TV Drama Textual Analysis

Empire: Series 2 Episode 4

(Clip: 9:30-13:50)

At the beginning of this clip Lucious Lyon, who is presented to be the dominant, strong and brave anti-hero male character in Empire, is caught in an emotional scene where he is reminiscing over a dead friend. The music played in the background is of slow-paced violins which keep the mood nostalgic and sad; this scene shows an emotional side of him which is often stereotyped as a feminine characteristic and considered weak. This sets up the mood perfectly for the next shot of Cookie Lyon walking into his office to join him. Cookie immediately makes an insult towards Lucious highlighting his weakness-"Don't tell me you gettin' sentimental on me". This makes her seem the dominant character out of the two of them because she feels comfortable enough to criticize him and because of the fact that she barges straight into his office with no warning in an intimate scene for Lucious. Also, the choice of clothing - sunglasses and a smart two-piece suit – makes her character powerful and intimidating. The next shot is a wide establishing shot portraying the wealth their family holds by showing their luxurious setting. Although Cookie then follows with some snappy demands for Lucious, when she has finished speaking she sits down on the sofa and takes her glasses off leaving Lucious at a higher level to her. This succeeds to contradict her power of Lucious and he regains dominance. This connotes the two's competitive, constant battle for power over the other. However, after Lucious says "What's in it for Lucious Lyon?" he then goes to take a seat opposite Cookie on the sofa as they begin to negotiate connoting their equality after-all. In this scene they talk in calm tones with no dominant speaker. When Cookie gets up to leave we see the ex-couple bicker and Lucious calls his ex-girlfriend a "bitch" which highlights his alpha-male character and follows with the historical stereotype that men are worth more than women. However this is broken when Cookie then throws insults back at him and finally turns her back on him and walks away with a final remark showing that she won the quarrel.

The following scene features Lucious' homosexual son, Jamal, taking part in a photoshoot in his and his partner's apartment. Jamal's photographer asks him to play a song on his piano so he does and sings along too. Jamal challenges the typical camp stereotype that is usually used to portray homosexual characters in TV. Jamal is made to look attractive and masculine in the robe he is wearing which reveals his muscular physique and his voice sounds low and manly; not the usual high-pitched, soft stereotyped tone. However, when Jamal beings to sing, his voice changes to be quite feminine and high-pitched. This could connote his more feminine or sensitive traits that he expresses through his lyrics and singing voice.