Another review on another series, "Empire"
It is intriguing at a few first series (seasons), but you might as well skip it. Not as smart as many other critics said about it.
Of course, the subject that the series discusses is something new, about violent gangster turned hip hop recording company boss. Most of it, deal with the main character (Lucious Lyon) slowly dying. Therefore a lot of his family members, rivals, former associates started to salvage what could be ripped from his Empire Records.
It features several interesting characters, but like most American series, it dwindles into common plot devices to reinforce "black's circle of violence" stereotype (e.g. Captain Ig'nant), excusing illegal behaviours with "because we are blacks yo!" or "rappin' violence to vent out frustration rather than shooting 12 gauges." However, besides that, it features lively character like Lyon's wife, Cookie and his gay son, Jamal. The overall storyline is good, however the number of plot devices to advance Lucious' agenda and cause is simply too much of soap opera level.
Compared to realistic tone of Game of Thrones (despite being fantasy) and real life-inspired Narcos, Empire simply blows. I expect life to be quite unfair to American Africans, especially for a former criminal, but it turns out that Lucious is somewhat always on a higher morale ground superman.
