Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
After some badly written storylines, ‘Empire’ has finally bounced back
IT WAS February 2015 when the world was rocked by the explosion of Empire on our TV screens. It was bold, brash and ghetto fabulous.
The script was equal parts sassy and snarky, the wardrobe luxurious and at times harking back to the excess of the ’80s. Designers were clamouring for their garments to be worn by the cast.
It was guilty-pleasure TV and the great music was an added extra. We all laughed at Cookie Lyon’s wisecracking one liners and the chemistry she had with her then ex-husband Lucious.
It’s a role that finally booked Taraji P Henson her place as a Hollywood A-Lister. And the ratings? Sky high! At one point it was one of the most watched TV shows, earning its place in the hallowed halls of ratings heaven, space normally reserved for Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, NCIS and The Big Bang Theory.
Yet when the second season came, it was like the writers decided it was time to forget about any rules. They broke so many that viewers bolted.
No longer was Empire a trending topic and one of the most talked-about shows on TV. It became the butt of TV jokes.
It fell to the second season curse.
So when the producers decided to reboot the show and set it two years after the fourth season (where the Lyons lost their music company, Empire) it resulted in the show going back to what made it so good – the Lyon family.
We fell in love with Empire because even with the excess and gaucheness of the show, its core was this story about the Lyon family and their efforts to stay on top of the music business.
This season has been all about Cookie and Lucious, as well as their children, Andre, Jamal and Hakeem forgiving each other, and working together to get back to the top.
Humbled, they are broke, have lost their company and place in the music industry and have to once again resort to their roots – the streets – to make it in the world.
Cookie and Lucious made magic in their bedroom studio in the beginning of their career and we see that playing out again, with artists leaving and joining them, for precisely this reason. Even the music is good again.
Andre, just released from prison and Lucious are now going around town collecting their debt. Jamal is back in New York and is ready to help his family get everything back. And Hakeem? Oh, he’s still making bad life decisions and showcasing the worst of last-born syndrome.
The show’s writers finally get it.
We only liked the show because of the family and showing them as a unit – as unhinged as they are – makes us want to root for them. This season we see the characters developing and it’s believable.
The writers finally understand what made Empire work so well in the beginning. It’s all about family.
Empire airs on Thursday on Fox at 9pm
MAYFAIR
Computer whiz and prodigal son Zaid is on a quest for spiritual discovery. As an international aid worker, he lives as far away as possible from his father, Aziz Randera, a successful importer-exporter and occasional money launderer and loan shark.
But when he is fired from his job in a refugee camp, for ignoring the rules by actually doing good rather than shuffling papers, Zaid returns to Johannesburg and to Mayfair, an Indian Muslim enclave, for the first time in years.
At home, everything has changed. The old neighbourhood is full of new immigrants with clashing customs. Business has been tough – his father is in over his head as a result of a soured deal with ruthless Somalis. Smelling blood, young Turks are circling the family business.
Zaid remains reluctant to become involved but when Ameena, his first love, and Faiza, his baby sister, are kidnapped after a failed cash-drop intended to resolve the Somali deal, will he finally get off the fence and choose between saving his family and preserving his faith?
Zaid is fighting to be a good man in an evil world, but this world is fighting back.
ESCAPE PLAN 2: HADES
Ray Breslin manages an elite team of security specialists trained in the art of breaking people out of the world’s most impenetrable prisons. When his most trusted operative, Shu Ren, is kidnapped and disappears inside the most elaborate prison ever built — one that is entirely computerised and constantly changing shape — Ray must track him down with the help of some of his former friends.
JULIET, NAKED
Annie is stuck in a long-term relationship with Duncan, an obsessive fan of obscure rocker Tucker Crowe.
When the acoustic demo of Tucker’s hit record from 25 years ago surfaces, its release leads to a lifechanging encounter with the elusive rocker himself. Based on Juliet, Naked, a novel by Nick Hornby.
NOBODY’S FOOL
Trying to get back on her feet, wild child Tanya looks to her buttoned-up, by-the-book sister, Danica, to help her get back on track. As these polar opposites collide, with hilarious and sometimes disastrous results, Tanya discovers that Danica’s pictureperfect life, including her mysterious boyfriend, may not be what it seems.
SLENDER MAN
In a small town in Massachusetts, four high school girls perform a ritual in an attempt to debunk the lore of “Slender Man.” When one of the girls goes missing, the others begin to suspect that she’s his latest victim. Based on a character by Victor Surge.
THE TOKOLOSHE
Busi, a destitute young woman with dangerously repressed emotions, lands a job as a cleaner at a rundown hospital, in the heart of Johannesburg.
Desperate for the money so she can bring her younger sister to Johannesburg, she must cope despite the predatory and corrupt hospital manager.
When Busi discovers an abandoned young girl in the hospital, who believes herself to be tormented by a supernatural force, Busi must face her own demons from her past in order to save the child from the abusive monster that pursues them both relentlessly.