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The early signs suggest that season 2 of Empire, Fox’s hip-hop tycoon drama currently airing on E4, will be a cracker. Lucious is in prison and recording music again. Cookie and Hakeem have reconciled their differences and are now teaming up against Empire to build a new company. André has been frozen out from both sides to an extent, but is sure to cause a stir later on in the season. However, the most intriguing prospect in season 2 of Empire is the changing role of Jamal.

Jamal was a fan favourite from season 1 of Empire. You can’t help but instinctively root for a guy who gets dumped in a trash can by his dad in the show’s pilot episode (via flashback) for being gay. However, judging from season 2’s first couple of episodes, it appears that showrunners Lee Daniels and Danny Strong intend on sending Jamal down a very different path this time around.

Since we last saw him, Jamal has become the interim CEO of Empire while his father, Lucious, serves out his prison sentence. This arrangement never really made any sense; Jamal is a musician, while the eldest son, André, went to college and is clearly the only son with a business head on his shoulders. Empire certainly has an air of the soap opera about it at times, being largely plot driven and inclined towards sensationalism. However nonsensical this decision might seem, it’s necessary to go with the flow and to accept Empire for what it is: glorious, unashamed entertainment.

Stepping into his father’s shoes, Jamal masquerades as a cold, austere businessman. Cookie vocalises the viewer’s discomfort with this change by telling Jamal that he’s turning into his father. It’s easy to forget how clichéd this statement is when Jamal and Lucious’ exceedingly fraught relationship is taken into account. Jamal’s desperate need to please his father, and to earn his love in spite of his sexuality, will almost certainly prove his downfall as he begins to look more and more like television’s newest anti-hero. He is a square peg trying to fit into a round hole and it will be interesting to see how much of himself he will have to sacrifice in the process as the season continues.

Review based on the first two episodes of season 2. Empire is free to watch here.