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EPISODE
SEASON
Empire - Season 1 Episode 01: PilotEpisode
Hip-hop artist and CEO of Empire Entertainment, Lucious Lyon, is diagnosed with a medical challenge and whilst he still wonders who would be his heir, the reappearance of Cookie, his ex-wife, complicates things.
4 December 1964, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
15 March 1975, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
29 September 1981, Chicago, Illinois, USA
March 01, 2015
From the minute we first see Terrence Howard's Lucious Lyon... we know this sudsy soap-opera is going to get more over-the-top with each passing minute.
March 01, 2015
Almost all aspects of the pilot work. The characters are engaging (for the most part), the music is terrific and Taraji P. Henson is in it, so it's automatically getting bonus points for that.
March 01, 2015
It's a good, old-fashioned King Lear set-up, hence the wink, but it has an irresistibly contemporary setting.
March 01, 2015
If Cookie and Lucious' pow-wow is the best private moment in the pilot, the party is Empire's best, King Lear-iest public one.
March 01, 2015
This opening salvo isn't just a mere disappointment; this is the engine stalling and catching fire before it even makes the first lap.

