Welcome back to hip hop family drama

Empire returns to FOX next week, with more outrageous drama and hot music, writes Bianca Coleman

THE Lyon family return to FOX next week for their fifth frothy season. This hip hop family drama nearly didn’t make it past its first season, but with the support of its fans, it rallied to keep on bringing us all the outrageous drama and hot music we have come to expect from the Lyons.

Season four of took no prisoners. Lucious (Terrence Howard) survived the explosion in Vegas, but wasn’t the same man. He had conveniently forgotten his evil ways and became as meek as a kitty cat, while the scheming Nurse Claudia (Demi Moore) inveigled her way into his life. Obviously Cookie was having none of that. Plus, a nice Lucious probably didn’t play well with audiences, so by the end of the season he was back to his murderous ways, seeing the exit of Shyne Johnson (played by rapper Xzibit). An evil plot by Cookie’s arch rival Diana DuBois (Phylicia Rashad) saw André (Trai Byers) almost losing his mind and Jamal (Jussie Smollett) being set up for a murder of his own.

Andre’s woes aren’t over because, as season five opens, we find him in jail, apparently for the part he played in Anika’s (Grace Gealey) death.

Eddie (Forrest Whittaker) is in charge of while Cookie and Lucious are working to start afresh and “re-create magic from scratch”. We will catch glimpses from the shootout at the end of season four and the family patriarch standing over a coffin. Is it Hakeem (Bryshere Y Gray)?

A box set of season four is available on DStv Catch Up, or you can binge episodes one to nine tomorrow nd 10 to 18 on Sunday, beginning at 8.15pm on both days.