Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Popcorn & Coffee: Empire: The Complete Second Season


TV-14; 788 minutes;$39.98; Amazon

Now available to own on DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is Empire: The Complete Second Season, featuring all 18 episodes on a 5-disc set with 53 minutes of special features.

Created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, Empire is set in the hip hop music industry and centers on Lucious Lyon (played by Terrence Howard), a former drug dealer who is now the CEO of Empire Entertainment. After being diagnosis with ALS, he makes the decision to take one of his sons - Andre z(played by Trai Byers), Jamal (played by Jussie Smollett), and Hakeem (played by Bryshere Y. Gray) - under his wing, so one of them can one day take over the family business.

Then out of nowhere, Lucious's ex-wife Lucious' ex-wife Loretha "Cookie" Lyon (played by Tarji P. Henson) is released from prison after 17-years and she demands half of the company.

Season Two picks up three months after the first season finale, where Lucious was arrested. Sookie puts together a star-studded #FreeLucious concert in the hopes of freeing Lucious. Meanwhile Jamal attempts to take over the Empire, which puts a bigger drift between him and his brothers. All of this leads to Cookie, Andre and Hakeem launching their own record label called Lyon Dynasty.

Of course nothing will keep Lucious away from his family & business, and soon enough he is released on bail.


Special Features on 5-disc set are:

  • Empire around the Globe: USO Tour Freda Gatz Music Video
  • Studio Sessions
    • “Heavy”
    • “Never Love Again”
    • “Born to Lose”
    • “Do Something With It”
    • “Sorry Just Don’t Cut It”
    • “Supernatural”
  • The Look of Empire:
    • How to Recreate Empire’s Leviticus
    • How to Recreate Lucious’ Office
    • How to Recreate Lucious’ Living Room
    • Discovering the Art on Empire
  • Uncut Music Performances:
    • Runnin’
    • You Broke Love
    • Heavy
    • Miracles 

Final Thoughts: There are way too many series on television, and while some of do look interesting, I have never watched them; which happens to be the case for Empire. I've seen endless advertisements for it, and it seems to have a great cast, but for some reason I never got around to watching the series. Well, that is until I had received a review copy of Empire: The Complete Second Season last week.

While I'm not the biggest fan of hip hop, I do like that the series is set in the music world and most episodes has decent tunes in it. For the most part, the second season is well written, though there were a few episodes towards the middle of the season that felt like fillers and didn't add much to the main storylines. The acting is topnotch here, though my favorite performance is from Tarji P. Henson as Cookie.

The picture quality is really good for a DVD release. Plus, there are plenty of special features to keep you entertained.

Overall, I enjoyed watching Empire: The Complete Second Season and I recommend it to others.

Quick Note: Season three debuts tonight on Fox.



*I received complimentary copy from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment in exchange for my unbiased review. All opinions are my own.


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