Has EMPIRE Jumped The Shark?

I'll give it a few more episodes--I think the main problem has been trying to keep up with the first season's crazy pace--when really it has to (at least for me,) slow down...

I'd say Episode One of this season was as batsh*t crazy and over the top as we've come to expect and relish from EMPIRE. That was a wacky and incendiary hour of TV, and no coincidence, THAT episode was scripted by Danny Strong and directed by Lee Daniels. The last 2 episodes have not had the hand of either creator at the helm. Tells you all you need to know. I too hope they get their mojo back and quickly!

I liked the first episode of this season well enough (although I tend to fast forward through the songs now), but I haven't been able to get motivated to watch the most recent two backed up on the DVR. I may dump them for the space.

Ha! Thanks. That may be just what I need to decide to not watch anymore.

I think the idea of everyone trying to take control of the company or starting a new label is wearing thin. I feel like it is the same thing over and over. I think they need to come up with some new ideas and subplots. I also think they should challenge themselves more with the musical numbers. There are many characters that you don't give 2 cents about and I think it is harming the show.

I just caught up with this season. Very lackluster so far. Also agree that I think it jumped the shark near the end of the first season.

I don't think it's "jumped the shark" yet. But it is already repeating itself at 15 episodes into the entire series. If this show is going to go on for years and just be about who's going to take control of Empire and who's deceiving who into getting control, it's going to get extremely repetitive.

This show jumped the shark 10 minutes into the first episode of season one.

I enjoyed the first season despite myself. I found it fun and funny and had some good performances. We still make each other laugh by singing "Drip Drop".

This season is just bad. We're hanging in there so far, but I'm almost done. The hubby is more into it than me. The Chris Rock cameo was so bad that I couldn't even laugh.

The show needs to decide if it wants to retell "King Lear" or "Dynasty". They'd be more successful with the latter.

I watched DYNASTY with religious devotion during the Reagan Eighties. While it was on ocassion glitzy over-to-top fluff , the series arguably dealt with topical issues of the day with a bit more aplomb than EMPIRE. Americans needed levity and a restoration of hope that we'd all get our slice of the pie.

We had somehow survived President Jimmy Carter's disastrous foreign policy, the Iran hostage situation, the energy crisis that led to long lines at the pump, and staggering inflation. An inspiring late night rags-to-riches soap opera about a virile middle-aged wealthy American business tycoon bathing in oil with his trophy wife was an easy sell. The fact that he had an openly gay TV son and a sexually liberated daughter was SHOCKING at a time when Americans were still coming to grips with Madonna, 2nd wave feminism, fallout from the sexual revolution, and the emergence of a disease afflicting young adults that would later be called AIDS.

But, most importantly the show's key antagonist Joan Collins as Alexis Carrington Colby did not make an appearance until the start of the second sense to incriminate her ex-husband Blake who was the family patriarch. Aaron Spelling and company kept the focus on the central characters, did not parade an endless list of b-z listers on screen in cameo appearances, PACED THE SCENES MASTERFULLY, and wrapped up each season with a brilliant cliffhanger, at least for 3 seasons. EMPIRE's season 1 cliffhanger will go down in the annals of American TV history as one of the absolute worst.

Taraji P Henson has done a commendable job as Cookie but no one has played a better bitch on American TV than Joan Collins. I suspect that to sustain viewer interest in the Cookie character, a foil will be introduced at some point ala Diahann Carroll's Dominique Devereaux. I have no idea how to make the characters other than Porsha interesting.

Sorry for the lengthy post.

Updated On: 10/14/15 at 06:29 PM

More people across all income strata were closer to having their slice of the pie in Carter's era than at any time since. And THAT is why rich people think discussion of income equality is utterly gauche.

Thought last night's episode was more fun than most this season. Credit to co-creator Danny Strong, who wrote AND directed the episode, keeping a whole lot o' balls in the air all at once.

Speaking of which, not sure why they were so cagey with the implied nudity with the boys -- Jamal in an almost-opened robe for that ludicrous "photoshoot", Luscious opening his bedroom door to the FBI full-on starkers. Come on, FOX! This is 2015. Network TV has managed more legit naked boy-shots than yours. Let's see the goods, dammit.