An 'Inside' Look At The Success of 'Empire'

"Empire" co-creator Lee Daniels (right, with stars Taraji P. Henson
and Terrence Howard at a recent press event) gave a sneak peek of the show when he appeared at my alma mater, Ohio State, in February 2014.

I'm proud to say that I'm one of the first people who got a sneak peek of the runaway hit show "Empire" before it went on the air this winter and broke all kinds of records.

No, I'm not a confidant of "Empire" co-creator Lee Daniels, but I did happen to attend a speech he gave at my alma mater, Ohio State, in February 2014. During his appearance at OSU during Black History Month last year, Daniels talked about his career, beginning with a job as a production assistant on the movie "Purple Rain" (of special interest to me as a lifelong Prince fan). And he also mentioned a new TV show he was developing for the Fox network.

Having had this preview, I couldn't help but be curious about "Empire" when it hit the airwaves in January. And after it became a breakout hit, I had to find out what all the fuss was about.

So on President's Day in February when I was off from work and yet another snowstorm kept me from going anywhere, I binge-watched the first few episodes and continued to follow the saga of Lucious (Terrence Howard), Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) and their children up through the highly-anticipated March 18 season finale .

Here are my impressions of "Empire":

It's really cool that Daniels and co-creator Danny Strong were able to enlist Henson and Howard to basically play a decade-older version of their characters from the 2005 movie Hustle & Flow, which also explored life in the crazy world of hip-hop. It's as if DJay and Shug from Hustle & Flow got married, had kids and found success - fast-forward 10 years and this is where they are.

The diversity on the show is great. It's wonderful that Gabourey Sidibe plays Lucious' assistant Becky, and no mention is made that she's a large woman. People of all different shapes, sizes and backgrounds need to see themselves represented in pop culture.

It's equally wonderful that the show featured a Latino character (played by Rafael de La Fuente) who was featured in the first few episodes as the lover of Cookie and Lucious' gay son, Jamal (Jussie Smollett).  Jamal is a talented rapper and has to battle bigotry not only from the hyper-masculine hip-hop community, but from his own father.

It's courageous of "Empire" to directly address homosexuality, since it's often a taboo subject in the Black community. However, the show isn't the first to portray a gay rapper.

There was a similar plot on a short-lived CW series called "The L.A. Complex," a summer replacement series reminiscent of "Melrose Place" that aired in the summer of 2012, but unfortunately never caught on. (Read my 2013 blog post about the cancellation of "The L.A. Complex" by clicking this link.)

It's great that "Empire" is grounded in reality. But as an African American, I have mixed emotions that the power couple played by Howard and Henson built their empire on drug money. Why must this stereotype of African Americans be perpetuated?

Another observation: Howard and Henson look too young to have grown, 20-something children. But since both are in their mid-40s, I guess they're chronologically old enough to have been teen parents. Maybe that's the point: they lived the ghetto life and overcame it.

When I first saw the previews for "Empire," I initially thought this was set in the '70s. Daniels and the other creators of the show seemed to be going for that retro look in the first few episodes, with a hybrid of contemporary hip-hop culture and the vibe of the '70s Blaxploitation flicks like "Superfly."

Overall, I'm a fan of "Empire" and would describe it as a marriage of a '90s 'hood movie like "Menace II Society" and a nighttime soap like "Dallas." In fact, Lucious is like the hip-hop, 21st century version of J.R. Ewing.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...