Television series

Empire

Name: Empire
Genre: Drama, Music
Released: 2015
Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, Trai Byers, Gabourey Sidibe, Bryshere Y. Gray

Empire is glossy, big-hearted, absolutely unhinged soap opera dressed up as a hip-hop dynasty drama. Lucious Lyon's music empire becomes a battlefield for his ex-wife and three sons, and every episode escalates with backstabbing, chart-topping tracks, and Taraji P. Henson delivering monologues like she's throwing knives. It's for anyone who wants prestige-drama ambition with soap-opera nerve.

TVMaze rating

6.7

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Power2014

Same DNA as Empire — a charismatic mogul, a family empire built on something illicit, and a spouse who might be the most dangerous person in the room. Sleek, sexy, relentlessly plotted.

But It's a drug empire, not a music one, and it leans harder into crime-thriller mechanics than melodrama.

Star2016no page yet

Lee Daniels' spiritual sequel to Empire, following a girl group clawing up the music industry. Same soapy DNA, same needle-drops, same willingness to go completely off the rails.

But It never found Empire's audience or budget, and the seams show — less polished, less starry, more uneven.

Dynasty2017

Oil money instead of music money, but the same recipe: a domineering patriarch, warring heirs, and dialogue that exists purely to be delicious. Pure primetime-soap comfort food.

But It's whiter, wealthier, and less interested in social commentary — Empire has teeth this doesn't bother growing.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Ran1985

Empire is Lear in a recording studio; Ran is the same story played completely straight, in feudal Japan, stripped of soap and left with just the grief.

Kurosawa's samurai reimagining of King Lear — an aging warlord divides his kingdom among sons who then tear it, and each other, apart. Visually staggering and devastating in ways Empire only gestures at.

But Three hours, subtitled, and genuinely tragic rather than pleasurably trashy — a mood commitment, not a binge.

Nashville2012no page yet

Swap hip-hop for country and you get the same engine — an aging star, a hungry young rival, industry politics, and original songs that actually work as songs. Genuinely great music-drama craft.

But Slower burn, gentler tone, and considerably less willing to detonate a plotline just because it can.

Queen of the South2016no page yet

A woman building and defending an empire through sheer will and nerve — Cookie's ruthlessness without the family sitting at the same dinner table. Stylish, tense, and satisfyingly soapy.

But Trades music-industry glamour for cartel intrigue; the family melodrama is thinner than Empire's.

Godfather of Harlem2019no page yet

Real history filtered through soap-opera instincts — a Harlem kingpin, a fractured family, and the entertainment world (this time jazz and civil rights) circling the empire. Big, operatic, unapologetic.

But Heavier historical weight and more violence than Empire ever traded in; less fun, more brooding.

The Get Down2016no page yet

Baz Luhrmann's gorgeous, maximalist take on the birth of hip-hop itself — if you want the music-industry rise story with even more visual swagger, this is the mother lode.

But Only one season happened before cancellation, and the tone is more myth-poem than soap — a real gear shift.

Succession2018

The prestige cousin — a media empire, a father who won't let go, children destroying each other for approval and inheritance. Same bones, colder blood, sharper writing.

But Bone-dry and merciless where Empire is warm and operatic; no music, no melodrama catharsis, just dread.

Snowfall2017

An empire built from nothing in 1980s LA, with the same fascination with ambition curdling into ruin. Slower and grittier, but the rise-and-fall pulse is identical.

But Far more restrained and historically grounded — don't expect Empire's operatic excess or glossy sheen.

Dallas1978

Same genetic code — patriarch, empire, warring heirs — but from the format's founding era, before glossiness got this expensive or this Black.

The primetime soap that invented the family-empire-in-crisis format decades before Empire remixed it for hip-hop. Oil money, backstabbing siblings, cliffhangers built to make you gasp at the office water cooler.

But Dated pacing, dated politics, and a whiteness to the wealth-fantasy that Empire deliberately subverted.

The Wrecking Crew2008

Empire fictionalizes the music business as spectacle; this shows you the actual, uncredited labor behind the hits, the quiet opposite of Lucious Lyon's mythmaking.

A documentary about the anonymous session musicians who actually played on hundreds of hit records — the real, unglamorous machinery behind the mythology Empire dramatizes.

But No plot, no drama, just interviews and archival footage — a completely different pace and purpose than a soap opera.