Empire -is it worth watching?

[Stavros]

The hit tv series Empire begins on E4 this week in the UK (Tuesday, ie tomorrow). It has had rave reviews, but is being shown on a channel that shows drivel like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory, and also is compared to Dallas or Dynasty. It also seems to be related to rap, which I don't understand. But I am open to recommendations.

[Ben in LA]

Watch it.

[AshlynCreamher]

Yeah, this looks like a good series to get-into. It kinda reminds me of what a modern version of Downtown Abbey would look like - only better!

[SanDiegoPervySage]

Yes, this show lives up to all the hype.

[youngblood61]

I highly recommend watching.

[Merkurie]

Definitely worth watching.

[LI SEAN08]

Im watching them all ON Demand (reruns) and just got the last 3 left to watch. Id one tonight but got to see game 7 of hockey game, and of course my Yankees. But Ive enjoyed them all thus far!!!!

[flabbybody]

Stavros, knowing you from the quality of your posts I'll predict you find this show sheer drivel. and not in an entertaining way like BREAKING BAD.

[Stavros]

It wasn't sheer drivel, but it was an underwhelming, disappointing experience, or maybe the first show is like that because it has to introduce the characters -because it is a soap opera not a drama. I also wondered whether it would have been better to do a series on Berry Gordy, although he is still alive and was not impressed with the film Dreamgirls allegedly based on Tamla Motown.
The parallels with King Lear are way out, but the main character as Lucius Lyon is a warning, as alliteration is a sign of weakness in writing even in children's stories (as in Harry Potter). I think also that the flashbacks to his younger days were not well done and were lacking in depth. These are stereotypes as expected in a soap -one son is a respectable businessman, the other is a tormented creative genius (and therefore gay), the third, the wild child is closest in character to the father and so the favourite son, even if Hakeem would surely be the name of a Muslim -?query on this. I was not impressed with the brief musical reference to The Godfather shortly before Lucius 'bids goodbye' to the man he has known since they were 14. Maybe I will watch the second episode, but it doesn't so far have the cutting edge of The Wire, it is just too safe, like The Sopranos. and that was dire, six years of stereotypes in search of an execution. I can't comment on Breaking Bad because I have never seen it. But I doubt anything could be as bad as Downton Abbey, except perhaps Triangle, but that for an American audience is so obscure as to be meaningless.
For the record, even with their flaws, in terms of the writing, the acting, and the thought that has gone into them Homeland and The Americans are drama series way, way ahead of anything produced in the UK, even the credits are superior to the tired formulas repeated endlessly this side of the pond, viz The Missing, The Fall, and Broadchurch.

[rodinuk]

... but the main character as Lucius Lyon is a warning, as alliteration is a sign of weakness in writing even in children's stories (as in Harry Potter)...

Somebody should have told Giorgio Gomelsky then (Marmalade Records & BYG )...


... and alliteration is not a sign of weakness in writing