Empire Review: A Lean and Hungry Look (Season 4 Episode 15)

 

On Empire season 4 episode 15, “A Lean and Hungry Look,” it’s more of the same.

I’m not sure what to say about “A Lean and Hungry Look”, so I’ll just start with Cookie’s face:

Yup. That’s basically how I feel about it.

 

Empire is stuck. It’s stuck with Eddie, with the music, with Tiana. We’ve seen all these storylines before. Even Cookie’s prison flashbacks are getting old — they are too frequent and too repetitive.

It’s nice to learn why Cookie feels she owes Poundcake, I guess, but even that is repetitive. We know that the guard is a bad guy. We know that Cookie owes people. We know that people owe Cookie.

Every storyline is spinning wheels instead of progressing at this point.

Plus, a lot feels like filler. Especially Jamal’s music, um, collective? It’s all about the music. Eye roll.

Empire seems to know it, too.

Things seem to be reverting back to old Lucious territory. Shine is back in his good graces, and they are back to their old ways.

Part of me wants to be excited about this. I miss the old Lucious. But… can we just forget all the weirdness that happened to Lucious? I mean he’s still trying to make rooms made of (?) sensory walls?

Are we back to asking just who Lucious is? Is Lucious back? It seems like with (spoiler alert) what happens to Shine.

And please don’t make me keep writing about Anika. I can’t. I cannot.

I’m glad that Poundcake (Sara Lee lol) gets to meet her daughter in the end, and that Cookie gets that weight lifted off her shoulder, but this episode is otherwise quite underwhelming.

Sure, we get a bit of old Empire with the Shine twist, is it enough to make a difference? It feels like Empire is building up to a major finale where all the things that have been set aside come back to the front. But what else will we have to regurgitate until we get there?

I’m not sure how much more I can take.

What did you think of this episode of Empire? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Empire airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Fox.

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