|
I know how upset he makes some of us, but as the co-creator of this his fingerprints are all over it: from the excellent Empire records logo (Terrence Howard's face sits somewhere between looking relieved and pained and also cocky and also 'fabulous,' which makes the fact that it's a hip hop label kinda subversive) to the story of the R & B singing middle brother. There was a whole lotta obvious in that storyline, which isn't okay even if it was lifted from Lee's life. Not to mention the overall 'Lee Daniels Provocativeness' of some of the show. I also should note that Timbaland's music was okay, and that I didn't really give a shit about the youngest kid, the rapper. And to be honest, I might have cared more about Lucius Lyon if he had LESS time to live. Three years on a TV show is an eternity, but so is a year, but so is 6 months. But even still, a shorter time frame means there's bigger, better, and more urgent stakes concerning finding out who's going to run the label once he dies. Terrence was okay, I was hoping for an older variation of the dude he played in Dead Presidents.
This show should be on cable.
Anyway, after a while it became pretty clear that this is going to be a showcase for Taraji P. Henson. Or maybe it just felt that way because she did all of the "showy" shit: she sashays outta prison in a leopard print jaunt, beats the rapper kid with the broom, sniffs out Lucius' surveillance (btw, I know it's only 1 episode so we don't know where it's going, but I would have preferred a whodunit when it came to the killing of ol' boy), is playfully racist toward her son's boyfriend, and reaffirms her love and protective instincts for said son in the funniest/campiest way possible. This show will be fun to watch, if only to see how much scenery Taraji (who's clearly having fun in the pilot) will destroy, and how long Terrence will let her before he claps back.
________________________________________________________________________________
Your typing ain't as "incendiary" as you think it is.
|
Printer-friendly copy 
Email this topic to a friend
Pass The Popcorn
