Empire - Dangerous Bonds - Preview

‘Dangerous Bonds’ goes into the dangerous territory of making you lose interest in the majority of the episode. Or certainly, that’s the way I felt about this week’s episode, which did little more than feature the same few songs over and over and over again while creating some strange developments in a range of storylines.

Let’s start positively, though. Taraji P Henson is at the top of her game as usual. Cookie finds herself in a different situation this week – there’s a lot more for her to worry about than just Jamal’s career when Carter pushes her to testify. Needless to say, this puts her in a considerable amount of danger (“You gonna get me killed”, as the previously reiterates). What ensues are some very intriguing scenes showing how Cookie handles herself in the face of a threat – hint: it doesn’t go well.

Aside from a nice scene between Lucious and Anika near the beginning of the episode, there’s little else I can say about this episode that I liked. This episode felt like it was thrown in having jumped across multiple episodes in some storylines and not in others, and at points I wondered if I had been following the same show as the writers have these past four weeks.

There were so many things that happened that weren’t in keeping with what we’ve seen thus far. One example I’ve plucked out is the relationship between Lucious and Hakeem. Up until now, Lucious has been reasonably hard on Hakeem, pushing him to get the song out, but this week it seems more like they’re actually father and son. I like that this is happening, but it felt way too forced.

The relationship between Hakeem and Tiana is hitting new levels of ridiculous. Twice before the title card I had to pause the episode to consider what the hell was going on, and not in a good way. The way they interact with each other this week made no sense to me whatsoever, and it quickly began to bore me.

Still, everything that revolves around Andre tops everything else in terms of wasting screen-time. What he does this week was out of character, especially given that he didn’t appear to be being persuaded into doing it by Rhonda – that would have been more logical. I’m still failing to see the point of Andre, and I wish they’d either give him something better to do, because it’s using up time that could definitely be better spent.

I root for Jamal – he’s by far the most interesting and likeable of the brothers, and his storyline has a fair amount to it. But even I got a little bored with him this week. Most of his story revolved around him creating his new song, which meant that it gets sung over and over again. My dislike of hip-hop definitely came into play there, but it says a lot about the episode as a whole that this was one of the best things to happen to it. There is one event that occurs that did perk me up a little, especially when Jamal’s record producer Terry delivers the best line of the episode, so watch out for that.

This week’s episode feels like a step in the wrong direction in terms of story progression. This was definitely the weakest of the season so far and I’m really hoping that the show can bounce back next week. ’Dangerous Bonds’ airs on FOX on Wednesday 4th February at 9PM. Additionally, if you want to help SpoilerTV win an award, make sure you vote in the Shorty Awards below.

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About the Author - Bradley Adams

16 year old based in England, currently Senior Staff at SpoilerTV. Most of his posts are news/spoiler based, though he is currently the reviewer of Person of Interest, as well as being in charge of the yearly 'Favourite Episode Competition'. A big TV fan, his range of shows are almost exclusively dramas, with some of his all-time favourite shows including 24, LOST, Breaking Bad and Friends. Some of his current favourites include Person of Interest, Arrow and The Walking Dead. He also runs an Arrow blog, ArrowFansUK, and aside from TV, is a keen cricketer. Get in touch with him via the links below or via email bradley@spoilertv.com

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