Critic Reviews

Empire rules, bigger and badder than ever. If anyone thought Fox's breakout hit was over the top last season, the second-season premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 23, has so much murder and intrigue that it makes what's come before look as tame as C-SPAN.

[Strong and Daniels} oversee the pilot with an unfussy style and attentiveness to nuanced characterizations. I hope they have enough imagination to nurture an ongoing series without pulling punches ... or going soap opera cray-cray.

There’s something soapy and delicious about Empire.... But it’s a double-edged sword: Empire will either continue to be fun and splashy, while staying grounded and engaging, or it will flame out as so many primetime sudsers have before it, becoming too ridiculous for its own good.

The series hits the ground running, letting the viewer fill in the narrative gaps. In other words, Empire is that rare nighttime soap opera that credits its audience with understanding without a lot of tiresome explanation, and whose purpose is to entertain, to surprise, and to confuse.

Empire coasts with the chutzpah of a series that knows exactly what it wants to say and how to say it, leaving viewers no quarter except to pick their jaws up off the floor between commercial breaks.

This is how soaps are done today: with swagger, vigor and soul. Join in or get out of the way.

The three episodes FOX sent to critics are impressively well-balanced, not to mention coherent by Empire "standards."

Whatever it was that made Empire the sensation of the 2014-15 season hasn't gone away for the new season.

The characters remain Empire’s greatest strength, as well as the reason the show can get away with so much soapy ridiculousness.

Whether Empire can sustain these running plots remains to be seen.... But the pilot suggests Empire could become [an] addictive, juicy prime-time soap.