A good show gone bad. In the beginning, Cookie was the breakout and deservedly so, but now, in season 3 she is a cartoon. Empire has forgotten the Cardinal Rule of nighttime soaps. That is you have to have at least one character that is good and likable. That never wavers from that good. Here, almost every character is completely deplorable. Too many guest stars mugging for the camera. And all the children of privilege, getting much more than they deserve, and not equal in the talent department. It also past time to turn off that auto-tune machine. It is obvious that Hakeem does not possess the talent of the character and the excessive use of auto-tune in his performances is like painting everyone bright luminous yellow. Jamal is talented, but his distinctive voice and style makes everything sound repetitive and is approaching tiresome. We saw the rise of this Empire, I guess we now get to see the fall.

How is this show so highly rated? Bad actors, bad scripts, black stereotypes gone amuk... it's like glee without the talent for people who just want to root for black millionaire moguls...the characters are poorly developed and have no integrity(Cookie is the best of a bad lot). The autotune nightmare is flat out ridiculous and Hakim is a decent rapper but as bad an actor as they come...there is so much great black talent out there...The actor who plays Lucious isn't awful but never seems to really dig for deeper emotions...not that the writing gives them much to work with...its all drama without any grounding in real connection or character development! A real crime as its a great concept...just poorly executed.

Bad acting, bad scripts- just bad! I have no idea how a show this bad can stay on television.

Willing to give every show a fair shake and don't wish to speak ill of the show's achievements to date.

However, at present there is a cast member who could potentially be allowed to stay on;l a cast member that willingly and knowingly attempted to stir up racial violence via fake hate hoax, simply to fuel his communist degenerate narcissism.

This review should serve as a warning to Empire's producers - do the right thing.

Trys way to hard very prediciable and acting is subpar and thats being generous... The Wire will always being the greatest assembale of african american talent evrything else is pale in comparrision

Mix between being simply cheesy and uncomfortably embarrassing to sit through and watch

This is the worst show on television. Terrible, low-budget actors with writing that has the quality seen in middle school poetry.

I worked in film and only worked with this LOSER for a week and a half. He is completely not on this planet. He was rude AF, thoughtless, uncaring, racist, ageist, sexist. I got called "little girl" MANY times by him especially when he was pissing in public (in a downtown area) and drawing MORE attention to himself by repeatedly saying "don't look, don't look, little girl!" Like.. I NEVER WAS and certainly I don't want to see your junk. That's why it's a SEX OFFENDER crime to pull your nasty junk out in public to pee. He's an dramatic self absorbed LOSER. Jamal's character was "loosely" based off him. No wonder Jussie created his waaaay over the top hoax. Jussie has been in the industry for his whole life and can't even see straight. No one with any functioning brain cells would believe you're going out for wallgreens or subway at 2AM in the freezing cold with a death threat on your head and got recognized and attacked by guys equipped with a noose, bleach, and saying this is maga country... in CHICAGO. Dumb AF. He is so out of reality and sadly probably going to get off on the charges. Lock that boy up at the VERY least in a mental hospital. OH. And the narcissist TERRENCE HOWARD can get lost, too. Anyone who puts his hands on a woman like he has deserves a true beating in jail. As a survivor of domestic violence, these punks deserve to get smacked. Especially Jussie and hopefully he won't have pay for it. No way those men gave you a scratch on your cheek.

The shows decision to allow Smollett back is a huge mistake and will surely be the end of Empire. What I don't get is how angry his fellow actors were at what he did and how now they are ok letting him back. He was cleared so obviously by politics yet he still damaged a show the other actors I'm sure put their all into. He should be shunned by the show and his fellow actors, they are HIS victims just like Trump supporters and blacks and whites in setting all of us back in race relations! We need to come together in America and he spit in the face of all Americans!

I had to stop watching after the first season because the show promotes the worst stereotypes of the african-american community.

I was gonna write a review but two black panthers kidnapped me and tied a noose around my neck yelling racist things against white people so instead I'm just gonna rate this 1 star.

Terrence Howard is the only good thing about this. Is the whole show built on racism? Is that the general tone on set? "How do we lie and race bait?" Good to know.

One of the worst examples of this shows poor agenda driven acting came in the episode where the guy .... Mullet? Smullet? Smollet? fakes a hate crime, hiring two guys to attack him so he can cry his crocodile tears and compete in the victim Olympics ... or wait .... was that realty? or fiction? It was so hard to tell. Big thumbs down to everyone involved with this reprehensible garbage.