Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Empire Season 1 Finale Review

Hey People,


Well that was some finale. It's been a week since I've watched and since it is Wednesday I thought it would be a good time to finally release this review. It definitely did not disappoint me with the hype and so much happened in these 2 hours that I don't even know where to begin and I think that was a complaint among some viewers--too much happened. I'm going to try to keep this short (keyword is try). But first let's do a quick recap of what happened video-style.

This saved me a lot time writing because I had paragraphs and paragraphs about what happened in the season finale. So now I can just dive into the good stuff and talk about what I liked and didn't like and also where I think this show is heading.

Part 1


I couldn't believe Lucious would fire Cookie, but not Mr. Security. Hell, he shouldn't have fired either of them since it's not like they did anything wrong. She's not marred to him. She wasn't even dating Lucious. Lucious should know how to separate business from pleasure. 

Speaking of Mr. Security, this is one of the reasons why I wouldn't mind if the show added a few more episodes next year or this year if they start in the fall. Maybe they should do something like The Walking Dead does and run 8 eps in the fall and 8 eps in the spring. I say 16 because it needs to stay short and concise. It doesn't dwindle on the same drama for long and I like that. I feel like everything is fast pace, which is so unusual in a drama because I always feel like dramas like to dwell in it for a few episodes until they move on. However, I felt Mr. Security changing his mind all of a sudden about pursuing Cookie came from no where. One minute, Mr. Security was saying no he can't and the next he was all up in that cookie. I think he saw a piece of that cookie when she was flashing it in his face and he got all interested. I felt like I missed an episode in between those two because they were so disjointed. This isn't the only instance I felt this way. I felt the same thing when Boo Boo Kitty was found out and Porsha and Cookie started packing her shit to go. I loved the scene, but it felt disjointed with the end of the previous episode. Would have loved to see Prosha stalking Boo Boo Kitty and then running to tell her master so I'm thinking 4 extra episodes would do them some good on the storytelling front.

Now I know there's a debate going on with the executives on the episode count because no one expected the show to be such a big hit. The execs are trying to get 22, but Lee Daniels wants the same count (12) and he has a good reason. Empire creates its own music and Jim Beanz, who said he did about 90% of the music on the show, thinks 12 episodes is hard enough. I don't want the execs to push for too much because then the quality may suffer. However, the nice thing about Empire creating its own music is that they can reuse it anytime they want like they did in the finale. I heard "What Is Love" used several times and I was okay with that so maybe now that the 1st season is over it won't be as hard because they would have more tracks to choose from and them creating more music would just add to the collection. So that's why I think 16 is a good number.

So Cookie was never on the board and that caught me off guard, but it made sense because you really can't have a convict on the board especially when they were trying to launch themselves as a public company. So go Andre for leading your mother on and go writers for not leaving a hint of what Andre and Lucious were up to until the reveal. 

Now I know Jamal said he's going to take Empire for himself, but I didn't know the length that man would go. He hanged Baretti off a balcony and that didn't seem like something Jamal would do just to please the father he's always hated, but to have Empire, maybe he would. As for Boo Boo Kitty and Hakeem hooking up. Well Hakeem did warn Lucious in advance telling him exactly what he would do. He said he would steal his bitch and he did. They both hated him and they would have done anything to hurt him. I'm just wondering how did they know he was going to be there to see them together.

So the big takeaway from the episode is Lucious is not dying. He was misdiagnosed and I was kind of upset about this. What I really liked about this show is they weren't afraid to kill off the main character (GoT style). He was a ticking time-bomb and I liked that. I like when characters aren't invincible and now they've taken that away. I guess I should be happy they told us sooner rather than later because if they told us in the 11th hour, you know I would've been pissed. 

Now I love how the writers dropped the security cameras idea in a previous episode as if it was nothing and then use it to show Cookie trying to kill Lucious. Take note writers, this is how you write a show. You plan things ahead of time so they have a bigger impact later on.

Part 2 


I'm actually really shocked that Lucious decided to give Jamal the key to his empire. I thought he had so much hate for Jamal being gay that even if Jamal gave Lucious his kidney, he still wouldn't care. Guess I was wrong.

I am not going to lie, I've re-watched that catfight so many times. It made me curious to see what Dynasty's catfights are like so I YouTube'd it.




Although it is nowhere near the level of Dynasty, it is a start. But I'm pretty sure Boo Boo Kitty and Cookie could take Alexis and Krystle. Those bitches don't play. They throw punches, not slaps.

I'm sad to see Malik Yoba go, but if Lucious wasn't dying, someone had to. This is the 2nd time this TV season that some was killed with a statue over the head while someone was strangling/punching someone else (HTGAWM). Like How to Get Away with Murder, this was not murder, it was self-defense, even though we all know Vernon would never kill Andre and he even tried to stop the fight, but Andre kept swinging at him. Did Empire writers hear through the grapevine what HTGAWM was doing? So what did Andre and Rhonda do with the body? Hopefully, they disposed of him correctly by burning him, but I think that would be hard to do in New York City. Philadelphia isn't that far away. If HTGAWM could do it there, then why can't Empire? All of this because there was a small chance of her going to jail while she was pregnant. Just call the cops people.

Turns out Vernon was the key witness for the FEDs and now that he'll be missing for quite some time, it'll only be a matter of time before Dwayne Johnson Lucious Lyons gets out of jail and seeks revenge on his family even though they had nothing to do with him going to jail (that was all his doing for, you know, killing people), but did back-stab him for his empire, everyone except the one he hated the most, Jamal.

Theory

As for the future, I think it was well laid out on what will happen next season. Lucious will have a revenge story-line while Cookie will probably be dealing with the mess she caused (calling a hit on a powerful drug dealer's minion). Andre and Rhonda will be dealing with the cover-up of Uncle Vernon. Jamal will probably be helping Lucious get revenge since the family not only back-stabbed Lucious, but back-stabbed him as well. As for Hakeem, maybe he'll start developing feelings for Boo Boo Kitty (she is an older woman after all) and all of a sudden Yoko Ono shows up to claim her spot once again.

I'm going to miss my only Wednesday show. Hopefully, it'll return later this year and not next year. We'll know the answer in a few months.

Luv ya,
           Diva

P.S. Be sure to click here to listen to the great songs that came out of this season.

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