Empire Season 3

[Brian Kinney]

It's not uncharacteristic for Lucious to think and behave that way but when it's being literally cited it feels too much like a Disney villain embracing his villainy.
A soap villain needs to feel justified, at least to some extent, in order to make me buy into that very villainy.
Without doubt there's no mystique and subtlety.

Lucious will show some weaknesses in the seasons ahead of you. But Lucious and Cookie are the two roles who stay most convincingly in character for the whole run of the series. I always thought that Lucious' obvious villainy you describe made many critics overlook how entertaining Terrence Howard plays it. A lot of viewers wanted him dead but he was as important to the series as Blake was for Alexis (and their kids).

Candace and Carol make a guest appearance without the obligatory screaming/insult match.
There's something about low-key aunt & nephew scenes in soaps that always works for me because without any strong soaptastic connections it feels like a mini alternative universe within the soap.

TRUE! Cookie's sisters remind us that there is family drama outside the Lyon's world. They didn't do much with Rhonda's, Anika's or Tiana's other families but at least Candace and Carol turn up once in a while.

The Dubois family were my favourite enemies - worthy opponents!

 

[Willie Oleson]

made many critics overlook how entertaining Terrence Howard plays it

Oh yes, that OTT and bombastic melodrama is absolutely required to make this story work.
It's just that I don't need too much word-for-word information regarding what makes a character tick.
It's perfectly fine to seduce or manipulate Hakeem to cross over to the dark side, but it doesn't really work when it happens by invitation.
Hakeem needs to believe that, if he does it, he does it on his own initiative.

But it's just one scene and it's not representative of the entire episode. And of course it's just my personal experience and I like to include the great and the weaker moments in my episode reviews.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I think I'm about to OD on soap opera goodness.


You have done nothing wrong. That ungrateful bitch blindsided you. She's wrecked everything, but listen to me! I'm taking charge now.
And I will not rest until I see the Lyons groveling in the dirt, begging for a merciful death.
They messed with wrong clan. They're going down!

Viva Las Empire!

 

[Willie Oleson]

And another insane episode finale!

Why is this soap so criminally underrated on tellytalk?

 

[Willie Oleson]

The penultimate episode ends with a BRILLIANT shock twist.
To be honest, I was expecting something from Tariq, like maybe he pretended the whole "brother" thing and now he was going to make Lucious suffer.
But this was so...totally unexpected!

Season finale, here I come. OMG.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Season finale, here I come. OMG.

Hm.

I mean, honestly? An amnesia cliff hanger?

Or is he faking it like Blake Carrington faked his blindness when his car was blown up? Well he was blind at first but you know what I mean.
Yes, this episode could have been the Happy Ending ending but that doesn't work when Lucious doesn't know that he had created that happy ending.
Still, it's a bit underwhelming after all the exciting stuff that has happened before the season finale.

However

They messed with wrong clan. They're going down!

Wow, the evil Clair Huxtable was not making idle threats! And it's only just beginning, or so it seems.
But I don't understand, was Anika in cahoots with them or did she just find Bella? What could have been her motive to keep her daughter away from Hakeem?
Oh, and she's staying in the PENINSULA Hotel, except that Leah is framing her for the murder of Tariq! Maybe there's going to be some payback after all.
And I wonder if Lucious knew that Hakeem was lying when he said that picture was taken in Anika's parents' living room.

All in all, there's still a lot of great stuff to look forward to, but again, it wasn't the pull-out-all-the-stops firework I had hoped for.

The UnAmazing Primes (UK and Germany) won't let me buy the digital seasons therefore I'll have to import the R1 DVDs.
This could take a while so I'm going to say bon voyage to EMPIRE.

 

[tommie]

Oh yeah, I remember being disappointed at the amnesia cliffhanger, especially after the season 2 finale had such a classic 80s soap vibe to it.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I'm also disappointed that I can't watch new episodes of Empire tonight. It's just not fairrrwww.
Gimme my soap back, dammit!