By: Brian Lowry
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Look back at “Empire’s” early reviews, and one sees plenty of mixed or middling appraisals. Then the show exploded commercially, enhancing the incentive to find much to analyze and appreciate, if only for the obvious traffic benefits. Why the Fox series took off – after so many similarly themed efforts didn’t – is one of those great TV mysteries, a mix of timing, casting, music and culture, as well as a buzz-worthy, Emmy-nominated performance in Taraji P. Henson’s ruthless matriarch Cookie. As for the producers and Fox, no fools they, the mantra for Season 2 is clearly why mess with success?