Blu-ray Review: Empire (Season 1)

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this Blu-ray for review. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

A few of you *may* have heard of this little show called Empire ... kidding. I had definitely heard about Empire before receiving the Blu-ray to review, as my parents are fans of the show, but I had never watched it.

The show is so addicting that I whipped through season one (11 episodes, but really 12, since the finale is two hours) in about two weeks - and that's with staying on top of my other TV shows I currently watch, too.

I've started watching Empire season two now too (I've finished two episodes now and I still have two to go, three counting this week's - so, no spoilers, please!) and it's also very good, although the settings/surroundings are different.

Top 5 things I like about Empire:
  1. It has SO much drama. In a weird way, it reminds me of Gossip Girl, a show I used to love back in the late 2000s/early 2010s, just because every episode has a few especially dramatic events.
  2. The characters. Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) is my favorite, and her outfits are always on-point too. Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) is probably my second favorite. 
  3. All of the backstories. Cookie has gone to jail for 17 years, taking the rap for selling drugs (which really she and Lucious were both doing), and we get to see a lot of how life was for her and Lucious and her three - at the time - children, growing up poor in a small house while both Cookie and Lucious were trying to make music. The show does a lot of flashbacks, which are always good.
  4. The music. I'm usually not a fan of rap music but this show has that and more, and every episode is like watching a concert.
  5. The hook - at the end of each episode, something dramatic happens, and it makes you want to continue watching the next episode.
credit: YouTube

The Blu-ray version features five complete performances of songs performed on the show, too, such as Hakeem's "Drip Drop," and "You're So Beautiful," performed by the Lyon men. There's also more than 9 hours (!) of content and 50 minutes of special features.

If I was to give season 1 of the series a rating, I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars - it's not a perfect 5 out of 5, but it's pretty close. 

{Click here to purchase Season 1 on Blu-ray at Amazon}


Have you seen the show? If so, what do you think of it?

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