empire Main characters
The Lyon Empire Family on Fox: Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, Trai Byers, Jussie Smollett, Bryshere Gray

 

Empire: an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, emperor or EMPRESS.

1.Taraji P. Henson brought Empire to my attention. She is one of my favorite actresses and I am sure I would watch her read the telephone book.
2. I LOVE hip hop and rap music. Yes. I am a little old white lady. Still don’t care what you think.
3. Terrence Howard is serious man candy.
4. Terrence Howard is gorgeous.

Part of the cast:

Taraji P. Henson – Cookie Lyon a sweet baby girl who deserves better than the man she loves. Bless her heart she left her babies for the asshole  her husband. Co-founder of Empire Records.
Terrence Howard – Lucious Lyon is Cookie’s husband.  Co-founder of Empire Records. The asshole.
Trai ByersAndre Lyon is Cookie’s oldest son.  The brain.
Jussie Smollett – Jamal Lyon is Cookie’s middle son. The voice.
Bryshere Gray – Hakeem Lyon is Cookie’s youngest son. The rapper.
Grace Gealey – Anika Gibbons the woman doing mean things to Cookie. Without a doubt she has the best hair and make up on TV. If Cookie hadn’t been treated so badly I would like her.

Normally a new show will slowly move you into the relationships between characters, spoon feed us character background and just generally piss me off with crap that makes me scream, “Get on with the plot.”

Not so with the Empire Writers.

OMG! They grabbed us by the scruff of the neck and threw us into the deep end of the story. We came up gasping for air. A week later we gathered like small children screaming, “Do it again! Do it again!” and they did, again and again.

Live Tweeting! Are you kidding me!
I log in to Twitter.
Empire starts.
Empire ends.
I sit there trying to figure out what happened to the hour and wondering if the train that hit me left tracks on my back.
Sometimes it is physically exhausting to watch.
OMG! I love it.

Cookie leaving her babies and going to jail for her no account husband made me cry like a baby. She left him to build Empire Records. He dumped her. I do not like Lucious Lyon.

Creators: Lee Daniels and Danny Strong gave Empire strong, engaging characters that didn’t need explanation. (“Strong character” is not a pun. I couldn’t think of a better word.)

  • We/I love and want to protect: Cookie Lyons, Jamal Lyon, Andre Lyon.
  • We/I want to comfort/slash spank a confused, tad bit spoiled child that doesn’t understand what is mama sacrificed him: Hakeem Lyon.
  • We/I want to bitch slap a mean woman: Anika Gibbons
  • We/I want to do horrible things to the man that shit on Cookie: Lucious Lyon

You know good and well that Anika Gibbon’s mama would be ashamed of her. Ashamed!
Anika wants to marry the asshole Lucious and run Empire Records.

Lucious Lyon is such a horrible human being! I go to bed on Wed night mumbling about the things Cookie should do to him. She is a saint! AND a better Christian than I am. I would have run him down like the dog he is when I got out of jail. I don’t care if he is sick. The man needs an ass whipping.

I HATE LUCIOUS LYON! My husband hates hearing about how much I hate Lucious Lyon. He is an asshole!
Lucious, not my husband.

One of my pet peeve is TV shows with all white characters and the token black boyfriend. When writers and creators are desperate for their “Token” they default to the black boyfriend of one of the white female leads. It is boring and tiresome.
BUT!
Empire turns the tables. Did I mention how much I love the writers and creators of this show? Andre Lyon is married to a white woman Kaitlin Doubleday! Yes, I cheered! His racist control freak daddy the asshole Lucious Lyon hates her. She is the only thing keeping Andre together.

My one complaint is about the awkward and unnecessary sex scenes. Some are down right confusing. Me, “Did she give him a blow job?” Husband, “I’m not sure what that was.” That was the first episode. The Cookie/Lucious sex scene moved the plot forward but it was awkward.  Maybe they didn’t realize that PG sex scenes or for that matter any sex scenes aren’t necessary for Empire’s ratings.

Cookie deserves some romance!

 

Cookie Lyon looking drop dead gorgeous in a perfect white gown. Lyon to cougar,  “Well, what can you do, Yoko? Can you play the tambourine?”  Ouch! Don't mess with her cubs.
Cookie Lyon looking drop dead gorgeous in a perfect white gown. Lyon to cougar, “Well, what can you do, Yoko? Can you play the tambourine?” Ouch! Don’t mess with her cubs.

Lucious needs to remember that an Empire can be run by an Empress. Empress Cookie sounds good.

1 thought on “Empire TV Writers: Shock and Awe

  1. Completely agree about the awkward sex scenes.
    They almost make me forget that they’re on broadcast television.

    Hey, I thought Cookie and Luscious was divorced? You have her listed as his wife.

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