Empire S2 premiere

Anybody else feel let down? I think there were too many inexplicable plot developments that just made it feel both inconsistent and anti-climactic. Even with the obvious time jump, it was sloppily outlined how the characters had gotten from the finale to this ep. And the shock value moments seemed like just that: one-off stunts that didn't add to the story. Famous guest stars were caricatures instead of characters compared to previous guest stars like Elle. And the music was boring to boot. :(

Good things:the final Lucious/Cookie (Lucious vs. Cookie? So hard to tell. LOL) and Jamal/Cookie scenes were riveting. Interesting incorporation of #blacklivesmatter to make the show feel current, but also detracting from the actual message, despite Hakeem's commentary about the cognitive dissonance. (Especially because we see Lucious and Frank with power and freedom aplenty behind bars.) And the shipper in me liked the Jamal/Michael reconciliation too, although it was one of the out-of-nowhere twists.

ETA: I also watched Blindspot and it was okay? It's like Blacklist where you have to actively suspend your disbelief when government agencies to do things like ignore rules and procedures. Sure unvetted civilian, please come along with our FBI unit and hop right into the action. Oh and white chick is more fluent in different Chinese dialects than our actually Chinese translators WOW THAT IS SO AMAZING THEY ARE LUCKY YOU ARE RIGHT THERE. She's obviously unclear that there is a difference between Mandarin and Cantonese, but whatevs, people are just reading the subtitles, right. XD
I was sharply reminded of this fic (where the author proudly went around proclaiming that her OC was totally not a Mary Sue, like at all) where bad guys jumped out at our clueless Jane Doe for no reason and ZOMG! She had all these badass martial arts skills despite having the muscle tone of Kate Moss and took them down like whooooaaa and then was all *blinking* and *shocked* while Leading Action Man (TM)  was impressed against his suspicious nature.

And lots of Lady Sif Jaime Alexander being naked and artistically tattooed a la Prison Break.  But it's an entertaining romp. I'm watching the second ep, anyway.