Telling the story of the succession battle for the empire of rap mogul Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) between his three sons - Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), the gangster rap one, Jamal (Jussie Smollett), the gay one, and Andre (Trai Byers), the business one - it leaves no cliche un-mined, but does it with such brio that you forgive it its sins.
A typical scene starts with two characters talking, with a third character walking on stage left, with some news. The three then discuss, then head off in different directions. Action moves very quickly, with characters falling out, falling in love, or killing each other in minutes. If Fortitude was this speedy it would have all been done in two episodes.
Added attractions include Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon, Lucious' first wife, newly released from prison and stealing every scene, and cameos from Cuba Gooding Jr as a songwriter and Naomi Campbell as (I thought it as 'herself but IMDB says) 'Camilla Marks', who Hakeem has an affair with. Of course he does.
In the States it was the hit of the season, ending up with 20m viewers an episode on Fox. It's a bit strange that it's ended up on E4 rather than Sky Atlantic, and it may graduate to a bigger channel if it builds an audience. Its natural home will be as a box set and on demand though - it's very more-ish and perfect for indulgent binging.
No comments:
Post a Comment