Following months of speculation and anticipation, Fox recently dropped the trailer for season two of its ratings juggernaut Empire. A lot has changed since viewers were first introduced to the Lyon family in early January. Head patriarch Lucious discovered his diagnosis of ALS was something a lot less life threatening yet, was charged with the killing his former friend Bunky and finds himself currently incarcerated. This a 180 from the series beginning with his ex-wife Cookie being released from prison. Getting over the closeted homosexual hump, middle son Jamal takes over Empire Enterprises and even manages to get a little Suge Knight-ish during a few episodes. Meanwhile, oldest son Andre is still coming to terms with his bipolar disorder. Empire Enterprises’ greatest threat comes when Hakeem forms an alliance with Lucious’ ex-fiance Annika who is possibly helping a rival record label. Wrapping everything together is Cookie’s power struggle to get the piece of the company that is deserved. As the second season of Empire is surely set possibly break more viewership records, DX is proud to present the next edition of “Empire State Of Mind.”
The never ending beef between 50 Cent’s Starz original Power and viewership juggernaut Empire has reached a fever pitch recently. Season two of the Lee Daniels vehicle began with a Free Lucious concert where Taraji P Henson’s character Cookie called an Instagram post from 50 Cent thirsty. This, of course, came after the G-Unit head spent most of the year delivering jab after jab to Fox’s highly rated show. However, despite both having fantastic African-American leads, they’re equally amazing for separate reasons. With that in mind, here are five reasons why Power and Empire couldn’t be any more distinct.
Ghost & Lucious Lyon Are Two Completely Different Anti-Heros
The entire narrative arch of Power focuses on Ghost’s very difficult transition from top flight drug dealer to a legit club owner. Meanwhile, the central plot of Empire revolves around the Lyon family’s struggle for control over music label Empire Enterprises. With Lucious serving as the lead character, he’s fairly ruthless in how he treats everyone including his own family and long-time associates. Ghost is a lot more redeeming of a character but gets his hands dirty more than a few times. Besides the marital issues with wife Tasha over infidelity, he’s actually a real family man.
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“Power” Is A Gritty Crime Drama & “Empire” Is A Soap Opera Set To Music
Besides having one of the best opening theme songs in recent memory, the only real music guest star of Power was Kidd Kidd during a second season episode taking place at Ghost’s club. It was a clever way for Fiddy to promote the future of G-Unit. Outside of that, like I described in a previous feature, Power really feels like a modern take on New York Undercover from the villain’s perspective. This is the opposite from Empire which is equal parts Dallas and Nashville with a huge Hip Hop influenced overtone. Alongside the sheer ridiculousness of the situations that take place, the show is very music-heavy. In fact, Timbaland and Ne-Yo serve as music supervisors for Empire.
Both Have Separate Tones
Any television show lives and dies by setting the right tone. Power is a very serious drama offering very few comedic moments. It’s gritty and unapologetic in how characters are treated and their motivations. That’s even reflected in the show’s somewhat muted color scheme. On the flipside, Empire is loud, bold and utterly self-aware. At this point, the show is known for taking cues from Law In Order in how it fuses “ripped from the headlines” with its plot.
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Two Very Specific Home Networks
Anyone who watches a healthy amount of television understands the difference between free local broadcast and premium movie channels. Having Starz as a home, Power enjoys a level of freedom in line with other networks like HBO and Showtime. This means gratuitous violence, nudity and every curse word and racial epithet possible. Regardless of how far it pushes that MA parental rating, Empire can only get away with so much with being on Fox. Last week’s episode featuring the Cookie diss track “Snitch Bitch” was relatively tame content wise. Even scenes featuring violence or sex scenes are heavily edited.
Female Leads Couldn’t Be Any Different
Henson’s breakout television role as Cookie is a totally different beast than Naturi Naughton’s portrayal of Tasha. The Lyon matriarch is a power hungry ex-criminal who helped Lucious build his empire through drug money. Cookie is loud, cunning, bossy and most importantly, willing to go at it with her ex-husband whenever possible. One of the main points of Power is how Tasha really serves as the glue holding the family together while Ghost handles business. That doesn’t mean she’s a nonchalant stay-at-home mother. Besides being always willing to stay strapped, she even has Ghost continue his relationship with FBI agent and side-chick Angela in order to keep the drug business going.
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Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
