Taraji P. Henson's Evil, Lovable 'Cookie' Makes Empire Worth a Watch
EntertainmentAfter previewing the sloppy yet moderately intriguing pilot for Empire, a drama about a dysfunctional music-business family, there’s one reason I’m giving it a shot. Cookie. Although Terrence Howard is billed as the star (he plays the rotten record label magnate Lucious Lyon), Taraji P. Henson is a bigger draw as the vicious, on-fleek ex-wife and drug lordess slash music maven by his side.
Grading on the pilot curve, Empire (which premieres tonight, co-produced by Lee Daniels) falls somewhere in the three-episodes-or-I’m-out category. While the high stakes concept immediately hooks you, the show has the potential to be bogged down by kitsch. A former rapper and now Asshole-In-Charge at his label, Empire Entertainment, Howard’s Lucious can most succinctly be described as scum. The pilot opens with him in a recording studio with fellow executives, pushing one of his artists to sing beyond her limits. “I need you to sing like you are going to die tomorrow,” he says icily. “Show me your soul in this music.” Music execs are designed to be motivationally sleazy, so Howard hits that mark and then some.
Lucious isn’t exactly an antihero I’d root for, though, even after we learn about his incurable disease. Post-diagnosis, he initiates a rat race between his three sons—Andre (the businessman), Jamal (a singer, who’s gay) and Hakeem (the juvenile-delinquent rapper)—to see who should run Empire when he’s gone. Except…. he’d rather not have his gay son at the helm. There’s one flashback that shows how despicable Lucious is, but I won’t ruin it. He’s the source of the madness. Cookie is the light.