This past Wednesday night, FOX premiered the Lee Daniels created music filled drama Star. The show is about an 18 year old orphan who reunites with her sister to form a girl group with another girl she met on Instagram. The show follows their struggle to successfully make it into the music business and the people they meet along the way.

New faces were introduced such as Jude Demorest, who has the title role of Star; Ryan Destiny, Brittany O’Grady, and Amiyah Scott. The show also includes stars such as Queen Latifah, Benjamin Bratt, and Lenny Kravitz. Since this show is about a freshly forming girl group, I think it was a good idea to cast people who the public isn’t necessarily familiar with in order to make the stories feel more real.

In the pilot episode, topics are addressed that are important to the world today. For example, Amiyah Scott who is a transgender woman plays the role of Cotton who is also a trans woman. Cotton is the daughter of Queen Latifah’s character and Cotton struggles with getting her mother to accept her for who she is. Also, the characters of Star and Simone are in the foster care system and the show displays the issues they have with their respective foster parents and the social services system in general.

Star has good music, an interesting plot, and a promising cast. At first I was hesitant about the show because I felt as if it might be a little too much like Empire. Now after watching the first episode, I feel as though Star will create its own path in primetime TV in 2017.

Star returns on January 4th on Fox at 9 ET.