Empire

[frelling_tralk]

Just finished season 1 of Empire and I've really been enjoying it, has anyone else on my flist been following it? :) My favourite character is Cookie naturally, and I'm afraid that I've ended up shipping her and Lucious, even though he is of course terrible in every way, but somehow their chemistry and history has completely sucked me in all the same XD Oh and another character that I have a soft spot for is Andre. At first he didn't make much impression on me, but then towards the end I was really starting to emphasis with him. It always seems clear that Cookie first favoured Jamal before starting to bond more with Hakeem, and vice versa for Lucious, whereas Andre was always the afterthought, even his brothers clearly like one another more than they like him :( It really made me feel so bad for him when the rest of his family were all singing together, and he was always the outsider. I was kind of expecting Cookie to worry about him more after his mental breakdown actually, and realise that he needed more mothering that she had at first assumed, but even that seemed to be brushed aside very quickly after that initial scene of the family with him in the hospital, ironically Lucious was the only parent that seemed to be around and paying attention when Andre first left the hospital and had his religious crisis

And I'm totally team Andre on who should get the company, he's the oldest, he works hard, and he's clearly the most responsible. Neither Jamal or Hakeen have show any business aptitude, yet Lucious originally had a plan to hand the company over to Hakeen just because he liked the way that he rapped, when can anyone see Hakeen doing a good job with running a billion dollar company??? And Jamal was a better choice than Hakeen granted, but he's never shown any real interest in anything other than making music, he was just flattered at being chosen because it meant that he was finally getting his father's acceptance. Meanwhile even Cookie is telling Hakeen that she thinks it should be him and Jamal running the business between them, never mind the eldest son being the one who went to business school, and who actually has the skills and experience when it comes to running their company. So yeah, I am firmly Team Andre *g*


One thing that did surprise me was that, after reading that it's the number one drama on American television, I found that the online fandom really doesn't reflect that at all? There's next to no fannish content when it comes to fanfic or fan music videos, there's not a whole lot of icons or fanart either, and there's really not all that much discussion anywhere. For such a supposedly massive hit I was really expecting a little more, but half of the tumblr communities for Empire don't seem to have been updated in months...

Comments

[malicat.livejournal.com]

The online fandom was actually much bigger in season 1 (when it aired). At least there was a lot on my dash and everyone was talking about it. However,season 2 was pretty bad and almost all of my friends and myself included stopped watching then.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I watch it. Cookie and Jamal are my faves. I also really like Tiana, but we don't see her much.

Fandom usually reflects the interest in ships rather than the interest in a show, and we barely see Jamal with Michael or Ryan, so I can understand people don't really feel the urge to create fanworks.

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

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[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, first season was great, but it turned out to be not a fandom-inducing show - soap opera, but with too little opportunities for shipping. It was just good already, not much to add, not much to transform.

But there were some nice vids made nevertheless. Here's couple of recs, in case you missed them:
Cut Like a Buffalo (Cookie) by kiki-miserychic.
Monster (Lion family) by awkwardlyary.

[batmarg.livejournal.com]

I loved season 1, but from what I've been hearing, season 2 wasn't nearly as good.

Cookie and Jamal are my favorites (but especially Cookie)

[megan-moonlight.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the first season of the show. I liked the begginning of S2 and I wanted to keep watching, but it just wasn't what it was in S1. I decided to take a break from it and decide if I want to continue watching after I read what happens in the next episodes.

Cookie and Jamal (in S1, at least) are my favourite characters.

But I actually never even thought about fandom or checking fics for this series. I didn't feel the need to do so after watching the show.

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

You know, even hit-shows don't have a huge fandom following nowadays and there are basically no icons whatsoever... like iZOMBiE for example has basically nothing and "The Flash" or even "Arrow" don't even have that massive of a following anymore unfortunately... fans have just become quiet, I think...

[nrgburst]

Is it really still the number one drama in the US ratings-wise? I think the numbers have fallen off dramatically since S1?

Here's my reaction post to the Empire S2 premiere. I stopped watching shortly after. The narrative was just too stunt driven instead of character/plot driven, IMO, and it really put me off.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

I like Empire a lot. I agree with everyone that it was better in season 1 but I've still enjoyed season 2, for the most part. But I'm pretty much just here for Cookie so as long as she continues to be fabulous, I'll probably keep watching :)

Yeah, I remember being surprised about the lack of fannish activity last season. I thought it would be a much more popular vid fandom what with all of Cookie's amazing one-liners but...not so much. Then again, I never felt compelled to vid it either so...IDK why it never caught on fandom-wise.

I have mixed feelings on Cookie/Lucious. Obviously Lucious is the worst. He was a terrible husband. He treats her like crap half the time even now. And they often bring out the worst in each other...but at the same time, they have this ferocity when it comes to defending one another that I find really appealing. And the actors have insane chemistry. So I wouldn't say I ship them but I do enjoy them sometimes? If that makes sense?


Vids:
cookie humor
L/C
L/C s2 spoilers

[heavenly44.livejournal.com]

I love Cookie too. I also adore Luscious even though I know he is a horrible human being. I"ve loved the magic of T nT (Terrance and Taraji) since they were in Hustle and Flo together. There chem is just off the charts and their bts friendship is adorable as hell. I am kind of glad there isn't much of a fandom for this show cause I'm sure it would manage to ruin my enjoyment of it. I too love Andre. I think if I had to rank the kids it would be : Andre, Jamal then Hakeem.

[janetmaca.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched it yet but only because every time I see Taraji P Henson I yell about Carter from PoI- I suspect I'd miss half the things Cookie would say, lol. Maybe one day. That said, it is very surprising how little I've seen of Empire on Tumblr.

[dreamwishdo.livejournal.com]

There's not much of a fandom here on LJ. Mostly on Twitter when you use the proper hashtags, haha.

I am a huge fan of Hakeem, however, with what he did at the beginning of S2, it shall be interesting to see if I feel the same way about him at the end.
I do love Cookie too. It comes back at the end of this month and I cannot wait.

[favoritexrecord.livejournal.com]

Glad you got into Empire!! I love that show. S1 was definitely the best, but I've still been enjoying S2. I always felt bad for Andre. Cookie is definitely my favorite!